Sabah's tourism growth has not been hindered by the millions in ringgit budget slash for 2016.

Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Masidi Manjun said every ringgit spent last year had seen a return value of RM300 to the state.

This is due to a strategic placement of allocation for marketing, which saw a non-renewal of RM1 million contract with the industry's Australian counterparts for 2016.

Despite that, Masidi said 2016 had been "the best year for Sabah tourism” thus far, and even the Australian arrivals into the state had grown by 8.7 percent.

The overall tourism arrivals increased by 3.427 million or 7.9 percent growth compared to 2015 and pulled a RM7.25 billion in tourism receipts.

"Despite the travel advisory that continues to haunt us, our tourism industry continues to prosper and the arrivals continue to go up" said the minister, adding that there were 79 direct flights from China to Sabah, currently.

"Last year, the United Kingdom and Ireland arrivals increased by seven percent, Australia 8.7percent, South Korea 42.5 percent, Taiwan 35% percent and the state's arrivals was championed by China at 51.8 percent " he added when launching the Malaysian Association of Tour and Travel Agents (Matta) Maximizing Investments on Trade Shows Seminar on Monday, Feb 20.

Masidi, therefore, advised state tourism industry players to not falter on trade show participation during the challenging economic climate, but instead, put emphasis on investing in trade shows that could give them more bang for their buck.

"We should be wise in evaluating the trade shows that we need to join to ensure our investments, namely fare and so on, would be worth it" he said.