Gee Tien Siong
KOTA KINABALU (April 18): Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) vice president Gee Tien Siong is disputing the claim that the inaugural Kota Kinabalu Countdown 2025 (KKCD25) was the primary reason for sold-out hotel rooms here over the New Year period.
Gee said the claim by State Industrial Development and Entrepreneurship Minister Datuk Phoong Jin Zhe is confusing a festive addition with the fundamental driver of holiday travel – likening the claim to “praising the rooster for the sunrise.”
On April 17, Phoong was reported to have pointed to packed waterfront hotels as “clear evidence” of KKCD25’s magnetic pull and success as a “major draw.”
However, Chee said industry insiders and analysts clearly know that Kota Kinabalu’s rooms predictably surge during any major holiday break, especially long weekend, throughout the year, event or no event. The occupancy boom was driven by broader, established trends.
National travel surveys conducted by Tourism Malaysia consistently show that Malaysians overwhelmingly plan trips around long weekends, which account for roughly 28.2% of trips.
Furthermore, Kota Kinabalu’s appeal isn’t new or solely dependent on singular events. Even before KKCD25 existed, Sabah demonstrated robust hotel occupancy, averaging in the 60-65% range, and Kota Kinabalu consistently ranks among Malaysia’s top localities for occupancy, achieving a 56.3% average.
Every year during the Harvest Festival week, especially from 29th to 31st May, Kota Kinabalu also sees high hotel occupancy. High hotel occupancy during long holidays has nothing to do with the extravagant New Year’s Day Countdown, he said in a statement today.
Moreover, powerful external drivers have a significantly larger impact.
Major travel periods like China’s National Day Golden Week, which spurred over 826 million domestic trips in China in 2024 and significant outbound tourism, demonstrably fuel Sabah’s vital tourism economy far more profoundly, contributing substantially to the 2.8 million visitor arrivals logged by November 2024, he added.
“The consensus is clear, while KKCD25 undoubtedly enhanced the New Year’s Eve atmosphere and experience for locals and visitors alike, the underlying demand that filled hotel rooms stemmed from the powerful, predictable rhythm of a major public holiday. It was the reliable ‘sunrise’ of the Christmas/New Year holidays, a pattern deeply ingrained
in Malaysian and regional travel habits, that truly brightened Kota Kinabalu’s occupancy figures, rather than a phenomenon created solely by the countdown event’s ‘crow’,” said Chee.
He added Phoong might want to justify the fund spent for KKCD25, but it is wiser to create more permanent venues for rising tourism sectors instead of overspending on one-off events.
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