KOTA KINABALU: An India-based travel media company, Travel Earth, has brought a group of social media influencers to Sabah to promote the region as a destination for Indian travellers.
During their visit to the state, the delegates witnessed various aspects of Sabah culture to promote their experience via social media platforms such as their blogs, YouTube and Instagram.
They also joined local influencers in a Digital Influencer’s Convention here, where invited speakers spoke on topics such as Millennials travel trends, interests and leveraging marketing through technology.
State Tourism, Culture and Environment Assistant Minister Assaffal P. Alian said Sabah was making an effort to expand its tourism market and was eyeing more tourists from India.
“Last year, travellers from India made up 0.41 per cent of the international arrivals to Sabah.
“India is the most populous country after China and is projected to be the next outbound phenomenon for the travel market.
“There are more than 200 flights between various cities in India to Kuala Lumpur and we hope to leverage on this existing traffic.
“There is so much potential for us to tap into this market to further introduce Sabah to a new market segment,” Assafal said at the convention’s launch here today.
The event was supported by Sabah Tourism Board, Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board, Malaysian Association of Tour and Travel Agents (Matta), Shangri-La’s Rasa Ria, Air Asia, Malaysia Airlines, Malindo Air, and Make My Trip.
According to statistics furnished by Matta, Indian tourist arrivals to Malaysia last year totalled 595,000 and about 6,000 Indian citizens visited Sabah.
“Digital influencers are powerful in creating awareness to attract Indian holiday makers to Sabah. Through conventions like this, it will promote Sabah as a vibrant and new product potential for Indian tourists,” said Tan.
Travel Earth co-founder Arun Raghu said Indians did travel to Malaysia, but not many were aware of Sabah as a tourist destination.
He said the state has so much potential, which could be interesting and appealing for Indian travellers as they were constantly looking for new destinations.