LABUAN: With Labuan folk leaving for Sabah and Sarawak to enjoy the long holiday stretch beginning today (Federal Territory Day) to Chinese New Year holidays, the duty-free island is looking deserted.
Roads used to seeing bumper-to-bumper crawls now have motorists cruising instead.
Thousands of travellers are crowding the roll-on/roll-off (ro-ro) ferry, ferry express and speed boat terminals to get to the mainland.
Many students of Sekolah Menengah Sains Labuan, Labuan Matriculation College and University Malaysia Sabah (UMS) Labuan International Campus are part of the crowds crossing the sea.
Labuan police chief Supt Muhamad Farid Ahmad has issued a reminder to travellers to notify their nearest police station through a “return home form” for police to conduct mobile checks.
Meanwhile, Labuan Fire and Rescue personnel were spotted on a walkabout distributing CNY safety leaflets to motorists.
The annual exodus during CNY is actually a downer for businesses as there are lesser customers.
Several travellers told Bernama that the mass exodus is also due to retreat programmes in Sabah by various local firms, company family days and Sabah Motor Day (Feb 2).
“We’ve taken this opportunity to travel with the family to Kota Kinabalu (Sabah) because of the public holidays today, during CNY and combined with my leave to next weekend,” traveller Alfred Nikko Sibil said. – Bernama
