Villagers at popular holiday spots, such as the Kundasang highlands in the foothills of Mount Kinabalu and Kiulu just north of the state capital, have been left wondering how much longer their homestays, cabins, campsites and hiking trails would remain empty.
An announcement by Sabah Covid-19 spokesman Masidi Manjun of the reintroduction of inter-district travel within zones has brought hope to these rural folk.
Masidi said the state government would be reintroducing the zone travel system whereby people can travel between districts within a zone. For example, Kota Kinabalu, Penampang, Putatan, Tuaran, Kota Belud and Ranau have all been placed under one zone, so anyone in these districts can now travel within this zone freely.
The state government had eased travel restrictions under a similar zoning system earlier this year but it was abruptly stopped when Covid-19 numbers surged.
This time around, Kundasang homestay operator Azizul Julirn and Kiulu campsite and water rafting operator Lasmen Lopog are certain the lifting of inter-district travel restrictions will remain as a growing number of Sabahans are getting vaccinated.
“This easing of travel between districts couldn’t have come any sooner. It’s been a tough time for us with no income,” Azizul said, adding that the entire Kundasang community had been affected as the number of visitors had dropped to less than a handful over the past few months.
“Homestay operators have had to retrench staff who are from the community. Others who depend on tourism such as coffee shop operators, eco-tourism operators and handicraft and vegetable sellers have suffered as well,” said Azizul, who heads the 70-member Mesilau Atamis Homestay Association.
Another 100 operators are members of the Walai Tokou Homestay Association.
Collectively, these Kundasang homestay operators have about 1,700 rooms which achieved at least 70% occupancy before the pandemic.
“School holidays would see the occupancy hitting 100% consistently and this was partly due to big numbers of visitors from the peninsula,” Azizul said.
Lasmen said many operators of tourism-related enterprises in Kiulu had been eager to reopen and were glad to hear the announcement.
He said some remained cautious and were considering restarting their businesses only in November or December.
There are more than 50 tourism-related businesses in Kiulu and some of these are operated by families or people within a particular locality.
“Some worry that even with SOPs in place and other precautions, there could be infections which could affect the whole community,” said Lasmen, who is also the vice-president of the Kiulu Tourism Association.
Lasmen, who had been busy disinfecting his Kondis Point campsite ahead of the anticipated easing of travel restrictions, said he and other operators were geared to receive visitors.
“Many of us are conscious of the SOPs and we have decided to restrict the number of visitors at our campsite. We can’t take risks,” he said, adding that about 90% of operators and their staff had been vaccinated and the figure was expected to reach 100% by November.