KOTA KINABALU: The temporary suspension of all direct flights from China to Sabah is expected to have severe economic repercussions to local tourism, says the Malaysian Association of Tour and Travel Agents (MATTA).
Its president Datuk Tan Kok Liang (pic), however, said the move will strengthen public confidence that it is still safe to travel to Sabah.
He said this in a statement on Friday (Jan 31) in response to the announcement by Deputy Chief Minister and state Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Christina Liew over the travel ban on Thursday (Jan 30).
“MATTA has taken note that all direct flights from China to Sabah have been suspended temporarily until the situation normalises, and we understand and respect the state government’s decision.
“The decision is a bold move by the state government, one that is designed to protect the people in Sabah including tourists.
“We hope that this will only be a temporary measure and that this ban will quickly be lifted as soon as the situation subsides, so that travel between Sabah and China will resume as normal, ” he said.
The Sabah government stopped flights from Wuhan to Kota Kinabalu last week due to the coronavirus outbreak in the Chinese city, but on Thursday, it announced the suspension of all flights from the country until further notice.
Tan said MATTA’s position throughout the crisis has been consistent in that the association has always placed the health, safety and security of people, both Malaysians and tourists, as top priority.
He said at present, there are 83 direct flights per week from Chinese cities to Kota Kinabalu, which constituted about 37% of the total international flights into Sabah, adding that the Chinese contributed 15% to tourist arrivals in Sabah.
He also said in the meantime, MATTA will be working closely with the Sabah government and other government agencies to facilitate Chinese tourists currently stranded in the state (due to unavailability of flights) so they can return home.
Meanwhile, a survey found that some hotels have started putting safety measures by screening the body temperatures of tourists and visitors to their premises.
A resort downtown which has about 1,000 rooms placed auxiliary policemen at the lobby entrances of their two wings for the scanning.
“We have the fever scanners effective today (Friday), including the backend where staff comes in ... there wasn’t any Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) from the government or the Health Department, so we came up with our own initiative, ” said a source from the resort’s marketing and communications department.
On how the China flights suspension is expected to impact its business, the source said it was too early to tell but there will definitely be an impact since over half of its patrons are Chinese tourists.
Source: https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2020/01/31/matta-sabah-travel-ban-will-have-economic-repercussions-but-move-will-strengthen-public-confidence