Kundasang shops, hotels look forward to reopening of Mt Kinabalu
KUNDASANG: Shop and hotel owners affected by the temporary closure of Mount Kinabalu are hoping Sabah Parks will be able to fully reopen the normally tourist-thronged mountain soon, as businesses continue to suffer months after a killer earthquake hit the district.
Hoteliers in particular were badly hit after authorities were forced to close Mount Kinabalu to all visitors following the 6.0 magnitude quake on June 5 that badly damaged all climbing trails and lodging facilities up the mountain.
Final preparations were underway to partially reopen one of the two trails leading to the summit but they were sceptical this would bring as many visitors to Kundasang as before.
The plan is to reopen the trail from Timpohon and allow climbers to ascend only up to Laban Rata, about 2.8 kilometres from the highest point of the mountain.
The number of climbers allowed to trek up daily will also be reduced to half of the previous quota.
“Well, at least it is something. Hopefully it will be able to attract some visitors, even if they will not be able to climb all the way to the summit yet. Of course, we hope the trails will be fully reopened, all the way to the peak. But safety is important. We should not rush this thing but we cannot afford to take too long too,” said an owner of a bed and breakfast who declined to be named.
Another worker at a nearby chalet said their room occupancy rate dropped more than 60 per cent after the announcement of the temporary closure, with most guests planning to climb the mountain cancelling their accommodation arrangement.
“In fact we started to feel the decrease immediately after the quake. About 50 per cent of the bookings were cancelled and guests who were already here just left. Some did not even check out at the counter and simply left the key in the room,” said Judith Mailis, a supervisor at J Residence.
Judith said they rarely have walk in guests as their rooms were usually fully booked by tourists online before the tremor but now Internet reservations no longer comes that often.
She said the majority of their guests were previously westerners planning to climb Mt Kinabalu but now they are relying more on domestic visitors and those from Brunei and Sarawak who want to spend a day or two relaxing in Poring and other places of interest in Kundasang and Ranau.
“We are starting to see some improvement with 10 to 20 per cent increase compared to the earlier few weeks. Hopefully the trend will continue and eventually return back to normal when the mountain is opened again,” she added.
Wasnah Majid, owner of Intan Restaurant and Cafe in Pekan Kundasang also said customers were slowly coming back but business was still noticeably slow compared to before the quake.
“Most of our customers are people from outside who come here to visit the Kinabalu National Park, especially Poring as well as Desa Cattle. After the cattle farm was reopened people started to slowly come back.
“Before that, especially during the first week of the quake, we were almost empty most of the time. Probably because aftershocks were still frequent and people were scared. Overall, the business has decreased by about 50 per cent,” she said.
Young vegetable vendor, Michelle Patrick, said they too were still struggling as the number of customers remained low even two months after the quake.
The closure of Mount Kinabalu may have been the main contributor to the problem, according to her.
“I’m only helping my mother to run the stall as I’m now on my semester break, but from what I have observed, the sales is noticeably low nowadays. After the mountain was closed to visitors, you can see that the number of people coming here, especially those from overseas, has significantly decreased,” she said.
The first year Degree in Psychology student from Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) said they still have restaurants and hotels buying vegetables from their stall at Kampung Kinasaraban but they have reduced their purchase due to decreasing customers.
“As you can see it is still very quiet now, not many motorists are stopping to buy from us too. Hopefully there will be more visitors after they reopen the mountain, and hopefully they can do it soon.
“I heard they are planning to allow people to climb up the mountain starting next month, but this is not confirmed yet. Things are a bit difficult now so I’m crossing my fingers they (Sabah Parks) can resolve all the problems fast and resume operation as usual soon,” she added.