Tourism is dying, hurry and open Sabah border – SATTA
12 Oct 2021
By Ilona Andrew
KOTA KINABALU: Sabah Association of Tour and Travel Agents (SATTA) President Datuk Winston Liaw is urging the State Government to open up interstate travel in Sabah to revive the state’s tourism industry that has been struggling since the pandemic hit.
He said aside from the low inoculation rate in the state, there is no other reason to not allow Sabah border to be opened as the state’s Covid-19 situation has been in steady downward trends since early October.
While inter-district travel is allowed according to the zone system, he reasoned that it does not really help boost the local tourism since many of the locals have travelled within the zone and decide not to do so anymore.
“For the past five to 10 years of Malaysian tourism record, only one-third of the total of tourist arrivals are foreigners while the rest makes up from tourists within the country.
“The tourism attractions in Sabah are actually quite different than those in West Malaysia, and you will be surprised how many West Malaysians and Sarawakians have yet had the chance to visit Sabah.
“Therefore, we urge the Sabah Government during the cabinet meeting this coming Wednesday to not make Sabah an exception for the allowance of interstate travel,” he said when contacted by Nabalu News reporter.
According to Liaw, it is undeniable that a spike in Covid-19 cases is bound to come about when a state opens its border, just like what happened in Langkawi.
However, he is of the view that it will not be a big problem since the attraction areas in Sabah that are most visited are in the open air, such as the islands and Kinabalu Parks.
After all, he said only vaccinated tourists are allowed to travel and they are required to conduct self-test prior to that.
He added that, 98 per cent of those who are infected by Covid-19 only experience mild or even no symptoms and are able to recover well.
“But we still need to take precautionary steps to avoid such from happening, therefore, all industry players will have to conduct swab tests and test negative before they are allowed to work.
“They are also required to comply with strict standard operating procedures (SOPs) as well as to keep a close eye on their clients to ensure that they are, too, abide by the Covid-19 preventive measures,” he asserted.
The SATTA president said, tourism workers who are found to experience Covid-19 symptoms or test positive for the virus, it is necessary to isolate them until they recover.
This can be done through the isolation centres prepared by the government, or hotels that prepare isolation areas for their workers in certain spaces or floors of the hotel that are not to be rented out to customers.
He also encouraged hotels, resorts, and homestays, to provide self-test kits for their customers to purchase to ensure public health.
To allow interstate travel would really make a big impact on local tourism players, especially small and medium tourism entrepreneurs, guides, and operators, who barely manage to make ends meet for the past 20 months.
The SATTA president said, there had been reports where local guides chose to end their lives by committing suicide as they could no longer face the financial crisis due to the pandemic.
Opening up interstate travel would help revive the tourism sector and indirectly, would help prevent such tragedies from happening among tourism players.
“In fact, I think not only to open up interstate travels, but we must also consider opening up our border for international tourists as soon as possible.
“I strongly believe that the tourism sector in Sabah will flourish again within six to ten months to come once the international border opens as everyone is looking forward to travelling again after being ‘locked up’ for so long.
“After all, drugs to fight Covid-19 are being developed by the US and China, this will surely help restore tourism.”
While Sabah awaits to revive its tourism industry again, Liaw mentioned that one of the plans and strategies by SATTA is to hold a 14-day virtual travel fair starting from 16 Nov.
The fair is jointly supported by Tourism Malaysia, State and Federal Tourism Ministries as well as Sabah Tourism Board.
“We are also joining forces with Fantastic Golden Sdn Bhd, the organiser of the Miss World Malaysia pageant. During the virtual fair, finalists of the Miss World pageants will help promote Sabah’s attractions, culture, and cuisines, among others.”
He explained that the fair expects to welcome some 100,000 visitors from across the globe including China, Taiwan, Korea, Australia as well as European and Middle East countries.
On another note, Liaw called on banks to spare hire purchasers involving tourism players some room and chances while they slowly revive before they can make their repayments.
