PARLIAMENT The recent spate of kidnappings of tourists off the east coast of Sabah has affected tourism from China even worse than the disappearance of the MH370 Malaysia Airlines flight on March 8, Tourism and Culture Minister Nazri Abdul Aziz said today.

He said so while answering a supplementary question from Azmin Ali (PKR-Gombak) during question time in Parliament today.

Nazri ( left ) said that 76 flights in total have been cancelled from Shenzen and Shanghai to Kota Kinabalu, including 10 MAS flights, 22 China Southern Airlines flight, and 44 flights by low cost carriers.

“We should convince tourists from China that Sabah is safe but this is beyond my ministry to give this assurance. We tell tourists that Sabah is not about the east coast alone, it is also about the west coast, which is Kota Kinabalu,” Nazri said.

Nazri said that the Home Ministry also needs to “walk the talk” in resolving the issue and safety concerns as soon as possible aside from just giving assurances.

“Although the incident happened in the east coast it affects Sabah as a whole because tourists can’t differentiate between the east coast and west coast,” he added.

He said “a lot has to be done” in order to rectify the situation as there are travel advisories advising tourists from several countries from travelling to Sabah.

“Security has a worse impact,” he said.

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