MALAYSIA : According to Assistant Tourism, Culture, and Environment Minister Datuk Joniston Bangkuai, there are 459 homestay participants in Sabah spread across 37 registered homestay clusters.
The districts’ cluster distribution looks like this: Kinabatangan (4), Kudat (1), Lahad Datu (3), Penampang (1), Pitas (1), Ranau (2), Semporna (1), Sipitang – Long Pasia (1), Tambunan (2), Tuaran (2), and Tawau (1) are among the Kota Kinabalu (3), Kota Belud (9), Papar (2), Kota Marudu (1), Kuala Penyu (1), Beaufort (1), and Kinabatangan (4).
Highlighting the tight collaboration between his ministry and the Tourism, Arts, and Culture Ministry (Motac), which acts as the national coordinator for homestay projects, Joniston emphasized the joint efforts to promote local homestay operators.
To improve homestay participants’ abilities in areas like digital marketing, linguistic competency, and environmental sustainability, among others, he mentioned Motac’s involvement in providing a range of training courses.
He stated during the state legislature session here on Thursday, “Simultaneously, Motac maintains engagement with homestay cluster coordinators to gather feedback and identify issues, including current concerns like scams and fraud.”
“To answer a question on homestay activities in Sabah from Datuk Dr Yusof Yacob (GRS-Sindumin), motac has developed a website for the Malaysian homestay experience program, where a list of homestay operators can be accessed to guide users and tourists,” stated Joniston.
According to Joniston, Sabah is witnessing a growing trend in European tourists’ preference for nature-focused experiences, with rural areas emerging as top travel destinations.
ENDS.
