Sabah tourism players gearing up for business events post Covid-19
27 July 2021
By Ilona Andrew
KOTA KINABALU: Tourism players in Sabah are doing the spadework in amplifying the state’s business event industry to help reactivate and restore the tourism sector in the country as it enters the Covid-19 recovery phase later.
Whilst Sabah has always been known as a leisure destination, Sabah Tourism Board General Manager Noredah Othman said the state has also had quite a number of business conferences and meetings.
As business events will soon be the main focus in the tourism industry and while the state is still in partial lockdown, Noredah mentioned that the board has taken the opportunity to help its industry members upskill in the business events sector.
“To be ready when the international borders are open again, we need to upskill our industry players who are interested in business events, so we have created and organised programmes for those who are interested.
“We also have a new non-government organisation, the Sabah Business Event Association (SBEA), and a number of people have signed up as members. Through this, we see that the interest (in business events) is developing.
“We hope that we are ready when the international borders open later but before that, we definitely need to strengthen our business event players,” she said during a webinar session titling ‘Exploring Business Events Opportunities in Sabah’, today.
She was speaking as one of the panellists for the forum hosted by Place Borneo Sdn Bhd, a full-fledged MICE management company specializing in conference management, launch gimmicks, and music festivals.
The other panellists were Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Malaysia Convention and Exhibition Bureau (MyCEB), Noor Ahmad Hamid; General Manager of Sabah International Convention Centre (SICC), Tristan Beau de Lomenie; and Branch Manager of Discovery Tours (Sabah) Sdn Bhd, Donna Koh Chee Lan.
Noredah also disclosed that the board would like to have more engagement between the state government and private sector in order to nourish the business event community in Sabah.
With business events, she opined that the state government has a big role to play not just in terms of funding but also infrastructure and facilitation.
Meanwhile, Noor said MyCEB is very keen to bring businesses activities in the country in stages, particularly in Sabah.
He said, Sabah has a huge potential in business event activities and not just for the tourism industry to bounce back, following the completion of the SICC.
“Sabah is a very unique destination, in the sense that God has created this beautiful setting, especially Kota Kinabalu with the islands and the South China Sea right in front and the mountain at the back.
“However, moving forward from the pandemic, I think all destinations would have equal opportunities when it comes to marketing, not just the first or second-tier cities.
“To promote Malaysia as a destination, we need to look at how can we all work together to ensure that the business events in the future can be organised safely, and more importantly, in a very sustainable manner,” he asserted.
According to Noor, bidding for future international conferences, business event activities and international sporting events, among others, is being done continuously even during the pandemic.
“I am happy to report that from January to July this year, Malaysia has won 13 international conferences that would be held from 2022 up to 2030 … But what’s more important is, how can we provide the safety net for the business events, especially domestic and local?
“This is something that we are going through in the pandemic and in various parts of the country, we are still under lockdown. I think as soon as we move to the recovery phase, the business event community need to be ready on that.”
Meanwhile, Tristan said adhering to the safety guidelines and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) set out by the government is the way to go to help the community have a sense of health security.
He said SICC is contributing to health security by assisting the government in serving as a mega vaccination centre.
This is so that herd immunity can be achieved and that the economic sector can soon be back on track, he added.
“We have also looked for synergies among the community in Kota Kinabalu and tried to create a MICE community so that companies or businesses can be developed.
“A convention centre is not an isolated building, it is part of the infrastructure of the state, therefore it is very important to build synergies among the co-partners when the border has been lifted and business events are to start again in Sabah.”
According to Tristan, it is also important for SICC to walk closely with the Sabah Tourism Board as a convention bureau and be able to respond to bids as well as reinforce its research teams.
“If we are not walking together, there is no point to spend hours doing research and answering bids.
“When we have a better view of the future, we must sit together around the table and assign tasks to everyone. That is the only way to push it and ensure everybody walks in the same direction,” he added.
Meanwhile, Donna said Sabah tourism players need to be professional enough to push for business events.
“I believe tourism players should work hand-in-hand with the aid of Sabah Tourism Board to facilitate the business event community.
“On top of that, we have to be synchronised in order to market Sabah as an ecosystem, that includes the convention centres, industry players and the government.
“Not only this domino effect will help our industry, it will also revive other impacted fields in Sabah such as professional photography as they can help share the beauty of Sabah,” she affirmed.
Donna also mentioned that a robust negotiation with premium airlines should also be conducted so that more businesses can be brought into Sabah via chartered flights.
Last month, Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture Datuk Nancy Shukri said the ministry will be focusing on the business events industry during the National Recovery Plan (NRP) period in line with the government’s announcement on opening up the domestic tourism sector in Phase Three of the NRP.
