KOTA BELUD: Despite the slowdown in tourism industry and the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, Kampung Melangkap Tiong community in Kadamaian remains committed to ensuring their eco-tourism areas are always well-kept to welcome future visitors.<\/p>\n
At the Kisakot Eco-Tourism, a community-based tourism product, villagers worked together to build several rest huts to improve the existing infrastructure facilities.<\/p>\n
Kadamaian Tourism Association chairman Walter Kandayon said Kisakot Eco-Tourism was among over 80 rural tourism operators in Kadamaian, who had successfully obtained approval for a RM20,000 grant application under the Sabah New Deal.<\/p>\n
Established in May 2019, the rural community tourism area located by the river only had an existing mini hall and four huts.<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, when the pandemic hit and the Movement Control Order (MCO) was imposed, the community lost their livelihood, and their ‘tabung’ (funds) were also empty.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe community had no money to maintain the facilities. When tourism activities reopen, we help them to get the necessary assistance while the community themselves ‘gotong-royong’ to upgrade their eco-tourism site,” said Kandayon.<\/p>\n
He said the Sabah New Deal grant has helped the community and private tourism operators in Kadamaian to cover the expenses used for facility improvement works.<\/p>\n
Recently, state Tourism, Culture, and Environment Assistant Minister cum Sabah Tourism Board (STB) chairman Datuk Joniston Bangkuai visited Kampung Melangkap Tiong to see the progress of upgrading works.<\/p>\n
He also met with two Sabah New Deal grant applicants – Kisakot Eco-Tourism chairperson Doihim Salantik and Bukit Pagapanan Nobou eco-tourism operator Domius @ Damius Talindap.<\/p>\n
In May last year, Talindap took risks developing a recreational fishing activity site when many tourism operators were experiencing business gloom following the impact of pandemic and the imposition of MCO.<\/p>\n
Starting with just a basic landscaping of fishing ponds, Bukit Pagapanan Nobou is now equipped with pedestrian facilities, huts, public toilets, and running water.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe inspiration to establish an eco-tourism came when, at that time, I was feeling bored as there were no activities. Instead of wasting time, I thought to myself why not spend the time building my own tourism site.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know many people are into fishing. With the help of a machine, I had forked out my own money and constructed six large ponds on my 6-acre land.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlthough the pandemic situation and the tourism industry at that time was uncertain, I still took risks. If we want something, we have to be brave to do it no matter what the situation. Otherwise, it will remain a dream,” he said.<\/p>\n
Since opening its door to the public, Bukit Pagapanan Nobou has received about 60 visitors thus far. <\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Bangkuai said the Sabah New Deal was a special financial assistance from the state government which was also provided to tourism industry players affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n
The Sabah New Deal grant assistance for tourism operators is coordinated by STB<\/p>\n
\u201cSTB actively helps rural tourism operators to improve their areas to promote the potential of rural tourism products.<\/p>\n
“I call on entrepreneurs to continue to take the opportunity to get any assistance provided by the State Government that can help to develop their products,” said Bangkuai.<\/p>\n
During the visit, he also visited Melangkap Tiong community-based eco-tourism product.<\/p>\n
Established in 2014, Melangkap Tiong did not receive visitors for two years due to lack of facilities until 2017 when the community received assistance from STB to promote their site.<\/p>\n
Melangkap Tiong has now become one of the rural tourism destinations in Kota Belud district for those seeking for spa fish and swimming activities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
KOTA BELUD: Despite the slowdown in tourism industry and the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, Kampung Melangkap Tiong community in Kadamaian remains committed to ensuring their eco-tourism areas are always well-kept to welcome future visitors. At the Kisakot Eco-Tourism, a community-based tourism product, villagers worked together to build several rest huts to improve the existing infrastructure facilities. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":3696,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3695","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-local-news"},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3695","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3695"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3695\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3697,"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3695\/revisions\/3697"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}