Upclose with Julinus @ Jeffery Jimit
Chief Executive Officer of Sabah Tourism Board
Having joined Sabah Tourism in 2011, Julinus Jeffery Jimit has been in various position, including being its Senior Manager before rising to become its Chief Financial Officer, Deputy CEO and current appointment effective December 5, 2023. Prior to this, the 52-year- old chartered accountant by profession was with Arthur Andersen and Ernst and Young for a combined 12 years. Being in the private sector with previous experience in internal and compliance audit as well as strategic planning and advisory has enabled him to adapt comfortably to his current responsibilities.
What are some of the challenges faced by Sabah Tourism in the post Covid-19 pandemic era?
At the initial stage of post-pandemic recovery, the main challenges were instilling travellers’ confidence besides tackling the lack of manpower in service sectors and other generic concerns faced globally. However, these challenges have eroded over time and the tourism recovery towards the end of 2023 has been very positive.
On the RM45 million upgrading and development of BKI by Malaysia Airports, which is expected to be completed before the end of 2024, what are your comments on this?
Based on Malaysia Airports’ masterplan for BKI, the country’s second busiest international airport will be upgraded from nine million passengers per annum (mppa) to 12 mppa by 2027 to cater to the surging travel demand and passenger volume growth over the long term.
Tell us more about your recent memorandum of collaboration with Air Asia on expanding international routes to Kota Kinabalu International Airport (BKI).
AirAsia plays a crucial role in Southeast Asia (SEA) and North East Asia’s (NEA) aviation industry and to collaborate with it is very significant for Sabah Tourism. We hope when we finalise the collaboration, Sabah’s connectivity towards SEA, NEA and other parts of the world serviced by the airline will be further enhanced. AirAsia is launching eight new routes into Sabah this year.
They include Jakarta, Denpasar, Manado, Osaka, Shanghai, which debuted on February 20, and Incheon on March 4. Sabah Tourism is always open to collaborate with other airlines so long as it benefits the aviation stakeholders as a whole.
Sabah is the third location to receive the triple crown status with the latest addition of Kinabalu UNESCO Global Geopark at the World Travel Market 2023 in London. How are your plans to package Sabah’s geopark attractions with those in Sarawak and Langkawi progressing?
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) branding is very important for Langkawi, Sabah and Sarawak. While this initiative is still at the early stage of planning, all the three parties are really excited to make this UNESCO Trail package a reality.
On the destination rebranding of ‘Feel Sabah, North Borneo’ launched at ITB 2023, how well has it been received since then?
We are doing our best to push the Feel Sabah brand both domestically and internationally. So far, the brand is able to provide a positive impact to Sabah as a preferred destination for nature, adventure, culture and other types of tourism.
Sabah surpassed its target last year with 2.6 million visitor arrivals. It aims to go beyond the 2.8 million arrivals set for 2024. How do you hope to achieve that?
With the growing travel demand both domestically and internationally and coupled with airlines looking for new routes and destinations, Sabah Tourism Board believes that its target for 2024 can be achieved.
What is the current weekly flight frequency and seat capacity like in Sabah? How much do you expect it to improve by this year?
Sabah Tourism is working hard to push for the reinstatement of flights to match its pre-pandemic performance. To-date, we have 15 international destinations with 138 flights weekly besides 384 weekly flights for the domestic market.
Sabah will do its best to achieve pre-pandemic performance of 236 and 455 flights weekly respectively for the international and domestic segment. However, there is no harm to dream more, to have more flights and surpass pre-pandemic performance. We hope to see foreign airlines from India and Turkey land in BKI this year.
Sabah Tourism had about 10 appointments with airlines at Routes Asia 2024. Who are some of these airlines?
Among the airlines we engaged with were Scoot, AirAsia, IndiGo, Lufthansa, Turkish Airlines, Vietjet, Jetstar, HK Express and Air India to cater to Sabah’s diverse target markets. Through these partnerships, Sabah Tourism aims to optimise route networks and improve connectivity world serviced by the airline will be further enhanced.
Besides key markets such as China and India, Sabah is also targeting Central Asia. Why so?
The strong commitment from the private sector to push the Central Asia market for Sabah is commendable. Therefore, Sabah Tourism Board will support this initiative and continue with the promotional efforts to ensure Sabah’s strong visibility in this emerging market.
For India, the focus is on southern India. Would you care to elaborate on this?
This is due to the 2.89 million arrivals of Indian travellers to Malaysia from 2018 to 2022, of which 34% are contributed by Southern India.
Sabah Tourism is also eyeing flights from the western countries this year. Which countries are these?
They are probably not direct flights but for a tag flight from Uzbekistan and Turkey.
How is hotel supply situation in Sabah currently? Will it be able to cope with the increase in tourist arrivals? What are the new hotels coming up in the state?
Presently, Sabah has a total of 27,136 hotel rooms. At this juncture, the slowdown of China market would give certain buffer for hotel rooms in Sabah. However, once the China market picks up followed by other markets such as South Korea and Brunei, and a surge in domestic market, extra hotel rooms might be needed.
So far, the upcoming hotels in Kota Kinabalu (KK) include Club Med Borneo, Sheraton Hotel, Intercontinental Sabah KK Resort, Alila Resort in Tuaran, Crowne Plaza KK Waterfront, Fairfield by Marriot, Avani, Grandis @ The Peninsula and The Peninsula, which will provide an estimated total of 3,000 rooms once completed.
Sabah Tourism raised its ante to receive the silver award at the recent Putra Atria Award 2023 for the transportation, travel and tourism. Are you aiming for gold next year? If yes, what steps are you taking to ensure that?
The award is good for our Feel Sabah brand. As long as it brings values to the brand, we will continue to aim for thesky.Wehaveastrongandsmartcollaborationwith overseas online travel agents to ensure the Feel Sabah brand and Sabah as a preferred destination are well received by international visitors.
Under your leadership, how will Sabah Tourism continue to support the state’s industry players in their tourism promotion?
I always believe tourism is government led and private sector driven. Tourism promotion must be carried out with the one goal and one vision mind set between the government and the private sector. Recently, we committed to the reprinting of 10,000 copies of the updated Sandakan Heritage Trail (SHT) map for 2024 to ensure that tourists have access to updated information. Working with SHT founder and Sandakan Tourism Association, Sabah Tourism is keen to revive tourists’ interest in Sandakan, which is rich in heritage and food.
I would like to reiterate that Sabah Tourism is always open to venture into high-impact promotional initiatives with the state’s tourism players.