Tag: Tourism

Sports

After six years, mountain races are back in Sabah

Sabah Insights

Mount Trusmadi poses a formidable challenge to Mount Kinabalu

Mount Trusmadi in the heart of Sabah.

Sabah is launching the Mount Trusmadi International Climbathon on May 25 as mountain races make a comeback after a six-year hiatus. It is Malaysia’s second tallest mountain after Mount Kinabalu (4,095m) that sits deep in the jungle of the interior of the north Borneo island state. It stands at 2,642m, about two-thirds the height of Mount Kinabalu whose climbathon was scrapped in 2018 after a 30-year run. The Trusmadi race is said to be even tougher than Kinabalu’s which is reputed to be the world’s toughest mountain race. And the Mount Kinabalu International Climbathon is making a comeback this year. No date has been fixed but it is expected in October as it had been in the past.

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Tourism

A Nanjing-Tawau frenzy

Sabah Insights

Will chartered flights from China augur well for east coast tourism

Tawau town

Getting airlines to fly tourists from China to Tawau, the east coast agricultural town, has been a struggle. Previous attempts to set up direct flights between Chinese cities and Tawau have come to nought. So Christina Liew, Sabah’s minister of tourism, culture and environment, was understandably elated when the inaugural chartered flight carrying 157 Chinese tourists from Nanjing in eastern China touched down at Tawau airport on January 23. “I am excited that this new route will contribute to the growth and development of Tawau as a prominent international destination,” she said. But her optimism may be premature.

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Tourism

Sabah Hospitality Fiesta mirrors ATI College’s success

Sabah Insights

How one man builds a premier tourism school out of nowhere.

Wong Khen Thau

There was all round scepticism when Wong Khen Thau started Sabah’s first hospitality and tourism school in Kota Kinabalu 27 years ago. The hotel industry didn’t give him a chance to succeed because it thought that he was copying what hotels were already doing: on the job training of their frontline staff. Hoteliers didn’t think that he was offering anything new to the industry. And they were quite right to doubt him because Wong knew little about hotel and catering. He was a school teacher who had turned himself into a businessman selling home appliances. But all was not lost. His Asian Tourism Institute, staffed by a handful of hotel industry experts, received its first batch of 40 students for a six-month certificate course in food and beverage, housekeeping and front office operations – thanks to the sponsorship of then tourism minister Bernard Dompok. And from that small beginning, the Asian Tourism International College, as it is now known, has become the premier tourism and hotel and catering school which has produced more than 12,000 skilled workers for Sabah’s hotel industry, according to Mabel Cheong, the college’s registrar.

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Society

A merrier month of December

Sabah Insights

Sabah cultural extravaganza stresses that Malaysia is a secular nation

The Bajau Suluk culture will be on display at the Dec Cover Sabah extravaganza.

The merry month of December is getting merrier. And the calendar looks crowded towards the end of the year. Adding to the Christmas spirit and ushering in the new year are cultural events lined up for the inaugural cultural and touristic extravaganza called Dec-Cover Sabah 2023. It showcases the state’s cultural diversity and drives home the point that Malaysia is a secular country.

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Tourism

Rainforest run returns with a vengeance

Sabah Insights

Tourism minister wants it to be held yearly

Tropical rainforest run returns to Tawau.

Sabah’s inaugural tropical rainforest run got off to a promising start four years ago in the eastcoast timber town of Tawau. It attracted 230 runners. Six came from Kenya and nine from Indonesia. But three months later the Covid-19 outbreak scuttled all its future plans. The pandemic is over. And the run is returning to the Tawau Hills Park on November 26 with a field of 250 runners who include participants from Kenya, Australia, Canada, Japan, Indonesia, and Singapore.

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Culture

A regatta overshadows the unending plight of Sabah’s boat people

Sabah Insights

Idyllic Semporna cashes in on the culture of stateless sea gypsies

A Bajau Laut beauty at the Regatta Lepa

For 28 years Sabah has held the annual Regatta Lepa, a culturally colourful boat race of the Bajau Laut, the sea gypsies or nomads. They hailed from the Southern Philippines but have made the waters off the idyllic resort town of Semporna their home. Next month the regatta will be held from 17 to 19. And as Sabah cashes in on their culture, the Bajau Laut are resigned to their plight of a stateless people. Meanwhile local authorities are tasked to clean up the town, ensure that there’s enough water supply, no power cuts and enough rooms for about 50,000 visitors.

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