SLOVENIAN TO DEFEND PARAGLIDING ACCURACY WORLD CUP TITLE AT KAMPUNG LOHAN RANAU SABAH

Slovenian to defend Paragliding Accuracy World Cup title

Paragliders trying out the new route during a practise session at the Lohan Hills in Ranau, where the 2nd Paragliding Accuracy World Cup Sabah will take place beginning today (Mar 17).

RANAU March 17, 2012: Defending champion, Matjaz Ferarci, is in to defend his title against 65 paragliders in this year’s Paragliding Accuracy World Cup Sabah which begins today.

The Slovenian, who just turned 53 about four days ago, is also second in the world ranking. He is in the state after a paragliding trip in Indonesia earlier this week.

Held on the hilly area in Kampung Lohan, here, about 120 kilometres from Kota Kinabalu, it is considered as a sport for the future which has great potential in the sport tourism product for Sabah.

“Sabah can add another to its extensive list of tourism products,” said the event’s deputy chairman, Lieutenant Colonel (R) Basir Ab Rahman.

He said there is much potential to develop aviation sports particularly paragliding in places like Ranau and other sites in Sabah.

Malaysia, he added, has won the bid to host the second Federation Aeronautique Internationale (FAI) Asian Paragliding Championship in 2014.

“Our plan is to bring FAI World Paragliding Accuracy Championship to Malaysia by 2015,” he said.

The participants, coming from 13 countries, will be competing in four categories, namely the Individual Open, Individual Women Open, Team Open and Individual Malaysia Open, offering cash prizes amounting to RM21,600.

Paragliding has been widely accepted in all European, East Asian and American nations, which naturally attracts a huge market for the tourism industry because of the sport’s popularity.

The natural geographical landscape in Sabah makes the state an ideal location to host the event, said Basir.

Sabah Tourism Board chairman Datuk Seri Tengku Zainal Abidin marked the launching ceremony by flying in tandem with some 30 people, yesterday.

-------------

Domestic tourism on rise

KOTA KINABALU March 17, 2012: A recent survey conducted by LivingSocial found that domestic tourism is on the rise with close to 60 per cent of Malaysians voting Sabah, Sarawak and Langkawi as the ideal local escape destinations in a recent survey.

More than 40 per cent of respondents chose Taiwan, Korea and Japan for Asian destinations while Europe received the highest vote followed by Australia for international destinations.

“Malaysia has a great deal to offer tourists, and we are delighted that the unique Malaysian travel experiences offered by LivingSocial are very popular among our subscribers,” LivingSocial Malaysia marketing director Irene Foo said in a statement yesterday.

The survey was conducted among 2,000 respondents across four Malaysian states.

She said the survey also revealed that a majority of people planned their travels at least six months ahead, and 98 per cent of the people who travel do it for leisure, 35 per cent search for family-oriented holidays, while 31 per cent look for romantic breakaways.

The survey found that 55 per cent buy travel packages from online group buying sites while 44 per cent buy from online travel agencies.

“More and more Malaysians are buying travel packages online and LivingSocial is committed to providing the best travel deals and experiences,” Foo added.