Sabah International Convention Centre (SICC) in Kota Kinabalu, the state capital of Sabah, will host its first event, a national Quran recital competition, from February 14-21, 2020.
“An estimated 5,000 people are expected to attend this event,” shared Marie Mansuet, assistant director of sales at SICC, when interviewed at IT&CM Asia last week. SICC was exhibiting at the recently-concluded tradeshow to create more awareness about the centre and the destination.
At press time, there were more than 10 confirmed bookings for next year, made up of local and international corporate gatherings and association meetings.
Scheduled to open in early January 2020, SICC will be the only purpose-built convention centre in the Malaysian state. Developed by Yayasan Sabah Group, the premises will be managed by Accor.
It offers a 5,300m2 column-free convention hall, 5,300m2 exhibition hall alongside 20 meeting rooms, four VIP meeting rooms and three VVIP lounges as well as a performing arts hall with permanent two-tier seating for 1,250 people.
The convention hall can take up to 4,500 people in banquet seating or 5,400 pax in theatre-style. Both the convention and exhibition halls offer modern retractable partition systems to ensure space flexibility, and can be further divided into smaller halls.
Three five-star business class hotels are being built opposite SICC and they are expected to open from 2024 onwards, added Mansuet. Presently, there are more than 15 star-rated hotels within a five-kilometre radius of the convention centre.
Georgina Jinu, MICE manager at Sabah Tourism Board, said a dedicated convention centre will enable the state to bid for bigger MICE groups of up to 5,000 pax moving forward.
