Four days of festive joy in Sabah

Holiday makers making a beeline for the tiny Kundasang town on the foothills of Mount Kinabalu.

KOTA KINABALU: Holidaymakers are crowding into homestays and hotels to capitalise on the four-day Christmas weekend in Sabah.

Since Friday, most of the accommodations at the foothills of Mount Kinabalu’s Kundasang area of Ranau as well as in Borneo’s northern tip Simpang Mengayau in Kudat have reported full occupancy till the end of the month.

In the winding, single lane mountain roads of Kundasang, motorists were caught in slow-moving traffic as people flocked to the cool air at the foothills of the mountain.

Since 2019, Sabah has been enjoying Dec 24 as an additional holiday for Christmas on Dec 25.

Since this year’s Christmas Eve is on a Sunday, it will be replaced with Tuesday, Dec 26 as a holiday. This has led to a four-day holiday from Saturday.

As such, many people headed back to their hometowns to celebrate the festivities with loved ones.

Others have taken the opportunity to take their families for a holiday at popular beachside and mountain tourist spots.

Association of Homestays in Mesilou Kundasang president Azizul Julirin said they have 60 active homestay operators in Mesilou that offered more than 260 rooms.

All of them were occupied.

“We are fully booked for the Christmas weekend and up till New Year,” he said.

He said holidaymakers comprised locals from Sabah as well as out-of-towners.

Others have also taken the opportunity to head to Sabah’s northern tip of Borneo, Kudat, for a seaside holiday where resorts and hotels are fully booked.

In the city, international resorts and hotels have reported up to 80% occupancy rates as foreign tourists spend their Christmas and New Year holidays in Sabah.

Malaysian Association of Hotels Sabah/Labuan chapter chairman Hafizan Wong said they were seeing an overall occupancy of between 75% and 80%.

He said foreigners were mainly at resorts while business hotels were seeing more domestic guests.

“It is also the school holidays and long weekend for Christmas, so we see many people arriving in Kota Kinabalu while locals may also be travelling out,” he said.