The newly-established Sabah Convention Bureau is determined to engage more with ICCA, and has made its first move to sponsor the Challenge Night at this year’s 63rd ICCA Congress in Abu Dhabi.
CEO Noredah Othman, who has more than three decades of experience in the tourism industry and was previously CEO of Sabah Tourism Board before taking on the leadership role at Sabah Convention Bureau at the start of 2024, told TTGmice that “this is our debut appearance at the ICCA Congress”.
“This is an opportunity for us to introduce the convention bureau officially to the industry. Sponsoring the Challenge Night at the Warner Bros Abu Dhabi theme park tonight is ideal for Sabah, as we are such a fun destination that is itself a nature theme park. We hope that all Congress delegates will not only have lots of fun, but also discover what Sabah Convention Bureau and our destination are all about,” said Noredah.
Sabah Convention Bureau is a non-profit agency under the purview of the Ministry of Tourism, Culture & Environment Sabah. It takes over the responsibility of advancing Sabah’s business event industry from the Sabah Tourism Board.
This transition, according to Noredah, will allow her team to be more active in ICCA activities. She shared that the bureau is presently exploring the possibility of supporting ICCA programmes such as ICCASkills and Masterclass.
“We brought the Sabah state minister of tourism to the Congress this week, to show her what ICCA is all about. It opened her eyes and made her realise the extensive learning opportunities this event offers to industry members. We hope that with her seeing the value of engaging with ICCA, our future proposals for ICCA activities will be supported,” she said.
Going forward Noredah hopes to motivate more business event organisations and players in the Malaysian state to join ICCA to lift their capabilities and expand their network. Only the bureau and Sabah International Convention Centre are ICCA members today.
“We need more local players to elevate themselves to be able to support our industry and improve the competitiveness of Sabah Convention Bureau when we make our bids for meetings,” she added.
Sabah has been a popular choice for various national associations meetings, and the bureau hopes to expand this pool of gatherings to regional and international ones. It will not only court meetings that are aligned with the Sabah state’s three key economic pillars of agriculture, manufacturing and tourism, but also events related to conservation. Sabah is home to a UNESCO triple crown site title – Kinabalu National Geopark is recognised as a UNESCO Global Geopark (recognised in May 2023), UNESCO Crocker Range Biosphere Reserve (recognised in June 2014), and UNESCO World Heritage Site (recognised in December 2000).
