Sabah hoteliers expect fewer tourists with scrapped direct flights

KOTA KINABALU: Hoteliers are expecting room occupancy to drop below 60% next year with the scheduled cancellation of at least four direct international MAS flights into Kota Kinabalu from January. Currently, hotel occupancy is at about 64% but it is expected to drop further as direct tourist arrivals will stop in stages from Jan 6 to Feb 21 following MAS’ decision.

Malaysian Association of Hotels (Sabah and Labuan chapter) chairman Alex Cham said that occupancy had increased by 4% this year and the association had been hopeful of better things to come next year. “However, with fewer direct tourist arrivals, we may drop below 60%,” he said.

The MAS routes to be stopped includes the twice weekly Kota Kinabalu-Osaka (from Jan 6), thrice weekly Kota Kinabalu-Perth (from Jan 31), four times weekly Kota Kinabalu-Haneda (Feb 1) and four times weekly Kota Kinabalu-Seoul (Feb 21). Cham said that Japanese and Korean tourists prefer direct flights here and were not too keen on taking connecting flights from Kuala Lumpur.

Sabah Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Masidi Manjun said he was disappointed with MAS’ move to scrap direct flights. “We will work towards ensuring the tourism industry in the state can overcome the setback. “We are disappointed but after taking into consideration MAS’ financial predicament, I understand why they need to suspend the flights,” he said.

Sabah’s tourist arrivals had hit 2.63 million surpassing the initial target of 2.6 million for this year. “I am sure we can overcome the short-term negative impact on tourist arrivals,” Masidi added.
-thestar online.