Sabah has asked for a decentralization of power from the Federal Government to enable the State Government to approve applications on tourism licensing and issue licenses. Presently, the power is within the authority of the Tourism, Arts, and Culture (Motac) Ministry’s Tourism Licensing Division.

While raising the concern during the Debate on the National Budget 2020 in the Dewan Rakyat, MP for Tawau, Datuk Christina said “Apart from the pressing need to upgrade the Kota Kinabalu International Airport (KKIA) and Tawau Airport, I urge the Federal Government to empower Sabah to approve and issue five types of tourism licensing. These are the entry and exit license for tourism agents, license for tourist guides, license for tourism vehicles (example, excursion buses), ticket licensing and license to manage tourism training schools or institutions,”.

The Deputy Chief Minister and the Minister of Tourism, Culture, and Environment, Liew, said that if Motac will grant licensing autonomy to Sabah, the move would specifically impact and boost tourism. Along with that, it will enhance the efficiency of the industry’s service delivery system.

Liew voiced out a few related issues and said “The tourism sector is vital for Malaysia’s economic growth, especially for Sabah, given its enduring strength as an economic sector. Last year, Sabah’s tourism industry created history when it topped the country with a record-high 3.87 million tourist arrivals and tourism receipts amounting to RM8.342 billion.

“In the first seven months alone this year, tourist arrivals hit the 2.389 million mark, and this shows a significant. increase of almost 10pc, compared with the corresponding period last year. This year, we are targeting four million tourists,”

“First of all, I would like to refer to the Open Sky Policy that was signed by Malaysia among countries in ASEAN. This Agreement aims to widen air connectivity between Malaysia and other countries within ASEAN,” she said.

Based on the provisions of the Open Sky Policy, Malaysia’s airline companies and those of foreign countries are allowed flights without any restriction “in terms of service frequency, flight capacity, type of aircraft, route(s) and the number of airline companies permitted between Malaysia and the countries concerned.”

“With this in place, I am confident of a further increase in tourist arrivals and this will, in turn, generate more revenue and profit for Sabah and Malaysia as a whole.”