Kota Kinabalu: Malaysian Association of Tour & Travel Agents (Matta) Sabah Chapter secured more than RM20 million in estimated sales for the next 12 months during their industrial trip to Wuhan, China, which took place from March 27-30.
According to Matta Sabah Chapter Chairman Robert Chong, 21 Sabah top inbound tour operators based in Kota Kinabalu and Sandakan participated in the trip led by Sabah Tourism Board Chairman Datuk Joniston Bangkuai.
Tourism Malaysia through its Shanghai office hosted a one day business-to-business (B2B) networking session and a lunch with 20 of Wuhan’s top selling agents for Sabah market on March 28.
During the B2B, Sabah Tourism Board Senior Marketing Manager, Tay Shu Lan did a 15 minute product presentation on Sabah.
Chong said the objective of the trip was to promote Sabah as it is the latest destination linking Wuhan and Kota Kinabalu direct by AirAsia on a daily basis.
Wuhan, the capital city of Hubei Province, with a 10 million population is only four hours away by flight to Kota Kinabalu, and offers a huge market for Matta members.
According to a Wuhan top travel agent representative, Sabah is long known to them and is one of their top selling and favourite destinations for Chinese holiday makers.
“They like Sabah, in particular the islands nearby Kota Kinabalu which are easily accessible.
They like our food; our fresh seafood according to them is cheap and easily available.
Diving and snorkeling are among their favorite activities while in Sabah.”
Chong said generally the agents in Wuhan are happy with Sabah’s tourism products.
However, they are hopeful that one day, travel will be visa free so that Chinese tourists will not face hassle applying for visas to enter Malaysia, he added.