KOTA KINABALU/ Sabah: Sabah tourism industry is still flourishing despite of two crew members of a fishing boat were kidnapped by two armed men in the waters of Pulau Gaya, Semporna at about 12.30 midnight, on Sept 11.
Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister Mohamaddin Ketapi said the island resorts in Sabah including Semporna where the incident occurred were still receiving visitors.
“The kidnap incident has not affected Sabah’s tourism industry as there is still a steady flow of tourists to the state,” he told reporters while opening the Installation Art By the Bay programme here yesterday.
According to him, the incident is not affecting tourists visiting the west coast of Sabah.
Tourists have to be ensured that such incident seldom occur in Sabah, especially Semporna.
Mohamaddin also thinks that the kidnap incident might have been staged by locals and not by outsiders, New Straits Times quoted him as saying.
“I do not want to comment further on the matter as it is a criminal case under the police as well as the Eastern Sabah Security Command (ESSCom) .
“We have sufficient regulations as well as ESCCom and others but such incident is still happening.
” Maybe the kidnap is carried out locally and not from external parties who could detained by marine police and ESSCom,” he said.
