Plan to make Sabah Durian Tourism spot

 

Trecey (middle), Johnny (sixth right), representatives from TM Sabah, Motac and travel tour operators during the exploratory visit.

KOTA KINABALU: Sabah may soon become one of Malaysia’s official Durian Tourism destinations as there is massive potential for such agrotourism initiatives in the State.

Tourism Malaysia Sabah Deputy Director Trecey J Tojuka said this was evidenced by the success of the Durian and Coffee Festival held last year in Keningau, which drew some 5,000 to 6,000 visitors including foreign tourists. As such, TM Sabah initiated an exploratory visit to two farms in Tamparuli and Papar respectively on Friday, to study the Durian Tourism potential alongside the State Tourism, Arts and Culture Ministry (Motac Sabah) and the Malaysia Association of Tour and Travel Agents (Matta) Sabah Chapter.

The visit also follows the Sabah Durian and Tropical Fruit Planters Association’s (Masda) move to ask TM Sabah for advice last year on how the durian farms registered under the association can be packaged into an agrotourism product.

“(There is) huge potential in durian tourism coupled with the fact that Sabah has not been known as a Durian Tourism Destination before, compared to other States in West Malaysia, such as Johor Bahru, Pahang, Penang and Melaka.

“This is the opportune time to create a new tourism package with the support of local Sabah agents and TM to assist in promoting Sabah as one of the Durian Tourism destinations, targeting both domestic and foreign tourists, especially the China Market.

“But of course, we need to inspect the farms of its readiness. That is why we seek support from the Matta Sabah Chapter for package development and also Motac Sabah for infrastructure assistance,” she said.

In the same vein, Masda Deputy Chairman Johnny Ting said durian tourism yields a promising market and can be a lucrative addition to existing tourism products in Sabah, drawing in more tourists. Johnny, who owns the 15-acre Durian Tamparuli Farm, said he has received nearly 2,000 visitors since he opened up his farm casually to visitors two years ago. “We did not do any promotions, everything happened by word of mouth. The biggest group I have ever hosted was 70 people, who could eat about 100 kg of durian. The most number of groups I have ever hosted in a day was nine groups. “I have about 338 trees here, of which 60 per cent are Musang King. We have six different varieties, including the A14 (Kinabalu King) which is one of the very premium and precious durian varieties to us here in Sabah.

“According to our research, Chinese tourists like to eat durian, as well as West Malaysians and Bruneians,” he said during the exploratory visit. He said the association hopes that TM Sabah and STB could recognise durian tourism as a new tourism product, in addition to other activities such as shopping and sightseeing at the islands and mountains. “We try to promote durian as the identity to attract people to farms. Other tropical fruits, such as langsat or watermelon, do not have that kind of power to attract tourists. We want to tap into durian tourism which has been promoted in West Malaysia. The response from the public has been very good. “Not only this helps farmers, but this will also give travel agents more products to promote. At the same time we want to connect community-based tourism.

“When you have community-based tourism in a certain village, and there are also durian and tropical fruit farms there, this would give tourists more reasons to visit that place and more value for their money,” he said. As such, Johnny hoped that Durian Tourism packages could be formed and launched as an official tourism product by TM and Motac Sabah.

“We also hope STB and TM could include this in their website, at least when visitors search about Sabah, this new product is on the list,” he said.

-Daily Express.