PRESS STATEMENT BY CHAIRMAN OF SABAH TOURISM BOARD

Greetings from sunny Sabah, Malaysian Borneo!

We appreciate your Government's concern for the safety of Australian citizens abroad. We also know that the Australian Government has issued similar travel warnings to other destinations around the world, including the UK, USA, Singapore, Thailand and Bali. Sabah is a safe destination to travel to and we wish to assure that the Malaysian Government takes security issue very seriously and will continue to ensure that all Malaysians and visitors alike are safe in the country.

The first few months have seen many distinguished guests and groups coming to Sabah for their holidays and also business trips. There were over 500 conventions, incentives, and events (CIE) in Sabah, last year. Last month we had a BBC crew filming on our Survivor island, Pulau Tiga and a Japanese film celebrity just completed a one week shooting in Kota Kinabalu. A delegation of Australian business group from Rockingham Perth visited Sabah in early February. Taiwanese incentive groups are arriving by the hundreds. Koreans and Japanese continue to throng our championship golf courses, spas and beaches. Backpackers and adventure enthusiasts continue to arrive to scale the highest mountain in Malaysia, Mt. Kinabalu.

The Diving industry in Sabah has been thriving and growing steadily annually with divers from all over the world continue to visit the many beautiful and magnificent marine life in the surrounding waters of Sipadan Island, Mabul, Mataking, Kapalai and Lankayan - all on the east coast, Mantanani, Layang Layang Atoll, Pulau Tiga, and Tunku Abdul Rahman Marine Park of the west coast. The PADI Course Director Training Course, which is the highest achievable level of training within PADI, was just completed and this is held in Sabah for the 8th year consecutively. This alone testifies that Sabah's east coast is a safe place to visit and dive.

This month, saw Australian historian and writer Lynette Silver in Sabah, lead a media team from Canada, Australian Channel Nine and journalists from the Bulletin to document and trek the jungle at Bauto to Ranau, a most difficult terrain in the Sandakan Ranau Death March.

I am also pleased to say that Sabah has over 40% repeat visitors and a 25% compound growth in arrivals for the last five years. The Hotels and Resorts in Sabah recorded the highest occupancy rate in the country of about 80%.

We look forward to welcoming you to The Land Below The Wind - Sabah, Malaysian Borneo.

Queen E comes calling with 1,899 guests

Kota Kinabalu: The super luxury liner Queen Elizabeth making its maiden call at the wharf, here, at 7am Monday. Launched on Oct. 10, 2010, the 90,900-tonne state-of-the-art cruise ship brought along 1,899 guests comprising 800 Australians, 899 Britons and 300 Americans, after sailing from Perth, Sabah Tourism Board (STB) officials said.

A STB welcome squad garlanded the visitors, most of whom took day tours around Kota Kinabalu. The ship's actual guest capacity is 2,068 besides a crew capacity of 996. It measures 964.5ft by 106 ft, with a draft of 25.9ft.

In open sea, it has a top speed of 23.7 knots.

The Southhampton-based ship, owned by Cunard, left at 5.30pm for Hong Kong. Queen Elizabeth has been compared to the ill-fated Titanic because of its opulence. But the Titanic weighed only 46,328 gross tonnes and 882ft long.

Queen Elizabeth's Italian builders in Manfalco took less than two years to put it together at a cost of US$634 million. Cruise prices are "not low" by any means.

A short cruise can cost 10,317 British pounds (about RM50,700) while a long cruise can cost a staggering 119,311 pounds (about RM584,624), per person.

The Queen Elizabeth is Cunard's third new ship in six years, reportedly built in response to a boom in cruise holidays. In UK alone, Britons totalled 1.5 million in cruise bookings in 2010 while Queen Elizabeth's debut cruise to the Canary was sold out in 29 minutes.

Meanwhile, the QE's visit brings to mind the important role that an unknown Henry Walker played in KK's importance as a deep water port.

Walker, the North Borneo Commissioner of Lands, found after the turn of the 20th century that Gaya Bay had all the deep water for ocean going ships to site the North Borneo Railway terminus, after trial and error with Weston and Gantisan near Tuaran. All failed to meet expectations!

In fact, it was Walker's verdict in a decisive moment that founded Jesselton town - ancestor of modern KK.
The British North Borneo Chartered Company went first to Pulau Gaya to set up its trading post, complete with 25 shops and trade workshops, etc, but Mat Salleh attacked and razed it to the ground in 1897.
They abandoned Pulau Gaya but they didn't move straight opposite.

Instead, they picked Weston from where Scottish engineer, A.J. West actually built the terminus and completed a 20-mile railway track to Beaufort as part of a grand plan to pull a railway right across to Tawau via Tenom.

Only after that Weston terminus and the track to Beaufort did they realise the sea there was too shallow for ocean going ships and in a further search northwards, Chartered Company big guns raced up to Gantisan near Tuaran but again, massive mangrove swamps n the area proved unsuitable.

After so many false starts Walker finally paid attention to a 30-acre, one-and-a-half mile long strip of beach opposite Gaya Island (site of modern KK that is), which every body had ignored previously and found indeed, its water was deep and sheltered - perfectly suited for the twin purpose of a railway terminus and a wharf worthy of ocean going ships.

It was this final site decision from Walker that led to the extension of the North Borneo Railway track all the way from Beaufort to Jesselton !

So global shipping needs dictated the siting of modern KK and it looks like that reason remains valid till today.

Watching giant Queen Elizabeth sail smoothly into KK from the vantage point of Signal Hill in the golden hues of the early morning sun validates Briton Henry Walker's decisive contribution to the origins of Kota Kinabalu.

Sabana calling on ex-State players

Sabah Net Ball Association (Sabana) is calling on the public, especially former State players, to support their Sabana Fund Raising and Charity Dinner 2011, which would be held at the Shangri-La's Tanjung Aru Resort and Spa here, this Sunday. Organising chairman, Bibi Zairah, said ticket sales for the dinner has exceeded fifty percent but that more need to be sold in order for the programme to truly achieve its objective. "We are still waiting for more people to come forward to support our programme, especially those who previously played the sport for the State. "All ex-State players are being counted on for support and we hope more of them would come forward to buy some tickets," she said when met in the State capital here, yesterday. Among those who have extended their support include the Association's founder, Datuk Christine Van Houten.Christine, who is also President of the Society of Sabah Heart Foundation (Sos) is supports the event, which is scheduled to start at 7pm. According to Bibi, part of the proceeds from ticket sales would be donated to charity, while the remainder would be used to implement the Association's programmes for the year. The event will provide evening entertainment performed by local artistes such as the ever-popular Abu Bakar Ela, Adam and Esther Clement. The organisers are selling tickets for seats of 10, which are priced at RM1,000, RM2,000, RM3,000 and RM5,000, while individual seats can also be purchased for RM100, RM200, RM300 and RM500 each. For more information please contact Bibi (016-5824040) or Hazlyn Liaw (010-9313453).