Ministry Willing To Assist Districts Wanting To Boost Tourism - Masidi
KOTA KINABALU, Nov 22 (Bernama) -- The Sabah Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Environment is willing to assist districts in the state wanting to conduct the Visit ?District' Year to further boost tourism in their respective areas, said its Minister Datuk Masidi Manjun.
Masidi said it was one of the ministry's strategies to highlight the uniqueness of each district region besides opening up potential tourism business opportunities for the local residents.
"This strategy ensures that all tourism industry players at all levels in Sabah benefit from this sector," he said in reply to a question by Datuk Samsudin Yahya (BN-Sekong) at the Sabah State Assembly sitting here today.
He said the strategy was also in line with efforts of its ministries and agencies to ensure that every tourist coming to Sabah visited other districts also and not concentrate in the tourism area around Kota Kinabalu alone.
Masidi said his ministry also encouraged investors to build more four- and five-star hotels in Sabah as existing hotels could not cater to the uptrend in tourist arrivals every year, adding that currently Sabah has 635 hotels that offer 27,125 rooms.
Meanwhile, tourist arrivals in Sabah for the first 10 months of this year were quite encouraging with 2.01 million domestic tourists and about one million international tourists recorded.
In the meantime, the Sabah Ministry of Community Development and Consumer Affairs will establish a library at Kota Kinabalu International Airport (KKIA) in Tanjung Aru which is expected to be operational by mid-2018.
Minister Datuk Jainab Ahmad Ayid said it would be the first library to be established at an airport in the country.
The library building with an area of 62,000 square feet has been completed and in the process of being furnished. It also has several facilities such as a music room for teenagers.
The establishment of the library was a collaboration between the Sabah State Library, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) and the E-Sentral portal, which provides a variety of electronic books (e-books).
The effort was among initiatives to expand the Sabah State Library services, she said when delivering her ministry\'s winding-up speech at the sitting.
Meanwhile, Jainab said to address the problem of underage marriages in Sabah, the ministry held a Child Safety Campaign called ?Sahabat B.I.J.A.K' (Index Combating Crimes Against Children) at 35 schools across the state until October, involving 1,500 participants comprising students, teachers and parents.
"This programme is a collaboration between government departments and agencies aimed at emphasising the safety, welfare and rights of children as contained in the Convention on the Rights of the Child," she said.
The issue of underage marriage should not be taken lightly as it could have a negative impact if not handled properly, said Jainab, adding that the marital institution needed a couple to have a high level of maturity to ensure a harmonious family life.
-- BERNAMA
