A tropical mecca for over a half a million holidaying Chinese every year, Sabah state in Malaysian Borneo is enjoying a tourism boom, and a string of recent diving and snorkelling tragedies has not dampened the enthusiasm. Despite the potential fallout of departure levies on foreign visitors, and claims by local operators that their livelihoods are being corroded by overseas interests, Chinese enthusiasm for Sabah shows little signs of waning. At the launch of a new China-built luxury yacht in the capital Kota Kinabalu in late July, the state’s tourism minister, Christina Liew, credited Chinese visitors for Sabah’s snowballing tourism success. “The acceleration of tourism development in the state in recent years somewhat coincides with the increase in the number of Chinese tourists visiting Sabah every year,” she said. Nearly 600,000 Chinese tourists visited the eastern Malaysian state last year, according to the Sabah Tourism Board. Sun and selfies may be Sabah’s traditional drawcards, but Liew says wildlife and natural encounters are increasingly luring a younger generation of independent travellers to what conservationists call a “biodiversity hotspot”. Sabah is home to thousands of species of charismatic animals, including orangutans and proboscis monkeys, as well as carnivorous pitcher plants and stinky parasitic Rafflesia flowers that grow up to a metre wide. Chinese visitors can now catch direct flights to the state from Beijing, Xiamen, Fuzhou, Wuhan, Shenzhen, Macau and Kunming. Taking into account the increasing number of charter flights, it seems the state’s tourism boom has only just begun, raising serious questions about sustainability and the difficulties of handling large numbers of tourists. The main interests of urban Chinese are still sea, sand and beaches, plus shopping, not wildlife and nature Alexander Yee, who operates several nature lodges in Sabah Indeed, many in the tourism industry now consider the biggest modern threat in Sabah to be a flood of too many visitors. “Mass tourism will destroy the industry,” warns veteran operator Tham Yau Kong, founder of TYK Adventure Tours. Tham says the tourist hordes are now reaching far-flung corners of Sabah, such as Tuaran and Kota Belud, not so long ago completely off the radar for Chinese travellers who usually flock to the beaches of Tunku Abdul Rahman Marine Park and to Kota Kinabalu’s shops. The Chinese influx has transformed once sleepy towns such as Semporna, on the far east coast, which since 2017 has seen a rash of new hotels and restaurants opening, he adds. “All are full of Chinese, to the point that those places we used to frequent are not welcoming.” On any one night, Tham says, he has seen as many as 600 Chinese tourists in the small seaside town, a gateway to the east coast’s turquoise waters, a marine park and island diving havens. Boatloads more Chinese are now expected to set sail to Semporna on the new US$1.5 million luxury cruiser, Borneo Serenity. Owned and operated by Chinese travel company Lazy Cat, the vessel will tap the burgeoning market of well-heeled young Chinese drawn by Sabah’s dazzling beaches, sensational sunsets and crystal clear waters. The motor cruiser can carry 60 passengers. “Many of them may have already visited Kota Kinabalu on their first trip and now, I reckon, they have expanded their adventures to Sabah’s east coast,” Liew said at the boat’s launch. Just a few weeks before, the tragic deaths of two Chinese tourists and their divemaster near Semporna were attributed to fish bombing. Yet the tragedy has had minimal impact on the tourism boom, according to the Sabah government. Nor has a spate of drownings of Chinese divers and snorkellers in Sabah and the neighbouring Malaysian state of Sarawak put a damper on China’s Borneo fever. An all-out effort to claim an ever bigger share of the Chinese market saw tourists visiting the tiny island of Bohey Dulang – one of eight islands in the Tun Sakaran Marine Park off Semporna – soar by more than 25 per cent last year, to almost 110,000 visitors. A similar thing has happened at a host of once off-the-beaten-path places near Sandakan, as the Sabah Tourism Board’s promotional and social media strategies pay off. Alexander Yee, who operates several nature lodges in the Kinabatangan River, Sepilok and Sandakan areas, says places like the lower Kinabatangan have so far been saved from the onslaught of tourists. “The main interests of urban Chinese are still sea, sand and beaches, plus shopping, not wildlife and nature,” he says. In Semporna, locals are happy because money is coming and their quality of life improving … but the environment is slowly being destroyed Veteran tour operator, Tham Yau Kong There is a darker side to Sabah’s tourism industry, however. Not only has there been a huge influx of Chinese tourists to the state, but a rush of Chinese tour operators has become a major thorn in the side for many local travel agents and guides. “A Chinese tour operator can set up a licensed branch office anywhere in Malaysia, including Sabah, and it’s 100 per cent owned by the Chinese company,” says Roland Ng Vui Ping, former vice-president of the Sabah Tour Guide Association. This is making life tough for local operators, he adds, because the Chinese operators engage in the dodgy practice of “zero-fare tours”. “This is where local tour operators do not charge Chinese operators for tours stated in the itinerary,” he says. “Instead they earn their money by bringing tourists to shopping establishments to earn commissions, hence their income. It is a gamble, as they earn nothing if the tourists don’t spend. Our authorities will have a tough time proving this practice … Welcome to globalisation.” Ng says Sabah’s Tourism and Culture Ministry (Motac) made it easy for foreigners to obtain tour guide licences, despite policies requiring a local guide to lead foreign tour groups. However those rules apply only to groups of seven or more in a tourist van, according to Yee. “The rules need to be tightened. Currently you can have a guide from China leading the group and just employ any licensed local guide to tag along … Motac does have good workable rules against illegal tour guides and operators, but the issue is [the need for] better enforcement.” While welcoming the current economic spin-offs from Chinese tourists, Tham is concerned about the future livelihood of local guides. “China operators use small-timers here to expand their business, then eventually apply for licenses by putting native names as shareholders,” he says. “So the small local operators handling Chinese tourists will close, and Chinese-speaking local tour guides will be jobless.” It’s a double-edged sword, he says, if the environmental aspects are taken into account. “In Semporna, locals are happy because money is coming and their quality of life improving … but the environment is slowly being destroyed.” Winnie Yong, a Sabah tour guide who speaks Mandarin and Cantonese, says she has personally been hit hard by these practices. At first the inundation of Chinese tourists beginning in 2015 was great for her, but gradually her business was taken away: “In Sabah we have many guides who spoke Chinese, but Chinese travel agents recruit and bring in Chinese nationals who work as illegal guides.” Back in 2017, Motac slammed disgruntled members of the Sabah Tourist Guide Association and Bumiputra (indigenous Malay) Tourist Guide Association who greeted a group of Chinese tourists arriving at Kota Kinabalu International Airport with signs announcing: “Sabah does not welcome unlicensed tour guides.” The protesters claimed the company organising the Chinese holidaymakers’ trip – a licensed local business run by a South Korean – had hired illegal tour guides. Motac rebuffed those claims following an investigation into the matter. Meanwhile, the Sabah government says it has focused on opening up many new tourism areas in the state’s interior and on the east coast. “In 2016, Sabah Tourism Board established a department especially to empower locals in rural areas to get actively involved in community-based tourism by proposing activities and attractions for tour operators to include in packages,” Tham says. Malaysia lures Chinese tourists to Sabah state with sun, sand and selfies “Within just a few years, it is really taking off. At least a hundred destinations have been established Sabah-wide, benefiting the local communities greatly while providing much more variety for holidayers. “This is also a part-antidote to mass tourism which is of great concern here, with the tourism industry growing so rapidly.”