Sabah's islands and abundant seafood are drawing more tourists from mainland China with the number visiting between January and August already surpassing that for the whole of last year.

Preliminary figures show that a total of 38,891 Chinese nationals came in the first eight months of the year compared with 32,268 for the whole of last year.

"Many Chinese tourists come especially during the three major week-long breaks in China, for the Chinese New Year, May labour and October national day holidays," Sabah Assistant Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Karim Bujang said.

Karim is leading a group of 11 Malaysian tour agents and two state tourism promotion agencies participating in the four-day China International Travel Mart 2007 which closes here tomorrow.

Last year, Chinese arrivals were the fifth biggest group for Sabah, after Brunei, South Korea, Taiwan and Japan.

Karim credits the private sector for its efforts in building up the tourism industry which has become the state's second largest revenue earner after agriculture with tourism receipts of R1.89 billion last year.

"We are now seeing the fruits of the years of promotion. It is very much driven by the private sector. The state government facilitates as much as we can and the close central and state leadership has helped a lot as well.

"Also, the Kota Kinabalu airport receives 101 international flights a week with 15,762 seats in total. We are the second busiest airport in the country after the KL International Airport," Karim told reporters.

Kinabalu Park, Tunku Abdul Rahman Marine Park and Poring Hot Springs were the top attractions last year.

Karim said industry players were also looking at other parts of Sabah such as Tawau to develop eco-tourism packages which are popular among urban travelers.