Hotel room shortage expected during CNY
KOTA KINABALU: Hotel rooms are expected to be in short supply during the Chinese New Year (CNY) season.
Sabah Association of Tour and Travel Agents (Satta) president, Datuk Seri Winston Liaw said, inbound tourism was going to flourish during the Chinese New Year period.
“Actually the occupancy of hotels has been quite full even during January.”
Upon Chinese New Year season, he said hotel rooms would be in short supply due to the arrival of Chinese and Korean tourists brought in by charter flights.
“At times, there are no rooms left in four-star hotels,” he said when contacted yesterday.
Meanwhile, Liaw said outbound tourism was slow during Chinese New Year as most travellers have had their vacation during November and December last year.
“Business was good during last November and December.
“And these travellers, who had gone on holidays in the past two months, were unlikely to travel again during Chinese New Year.”
On another note, he said tourist arrivals was on the rise but the reason there were seemingly fewer tourists in Kota Kinabalu was because the travellers were scattered in the east coast and townships out of the city.
Liaw attributed that to the hard work and effort by Deputy Chief Minister cum Minister of Tourism, Culture and Environment Datuk Christina Liew, in promoting Sandakan, Tawau and Semporna as tourism destinations, as well as the availability of direct flights from Kuching and Shenzhen to Tawau.