Kota Kinabalu: With more people now visiting places after being subjected to Covid-19 lockdowns, there’s been a boom in another kind of hospitality business – toilets.
The customers are those travelling from Tamparuli to Ranau and beyond.
Those wanting to ease themselves but cannot wait to do so at their destination throng road side public toilets built by enterprising villagers, companies or by park authority like along the Crocker Range Park road charging 50 sen per visit.
The villagers prefer to put up “Toilet” signages (pic) rather than “Tandas” for international visitors, who may not know where the next nearest toilet facility is before their destination. Holding urination is an unhealthy discomfort and can lead to kidney stones.
“Only 20 sen to use my toilet,” said Aminah, near Bundu Tuhan, where she manned an adjoining small eatery, and retail outlet, selling fruits and vegetables, and small handicraft items.
If every visitor pays 50 sen averaging a daily count of 100 tourists at other popular locations, it amounts to a collection of RM50 per day or RM1,500 more or less per month.
However, the Covid restrictions on entry of international travellers has minimised toilet frequenters to locals.
While males are prone to stopping and urinating on roadside bushes, women and girls dare not.
Hence the mushrooming of more roadside toilets for modesty and the rise of a toilet economy business along many of Sabah’s long road journeys of more than an hour’s drive.
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