Sabah, a Malaysian province, has experienced a boom in visitor arrivals that crossed 2.09 million in the first eight months of 2024 and the province officials say Sabah is poised to celebrate a bumper year of tourist arrivals and projected to surpass its target of 3 million visitors by the end of 2024.

This was announced by Christina Liew, Sabah’s Minister of Tourism, Culture and Environment. Liew made the announcement while she inaugurated Xplore Sabah 2024 at the Sabah International Convention Centre in Kota Kinabalu, capital of Sabah.

Liew said that as of August, the state had already welcomed 2,094,202 international and domestic visitors. “This is an increase of 25.7 pc compared with the same period last year. So, we believe by December we will have more than three million, exceeding our target,” she added.

The Minister added that while domestic visitors accounted for 1.23 million arrivals, the state also received almost 870,000 international visitors in the period.

“I attribute this positive growth to various factors such as improved consumer confidence, enhanced air connectivity through smart partnership and collaboration with airlines, and marketing campaigns by the Sabah Tourism Board (STB). An estimated tourism receipt of MYR 4.88 billion (USD 1.14 billion) was generated from January to August this year, which is MYR 1.2 billion more compared to the same period last year,” she added.

Liew said in view of the rapid growth seen in 2024, the government planned to target 4 million arrivals next year. “I believe we can achieve this target. We reached 4.2 million arrivals before the pandemic,” she said.

According to Liew, China remains the largest potential tourist market for Sabah, followed by key markets of Brunei and South Korea. Liew also pointed out that other potential sources were being wooed, noting that the state is expanding its flight frequency from Indonesia and Vietnam.

Liew said that she was planning to meet with tourism stakeholders from around the world, including in Abu Dhabi and London and that she was also planning a trip to Russia to further expand Sabah’s tourism market. “In a lot of these destinations we are going, some have never heard of Sabah. So, I personally have to lead our team and STB to go and promote the state. Hopefully we can achieve another million in tourist arrivals next year so that it will be good for our economy,” Liew said.

She said that while the European Union market had exceeded its pre-pandemic level, with arrivals from the EU now standing at 115 pc of the 2019 levels and added that the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy and France contributed to this increase.

On the Xplore Sabah event, Liew said it was a significant milestone to promote Sabah as a premier destination for activity tourism. “The ministry is fully behind this initiative. We believe that Xplore Sabah will play a vital role in telling the world the story of Sabah’s natural beauty, cultural richness, and endless opportunities for adventure,” she said.