Star Online/ANN- KOTA KINABALU: Sabah tourism players are bracing for “zero” China tourist arrivals following the coronavirus outbreak and are asking for the government to help them through the bad patch in the next few months.

Sabah Association of Tour and Travel Agents (Satta) president Datuk Seri Winston Liaw said they expected a sharp drop in the arrival of Chinese tourists, which will severely impact the state's tourism players.

"This will impact inbound tourism players greatly. Some agents whose market depends 100% on Chinese arrivals might end up with zero Chinese passengers for the months to come.

“Many agents will face financial difficulties and Satta urges the government to assist industry players during this difficult period, as agents still need to pay off their commitments such as repayment of charter fees for buses and boats, overheads and others," he added.

Liaw said that authorities in China were not allowing its nationals from leaving the country, whether they were in groups or individual travellers.

He said that on Sunday (Jan 26), an Airworld Travel charter flight arrived with “zero pax” though it was supposed to be a full flight into Kota Kinabalu.

Liaw said they expected zero Chinese nationals among passengers in the next two scheduled flights on Jan 30 and Feb 3.

“This also applies to all scheduled flights coming into Sabah directly from various destinations in China.

“This will greatly impact the tourism industry in the state, as Sabah depends very much on Chinese tourist arrivals which comprises 45% of international arrivals, ” he added.

He said that based on 2019 tourist arrivals, 600,000 Chinese nationals came to Sabah, averaging about 50,000 every month.

“With an estimated RM2,000 spending per visit, we will potentially lose RM100mil (a month), ” he added.