CBRE-WTW: Pandemic a blow to Sarawak’s hotel occupancy

KUCHING: Hotel occupancy in Sarawak has been badly hit during these unprecedented times, with CBRE-WTW Research highlighting that casualties are expected to be high in the hotel industry should the pandemic persist.

According to CBREWTW in its Malaysia Real Estate Market Outlook 2021, Sarawak’s hotel sector was dealt the biggest blow in 2020 whereby the pandemic had put all but some travel activities on hold with bans and-or restrictions on intercountry and inter-district travel.

“In order to stay afloat, most hotels have shi ed their focus to food and beverages (F&B) including sitdown served buffet, take outs and delivery services whilst some hotels have opted to be quarantine centres at the set rate of RM150 per room per night in order to tide through this period,” the report revealed.

“Sarawak’s popular annual tourist events such as the Rainforest World Music Festival n Kuching and the Borneo Jazz Festival in Miri which are the biggest draw on Sarawak’s tourism calendar were cancelled, greatly affecting the tourism revenue for the year.

“Hotels which would normally be filled up during this event period would suffer much in low occupancies.”

According to CBREWTW Research, room and occupancy rates are at an all-time low and expected to remain pathetic for the rest of 2020 and 2021.

The group recapped that in order to revitalise Sarawak’s tourism sector, Sarawak Tourism Board has launched the ‘Sia Sitok Sarawak ’ intra-state tourism campaign in a bid to boost local tourism, by offering discounted rates for hotel rooms and tours, and other perks, to encourage locals to travel and enjoy the sites and sights within Sarawak itself.

The campaign hopes to generate a fair amount of revenue for the local tourism sector in order to compensate for some losses.

Meanwhile, CBRE-WTW Research gathered that there were no new addition of hotels in 2020 in Kuching.

“The completion of the 19-storey Promenade Hotel located in the Central Business District area which was expected in 2020, seems likely to be delayed until 2021.”

Looking at Miri, CBREWTW Research highlighted that the hotel industry there is reeling from Brunei’s border closure, with Miri feeling the impact of the lack of Bruneian visitors.

“Hotel, food and retail businesses are greatly affected by this situation.”

On the other hand, the group noted that the supply of hotels in Miri has been steady.