Sabah Takes First Steps to Reopen for Tourism
One of Asia’s great destinations for nature lovers, the East Malaysian state of Sabah, is taking the first steps to revive its tourism industry since the devastation caused by Covid-19.
Domestic tourism was one of the sectors allowed to resume operating on 10 May as some anti-virus restrictions were cautiously eased.
It will be a long time before international tourism restarts – and that’s where the real money lies. But this initial step means the tourism industry can begin the long process of getting back on its feet again.
Operators can now once again provide domestic tourists with accommodation, ticketing services, and adventure and recreation facilities. Restrictions have also been eased on flights between Sabah and the more heavily populated West Malaysia. But Sabah Parks is initially limiting each of its parks to 100 visitors a day.
International tourism remains a non-starter. But with this small step forward, foreign travellers can at least see the possibility of someday exploring the forests, rivers and mountains of this North Borneo state.
More importantly, Sabah can reflect on how it wants its tourism industry to look in the future. It needs to maintain the right balance between economic development and preserving its richly diverse plant and animal life. It can decide whether the correct way forward is to chase ever-increasing visitor numbers, as it has done in recent years.
It’s possible that in the wake of Covid-19, more international visitors to Asia will seek out uncrowded, close-to-nature destinations. Many older travellers will surely feel this way. Crowded cities may lose some of their allure as visitor destinations.
Sabah has much to offer to those who want to get back to nature. It’s recognised as a biodiversity hotspot and has earned a reputation as an eco-tourism destination.
As recently as January – how long ago that seems now – the New York Times listed it among the 52 places to see in 2020.
Among its crown jewels are Malaysia’s highest mountain, the craggy Mount Kinabalu, and the thickly forested Kinabalu National Park below it.
The Kinabatangan River ecosystem in the east is home to Borneo’s indigenous orangutan, the proboscis monkey and several other primates, as well as pygmy elephants.
The Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre near Sandakan on the east coast is a major visitor attraction. It cares for young orangutans rescued from logging sites and illegal hunting, and releases them back into the wild.
For those wanting a relaxing holiday, there are a string of comfortable resort hotels on the South China Sea shores in and around the capital, Kota Kinabalu.
It’s the rapid development of the city and its waterfront areas that’s causing concern to some. Crowding on the islands just offshore is a worry too. The five tropical islands that form Tunku Abdul Rahman Park off Kota Kinabalu are easily reached by international package tourists and have been attracting up to 2,000 visitors a day.
Ever-growing numbers of tourists have also been crowding into towns like Semporna on the southeast coast, the centre of a bustling diving industry.
Eco-tourism depends on protecting the environment, and Sabah state officials are already saying that when international tourism returns, attention will shift from mass tourism to upmarket travel in smaller groups that yields greater profits per trip.
There have long been calls for the state’s tourism to be carefully managed to protect its rainforests and promote eco-tourism.
All the while, tourist numbers have been growing steadily year by year. In 2019, Sabah attracted nearly 1.5 million foreign visitors, the highest total yet. Well over half of them were from China and South Korea.
Around 600,000 people from China alone visited the state last year. Direct flights to Kota Kinabalu from Beijing and several other Chinese cities – including Wuhan, the first epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak – made these numbers possible. The influx has raised questions over the damage that can occur from so many visitors pouring in.
The other side of the coin is the havoc Covid-19 has brought and the untold job losses in the tourism industry throughout Asia. Countries with a high dependence on income from tourism are having to look at what sort of reset may be necessary in the post-lockdown era.
The benefits of mass tourism are many: for the host country, the jobs it generates for local people, the improved infrastructure in popular tourist areas, and the income to spend on the betterment of the whole country.
And for locals and visitors alike, it provides an opportunity to share values and cultures.
I remember watching cultural dancers perform for tourists at a resort hotel just outside Kota Kinabalu many years ago and thinking that, far from debasing the local culture, this was an important way of keeping it alive and enabling local people to benefit financially from it.
But tourism needs to be sustainable. Resources such as water and energy come under heavy strain when both locals and large numbers of visitors place demands on them.
The tipping point comes when a destination can no longer handle the number of tourists it attracts. The environment buckles under the pressure. The very scenery visitors have paid so much to see is damaged, possibly beyond repair.
As tourism officials in Asian countries take stock amid the global pandemic, they face key questions. Do they eventually return to the quest for the highest visitor numbers possible? Or do they recalibrate and aim for quality not quantity in the visitors they attract, even though this may result in less income and fewer tourism-related jobs for local people? What sort of balance do they try to strike?
The decisions they make, in Sabah and elsewhere, will shape the future of tourism in Asia for many years to come.
Header image: © Alan Williams
