KOTA KINABALU: Chinese tourists make up the bulk of foreign visitors to Sabah so far, as the state registered healthy numbers in international and domestic arrivals for the first three months this year.
State Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Christina Liew said Sabah has recorded a total of 776,845 tourist arrivals between January and March.
This was an encouraging figure, she said, which marked an increase of 32.8% compared to the same period last year when 584,927 people visited the state.
"Of the 776,845 visitors this year, 321,184 were international tourists, which was an increase of 93.2% against the same period last year, while 455,661 domestic tourists visited Sabah," she said in a statement here on Saturday (May 11).
"Based on statistics from the Sabah Tourism Board (STB), an estimated tourism receipt of RM1.75bil was generated from January to March, which is RM0.56bil (an increase of 46.6%) more compared to the same period last year (RM 1.19bil)," she added.
Liew said Chinese tourists accounted for 116,922 of the international arrivals, followed by South Korea (55,936), Brunei (54,266), Singapore (7833) and Europe (18,196).
She said there was a notable increase in arrivals from five other countries in the same period namely UK & Ireland, Germany, Netherlands, France and Russia, adding there was a rise of 35.8% of tourists from these nations.
