A total of 21,541 South Korean tourists visited Sabah in January alone, accounting for nearly 40% of the 55,152 visitors from that nation who came to the state overall in 2016.

Datuk Joniston Bangkuai stated, "The South Korean market is so crucial to us that it was the first nation the Sabah Tourism Board team visited when borders reopened in April last year to interact with airlines and travel agencies there."

The increase in regularly scheduled direct flights into Sabah, according to the state's assistant minister of tourism, culture, and the environment, is mostly to blame for the spike in visitors.

He added that Kota Kinabalu was also well connected via Singapore, the Philippines, Thailand, China, Taipei, and Brunei. "And of course, this could not have been possible without a close engagement (with Korean airlines)," he said.

The media team from the South Korean company Coceuco, which organized an incentive trip to Sabah for 450 top achievers, interviewed Bangkuai, who also serves as the chairman of the Sabah Tourism Board.

Under the name Repove, Coceuco develops and markets multipurpose skin care products.

On the number of flights, Bangkuai stated that Kota Kinabalu now connects via Incheon and Busan with 30 weekly direct flights from South Korea to Sabah.

In contrast, there were just 16 flights every week between Kota Kinabalu and Incheon during the previous year.

He continued by saying that South Korean tourists were drawn to Sabah's islands, beaches, and golf courses.

Before the epidemic, Sabah recorded the second-most foreign arrivals after China in 2019 and 2018 with 337,100 and 396,700 visitors from South Korea, respectively.