CNY holiday travels? Accommodation will be needed.

CNY holiday travels? Accommodation will be needed.

I drove back to my hometown Ipoh on 28th January 2021. It was slightly slow on some parts of the PLUS expressway. Took me close to 3 hours for the 189km journey. During the Chinese New Year, Ipoh was full of cars. It’s not as many as 2020 but nevertheless, many have come home for the reunion after not being able to do so in 2021.

I also met up with a good friend and she was also home to Ipoh but was staying in a hotel because she came back with her husband and two kids and thus space was insufficient at her parent’s place. My cousin sister had to do the same because there were just not enough space to accommodate her family of 4 including 2 kids.

Then, I drove to KLIA from Ipoh on 2nd February (2nd day of CNY) to send my wife to the airport. She was flying back to Sandakan alone. She told me the flight was full and her flight back was also full. It meant that people are travelling again and Sandakan is a smaller place compared to Kota Kinabalu. In fact there were many cars on the road during this CNY too.

What all these showed me is that people are travelling and thus booking of accommodation has increased.

Article in traveldailynews.asia Agoda says that big cities and tourist favorites are back in favor for travel this Lunar New Year. Agoda’s data continues to see trends of emerging destinations across multiple markets even as travelers primarily continue to stick to domestic travel and to explore their own ‘backyard’.

There are a few additions for this year including Berastagi (#6 Indonesia) and Hongcheon-gun (#5 Korea) which boast their great escape to nature. Nantou with stunning mountain and lake comes in at #8 in Taiwan’s list. Coastal city Quy Nhon (Binh Dinh) rounds out Vietnam’s top eight list.

Above is the list of all the popular destinations based on hotel bookings in Agoda. In Malaysia, seaside Kota Kinabalu re-joins the ranks at #7 and gateway to Malaysia, Johor Bahru at #8. Do read the full article here: Article in traveldailynews.asia

Accommodation need will increase

As families get bigger, the need for space meant that some may just have to stay outside the home even in their hometown. The room that was shared by two brothers or two sisters may only accommodate one brother with his whole family while the other would have to stay elsewhere.

Travelling will restart later even if it may be slowed down again for now because of the current increase in Covid-19 cases due to Omicron. We need to also remember that with the median age of 29 or 30 for Malaysia, it meant that families are getting bigger too. When they travel, accommodation may be necessary.

When I travel back to Sandakan again for CNY next year, space will definitely become limited too. Instead of a total of 5 people in the same house previously, there are now 14 people. The number of rooms remain the same. The bathrooms remain the same. These are all the reasons why the need for accommodation will increase.

All the destinations listed in Agoda for Malaysia are all the destinations I go to a few times every year previously. I was hoping to do so again in 2022. I will keep my fingers crossed that the current increase will peak by end February and we will go back to below 10,000 cases by end March. I do think it’s doable if all of us continue to take the necessary precautions. Omicron is easy to spread but it’s also weaker in severity when compared to Delta.

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