A total of 431,026 tourists from China visited Sabah last year and online bookings were a major contributor.

One of these online ticketing and accommodation booking platforms is Ctrip which has about 260 million members using its website and WeChat.

This was revealed by Nicole Goh of Ctrip International Travel Malaysia Sdn Bhd whose lion dance troupes put up a performance at the Sabah Tourism Board office, in Kota Kinabalu Central Business District on Wednesday, 28 February.

General Manager of Sabah Tourism Board, Suzaini Datuk Sabdin Ghani welcomed the performance in conjunction with the Chinese New Year celebration.

Nicole also revealed that of the travellers who used Ctrip, they each spent about RM1,000 on accommodation, and totalled about 40,000 room nights per month in Sabah.

Last year, Sabah Tourism together with Ctrip brought in Chinese bloggers to Sabah.

This joint promotional activity successfully reached out to over 4 million people in China through its website. Through Ctrip and Silk Air, Sabah is penetrating into second-tier cities such as Chengdu and Changsha.