KOTA KINABALU, March 18 — Tigerair Taiwan’s new flight, Taipei to Kota Kinabalu (KK), which starts today, would help Sabah achieve its target of 60,000 tourist arrivals this year.

Its Tourism, Culture and Environment Assistant Minister, Datuk Pang Yuk Ming, said the Sabah Tourism Board would work closely with the airline and its liaison office in Taipei to achieve the target.

“Last year, we recorded a rise of 31 per cent, or 41,000 tourists, from Taiwan. The Taiwanese love Sabah food and the outdoor here and with Tigerair now, we are confident of achieving the 60,000 target for 2016.

“The tourism board will also partner with the airline to explore the Japanese and Korean markets to attract more travellers to Sabah via connecting flights from Taipei,” he said at a press conference prior to the inaugural flight’s arrival at the Kota Kinabalu International Airport (KKIA) here today.

Meanwhile, Tigerair Taiwan Chief Executive Officer, Kwan Yue, said the airline would increase its flights between Taiwan and KK whenever there was a need.

“Many Taiwanese are keen to visit KK and with Tigerair Taiwan offering passengers more flight options, we are looking to operate higher load factors which we are optimistic of achieving,” he said.

Kwan said the airline was also making efforts to boost the number of Japanese tourists to Taiwan where they could take the connecting flights to KK which in turn would help Sabah’s tourism industry.

The airline is based at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport and serves  the Taipei-KK and Taipei-KK routes four times a week. — Bernama