KOTA KINABALU: Sri Pelancongan Sabah and Tourplus have inked a service agreement to develop a smartphone application known as Hello Sabah to serve as a digital platform for the state tourism industry.
Sri Pelancongan Sabah general manager Zachary Mobijohn and TourPlus Technology founder-cum-chief executive officer Rickson Goh signed the agreement at a hotel here.
The partnership will allow Hello Sabah to digitise the state tourism business, allowing local product owners and industry players from the public as well as private sectors to market their goods and services.
It features an online booking platform for rural tourism and community-based tourism, among others.
Zachary said Sri Pelancongan Sabah, a subsidiary of Sabah Tourism Board, played a role as a strategic partner in the development of the application that was set to promote Sabah's tourism industry by utilising Tourplus' advanced technology.
He said that the application aimed to register up to 100,000 merchants on the mobile application as its ultimate target.
"Merchants who are interested to be featured on this platform must pay a listing fee of RM300.
"However, in order to entice more merchants to take advantage of this platform, we will be waiving this listing fee to all merchants who sign up in 2022.
"On top of that, we will only be charging a minimum payment gateway fee of 2.12 per cent for the first 100 transactions. Normal commission rates will apply thereafter," added Zachary.
Sabah Assistant Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Joniston Bangkuai who witnessed the event said the Sabah Tourism Board would monitor the progress and success of the mobile application in achieving its purpose, including the promotion of rural tourism.
"The rural tourism sector has been through a lot of ups and downs since 2014 to get to where it is today, with some community-based tourism operators earning Asean and global standard recognition.
"We aspire to make our rural areas into world-class rural tourism destinations by 2030.
"To do so, we need to be able to provide a digital platform to present our rich culture, traditions, food, handicraft, and local community way of life to the world," he said.