Foreign envoys explore Sabah’s tourist attractions

The visitors getting a feel of Sabah’s ethnic Kadazandusun Sumazau dance during the tour.

SANDAKAN: Malaysia’s ambassador to Thailand, Datuk Jojie Samuel, led a group of Bangkok-based foreign envoys to Sabah as part of efforts to draw tourists in conjunction with Visit Malaysia Year 2020.

The ambassadors Dr Phil Hager Eva (Austria), Fransico Patto Vaz Cunha E Morais (Portugal), Fernando Julio Antonio Quiros Campos (Peru), Joseph Anthony Cotter (Ireland), Stansilav Opoela (Slovakia), Jean-Paul Ernest Senniger (Luxemborg) and Kees Pieter Rade (the Netherlands) together with their spouses spent four days, three nights exploring Sabah.

The envoys familiarisation tour also saw over a dozen entrepreneurs from Thailand joining in the trip with a 31-member delegation.

The visit was part of an initiative by Samuel, with assistance from Tourism Malaysia in Bangkok and Dynamic Tours Travel & Incentive Sdn Bhd.

The aim of the trip was in line with Tourism Malaysia’s Visit Malaysia 2020 campaign and generate more traffic flow from Thailand to Sabah.

Air Asia provides direct flights between Bangkok and Kota Kinabalu three times weekly.

During their visit, the group was taken to see Mount Kinabalu Park, the War Memorial in Kundasang, Sepilok Orang Utan Sanctuary and Sunbear Conservation Centre in Sandakan.

The group also visited the war memorials in Sandakan and Ranau

for soldiers who died at the tail end of World War 2, when the allied forces liberated Sabah from the Japanese occupation.

The march from Sandakan and Ranau by the allied prisoners of war is infamously known as the Sandakan Death March.

-thestar online.