Sabah Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Christina Liew wants the respective Tourism Action Council in 26 districts to be activated by next year.

She said most of the districts in Sabah had a Tourism Action Council set up with the assistance of the Sabah Tourism Board.

"Each council is responsible for identifying and developing their respective products for the benefit of their own district and people.

"This coming New Year there will many more tourists coming by regular flights and chartered flights, and income from tourism will also increase. This is one of the ways to enhance each distrct's economy.

"We also want balanced tourism in Sabah, not just focused on Kota Kinabalu, Mount Kinabalu and the resort islands but all the across the state," she said after launching the Community-Based Tourism Roadshow here.

Liew said community-based tourism would be able to enhance all districts and towns into business entities that could contribute to the state's economy.

She said the state government through her ministry could provide the necessary infrastructure for all districts to heighten the experience for visitors.

"Whenever a District Tourism Council identifies its products to be promoted as tourism products, they will let us (ministry) know. Our officers will go down to work with them," Liew said.

The two-day Community-Based Tourism Roadshow saw a total of 16 participants compared to only four last year.

Earlier, in her speech, Liew said up to September this year, tourism had already generated an estimated RM6.2bil in receipts or 7% compared to last year, for the state's economy.

She said tourist arrivals were up 5.1% or 2.865 million compared to the same period last year.