Finding a way around ongoing travel restrictions, Sabah tourist guides have taken to virtual tours to promote the East Malaysian destination.
From January 21 to February 28, the Sabah Tourist Guides Association (STGA) and the Sabah Tourism Board are hosting 20 online guided tours on its Facebook page. While the online tours on Facebook are view to view, future tours will be chargeable at US$10 through www.sabahtouristguide.com.
STGA president Grace Leong said the online tours were developed in response to the inability to travel in 2021.
She said: “It was a challenge for our guides to learn the system and bring forth an experience virtually. However, we managed to create several tours.
“We are pleased that Sabah Tourism Board had approached us to debut these tours and we hope that from this first round of sessions, there will be more awareness of these online guided tour offerings.”
Sabah Tourism Board chief executive officer, Noredah Othman, applauded the efforts of Sabah tourist guides in upskilling themselves to conduct virtual tours.
She said in a press statement: “This is yet another avenue for us to showcase Sabah to the world. We understand the challenges during the no-travel period in Sabah and having to utilise resources at hand.
“The idea of combining pre-recorded tours and being present to interact is equally a good method of presentation. Furthermore, Sabah Tourism is glad to be able to support the industry in whatever means.”
Noredah noted that the the first two sessions attracted more than 6,000 views in all.
In anticipation of Sabah re-opening to international tourists, the Sabah Tourism Board will continue to raise destination awareness and feed the public with information and messages about Sabah tourism.
