Sabah’s tourism sector worst hit by Covid-19

By TIN Media | Sabah Published 3 years ago on 18 April 2020
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SABAH:

According to a recent survey by the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) Sabah, Sabah’s tourism sector is the worst hit by Covid-19 and the ongoing movement control order (MCO).

IDS executive director Anthony Kiob said 26 per cent of those in the industry have lost their jobs.

Kiob said “At least 34 per cent are on unpaid leave while another 32 per cent of tourism-related jobs have had to take a pay cut. They revealed that they have zero-income due to the absence of visitors during this MCO measure. As the operators have no income, they were unable to pay their workers and cover their operational cost,”.

The findings were the result of a survey carried out by IDS targeting selected business sectors that are badly affected by the Covid-19 pandemic and the MCO.

“As we know Sabah relies heavily on its tourism sector as this is the sector that contributes most to our GDP. Unfortunately, this is the sector that is most affected by the MCO due to the Covid-19 pandemic.”

Sabah’s tourism industry relies heavily on Chinese and South Korean visitors, which contributed about 40 per cent and 27 per cent respectively of the total international arrivals.

The two countries that were among the first that experienced the Covid-19 pandemic early this year, causing tourism figures to drop drastically.

 


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