Will chartered flights from China augur well for east coast tourism
Getting airlines to fly tourists from China to Tawau, the east coast agricultural town, has been a struggle. Previous attempts to set up direct flights between Chinese cities and Tawau have come to nought. So Christina Liew, Sabah’s minister of tourism, culture and environment, was understandably elated when the inaugural chartered flight carrying 157 Chinese tourists from Nanjing in eastern China touched down at Tawau airport on January 23. “I am excited that this new route will contribute to the growth and development of Tawau as a prominent international destination,” she said. But her optimism may be premature.
Earlier efforts to fly tourists directly from Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Shanghai to Tawau were scuttled ostensibly by the Covid-19 pandemic. But there is more than meet the eye in the minister’s quest to make Tawau an alternative entry point for foreign tourists to Kota Kinabalu, the state capital.
Details of the Nanjing deal are not available. But Malaysia’s low-cost carrier Firefly has been contracted to fly about 500 Chinese tourists from the capital of Jiangsu province to Tawau thrice weekly on chartered flights on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Its contract ends on March 31. Firefly is a subsidiary of Malaysia Airlines which has since recovered from its massive losses.
The Nanjing-Tawau flight is Firefly’s first foray into China. How the venture will turn out is yet to be seen. The airline operates mostly domestic flights within Malaysia and flights to Singapore, Indonesia and Thailand. The Nanjing flight is hailed as the first “international” flight to Tawau although it isn’t so. There have been air-links between Tawau and Indonesian towns and cities such as Tarakan, Nunukan, Balikpapan and Makassar on Sulawesi island, to serve the large Indonesian population in Tawau. There have also been flights between Tawau and the sultanate of Brunei and Singapore. But these are deemed to be regional flights in local parlance.
The Chinese have topped Sabah’s foreign tourist arrivals. A record 600,000 of them visited the east Malaysian state before the Covid-19 pandemic in 2019. And their number is expected to rise as Malaysia now allows them 30-day visa-free entry. But getting them to Tawau is a hard sell.
Although it is the gateway to Danum valley where some of the last remaining untouched tropical lowland forests stand, and famous diving sites such as Sipadan, Kapalai, Mabul and Mataking, Tawau has rarely been the main item on the foreign tourist’s itinerary. Tour agents offer Tawau to them as an optional tour. It is not because it lacks tourist attractions. But The orangutans, proboscis monkeys, the pristine forests of Maliau Basin and Danum Valley, and turtle island of Sandakan, diving to see exotic marine life off Semporna’s oceanic islands and climbing Mount Kinabalu, Malaysia’s tallest at 4,095m, eclipse what Tawau has to offer in eco-tourism: some of the world’s tallest tropical hardwood trees, exotic wildlife such as rare pheasants, monkeys and civet cats, extinct volcanoes that offer a scenic panorama of the city, sulphuric hot springs and waterfalls.
Tawau’s other attractions are the cocoa museum, the pre-war Bell Tower, the Japanese cemetery and the Tanjung market, with 6,000 stalls selling fruit, seafood, snacks and handicraft. It is one of the biggest such markets in the country. But these are unlikely to be the focus of the Chinese or other foreign tourists. So the Tawau tourist itinerary will inevitably have to include the dive sites of Semporna or the forests of Danum Valley. And Tawau seems destined to be just a stopover to other more attractive tourist sites.
Already the Nanjing-Tawau route is proving to be tough for Firefly. It has cancelled its February 13 flight, according to Trip.com. No reason is given.
Sabah Insights 