Ministry flogging ‘fake’ stats of tourists arrivals
Tham Yau Kong, the proprietor of an inbound tour company in Sabah, said that the figures were unrealistic.
“If 3.7 million tourists arrive in Sabah in one year, that means 308,000 arrive every month, or 10,277 everyday. There is no such thing! In fact it’s quite impossible!” Tham told FMT.
Asked how the government had come up with such figures, Tham said that the Tourism Ministry had recorded the number of people leaving and re-entering Sabah within one month.
He said many of these ‘tourists’ were immigrants, who used the sea ports in the east coast and traveled into and out of Sabah many times a month doing all sorts of businesses in Indonesia and the Philippines.
“If an immigrant goes out and returns 10 times in a month, he is recorded as 10 tourist arrivals.. And there are hundreds of them doing this all the time,” he said.
Tham said there was also the instances of foreigners literally living in Sabah on tourist visas.
“These too are wrongly counted as tourists,” said Tham.
He also cited the cases of visiting Peninsular Malaysians and Sarawakians who are required to fill up arrival forms.
He said such visitors arrived and returned from Sabah several times per month and they too were counted repeatedly as different tourists.
“The real tourists come to Sabah normally during the tourist season which is from April to October,” he explained.
“And it is during this season that we hear of Kota Kinabalu not having enough hotel rooms. But for the rest of the year many hotels in fact face low occupancy problem.”
He said a more realistic figure would be about 40 percent less than that given by the state government.
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Sabah Tourism Board Visitor Arrivals & International Visitor Profiles Statistics
Visitor Arrivals
Perhaps the tourism ministry could come up with a better system to calculate the tourist arrival statistics by ruling out those who stayed in Sabah on Visit Passes and those who enter and leave Sabah frequently for business, so that only the actual tourist are included in the statistics. This will give us a clear and accurate picture of the tourist arrival rates.
BalasPadamI don't think the the ministry of tourism have it wrong. The root of the problem is within the data classification via airport entry and participating ticketing or airline agency.
PadamThe data obtained are based on the MASB, Immigration Dept, Sabah/Air Asia records. Then it is prepared By Research Division For Sabah Tourism.
PadamIn my opinion, there is still room for improvement for the data gathering method from each respective department or corporations that deals with the recording of tourist entry and exit from Sabah.
PadamAgree with both Fizal and Drako, there are still room for improvement to calculate the statistics of tourist arrivals which will give a more accurate view on the actual tourist visits to Sabah. Hope that the tourism ministry will do their best.
PadamWith a more accurate statistics, the Ministry of Tourism would be able to make the best decision to improve the tourism arrival rates within the states.
BalasPadamThat's right, the tourism ministry may be able to make the necessary plans to improve more tourist visits to the state based on when are the least popular time of the year for traveling, what are the strategy they can use to promote the state and more.
PadamHope that the Ministry of Tourism will do their best to attract more tourist to Sabah especially during non peak seasons.
BalasPadamThe tourism sector plays an important role in boosting thee state economy. Therefore, its important for the ministry of tourism to find ways to attract more tourist to visit sabah.
BalasPadamWhat is the point of exaggerating the number when there is not much improvement in Sabah's economy.
Padamsepanjang tahun mmg ramai pelancong datang ke Sabah, kita sendiri dpt melihat begitu ramai pelancong asing ke Sabah. kerajaan takkan silap dalam membuat statistik. apapun, perlu ada kaedah yang lebih sistematik dalam mengira jmlah pelancong.
BalasPadamThey are simply bullshitting.
Padamapapun, yang pasti kehadiran pelancong ke Sabah makin meningkat setiap tahun, makin byk tempat2 pelancongan wujud di Sabah.
BalasPadamMakin banyak destinasi pelancongan yang berkembang pesat sekarang ini.
PadamIs nothing to impossible if we plan the strategy maybe what the tourism ministry plan will achieve.
BalasPadamI don't understand why they hate us so much.
PadamBilangan pelancong ke Sabah memang semakin meningkat. Apa guna bina hotel jika kekurangan pelancong, bukan?
BalasPadamTourism industry in Sabah is getting well. Any problem with that?
BalasPadamwhether the 3.7 million is achieved or not, at least the state government especially tourism minister have a mission that they must to achieve for this year..
BalasPadammmm, I suggest, please study the definition of a tourist, or please go buy a Fundamental of Tourism book. Learn the course well before you argue. The Ministry of Tourism of Sabah was not really bullshitting. It's like you are arguing with a Car engineer, while all you know is about cooking. Pretty sad dont you think.
BalasPadamUrus Tadbir Kerajaan BN Sabah Sudah Cukup Baik
BalasPadamDalam laporan terbaru untuk tahun 2011, Ketua Audit Negara telah menganugerahkan ulasan "sangat baik" hanya kepada negeri Sarawak. Sementara itu, Sabah pula terus mengekalkan status kedua terbaik iaitu "baik" dari tahun-tahun sebelum ini.
Akaun-akaun dana disatukan untuk 2011 bagi kerajaan-kerajaan negeri Sabah dan Sarawak adalah yang paling tinggi dalam kalangan negeri-negeri di Malaysia, iaitu RM18.5 bilion untuk Sarawak dan RM2.66 bilion untuk Sabah. Manakala, Selangor jatuh di tempat ketiga dengan RM1.94 bilion sementara Pulau Pinang pula pada tempat keempat dengan RM1.13 bilion.
Sekiranya kita melihat kepada statistik pendapatan negeri untuk tahun 2011, Sarawak menduduki tempat pertama dengan RM6.6 bilion, diikuti oleh Sabah pada tempat kedua dengan RM4.4 bilion, Selangor di tempat keempat dengan RM1.6 bilion dan Pulaiu Pinang di tempat ketujuh dengan RM602 juta.