KUNDASANG: Kundasang, which is also dubbed the "little New Zealand" of Sabah, is seeing a surge in visitors over the long Christmas weekend holiday.
Mount Kinabalu Homestay member Mariana Taliban said most of the accommodations at Kampung Sinusian here and the district were fully booked by local tourists.
The district, which is a two-hour drive from the state capital, is an ideal getaway, especially for families.
Situated almost 2,000 metres above sea level, Kundasang has a cool climate for the Christmas season and stunning natural scenery, as well as tourist attractions such as the "hobbit houses", tea plantation, selfie corners, Desa dairy farm, and the latest — the Alpaca Club.
"There are more tourists spending their year-end holiday in the district compared with previous weeks after the government allowed cross-district travel.
"Both operators and tourists are complying with the standard operating procedures (SOP). I noticed that most of them wear masks and there are no large gatherings among them."
Mount Kinabalu Park assistant director Yassin Miki said on average, there were fewer than 50 people climbing the mountain ever since the park reopened on Dec 7.
Due to the SOP, the management has set a 100-climber capacity at a time for the mountain and the Kinabalu Park.
"There are 463 Malaysians and seven non-citizens that have ascended the mountain up to today (yesterday).
"As for daily visits, we can only get the statistics at the end of the month," he added.
Semporna, which is usually crowded with tourists who go island-hopping and take part in water activities, saw a dip in numbers.
Dive master Abdul Razak Ismail said in previous years, apart from international tourists, visitors from Peninsular Malaysia would also fly into the east coast of Sabah for a holiday.
"But this time, although the flight tickets from Peninsular Malaysians to here are cheap, the requirement to do Covid-19 swab tests stopped them from doing so.
"The test, which is about RM300, is more expensive than the flight tickets.
"Therefore, they rather spend that money going around Peninsular Malaysia by road," he said, adding that only locals and healthcare staff who were posted here took advantage of the diving services here.
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