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KOTA KINABALU: Tourism players and hoteliers in Sabah are now planning ahead how to take advantage of the holiday and year-end season as the country announces the reopening of interdistrict and interstate travel starting Monday (Dec. 7 ).
While the announcement does not cover areas with ongoing upgraded MCOs, they anticipate that they will see more families traveling to relax as they have been locked up at home.
“Obviously it is a respite for the tourism sector. It was previously announced that the food and beverage industry can operate until midnight, and now we have more good news.
“Our resort anticipates new reservations with this latest development and we are trying to create and promote new packages for the upcoming Christmas and New Years,” a communications officer told a popular resort downtown.
He added that they hope that people from other districts such as the east coast will travel and visit the state capital, but stressed that the complex will adhere to the Covid-19 SOPs to ensure safety in its surroundings.
“There is no directive on swimming pools yet, but at present, dining is allowed on the premises and other facilities such as gyms with a limited number of guests,” he added.
While the travel rules have been relaxed, the conditional MCO will continue in Sabah until December 20, even though it was previously scheduled to end on Sunday (December 6).
Octavius Usman, who runs the hostel on Mari-Mari Sepanggar Island, Riverbug (a rafting company) and the Mari-Mari Cultural Village, said that while he did not expect customers to return in bulk, it was a good sign of allow the tourism industry to recover.
“It all depends on the Covid-19 cases, although it was a logical move to reopen the trips, but at the same time, people are still worried due to the large number of cases.
“But a little movement is better than nothing,” he said, adding that he plans to get the island hostel and whitewater rafting activities back online soon, but would have to keep the cultural village closed for now. as it would be too expensive. to run it with a reduced number of visitors.
Meanwhile, Sabah Minister of Tourism, Culture and Environment Datuk Jafry Ariffin said reopening inter-district travel would allow the national tourism industry to restart.
He said that while it is unclear to what extent tourism activities will be allowed at present, a small start is better than nothing.
“However, we would require SOPs to be in place to prevent another Covid-19 outbreak,” he said, adding that the existing guidelines and SOPs were sufficient.
He warned of the need for the number of visitors to be limited depending on the size of the area and depending on how many active cases of Covid-19 there are in an area.
“Of course parties or large gatherings are not allowed,” he said.
Sabah Tourism Association President Tonny Chew said that while they welcome the move to reopen interdistrict and interstate travel, they are still not sure how much this would help the tourism industry as many are going through due to financial difficulties.
“People in Sabah may not be willing to travel as much, while those from other states would not come here yet because Sabah is still considered a red zone with the number of cases we see every day,” he said.
However, he said this would still allow some revenue for tourism-related sectors.
“SOPs must be strictly adhered to or else we will see that everything returns to the starting point,” he warned.
Chew said that a start is needed to jumpstart the economy, but that the cooperation of the people to make this work is very necessary.
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