How hotels in Sarawak survived the pandemic

According to Sarawak Tourism, Creative Industry and Performing Arts Minister Datuk Seri Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah, the state government had since September-2020 paid an average of about RM15mil every month to the operators of hotels which served as quarantine centres.

KUCHING: Hotels in Sarawak have sustained their operations during Covid-19 pandemic by turning them into quarantine centres.

Most hotels in Kuching would have closed if not for the lifeline offered by the Sarawak government to operate as quarantine centres as visitor arrivals into Sarawak had dropped drastically, according to CBRE/WTW Research.

The number of visitor arrivals in Sarawak plunged by 86% to 160,266 in the first 11 months of 2021 from the same period in 2020 due to the ban on inter-state travel and movement restrictions.