KOTA KINABALU, Feb. 11 -- The ongoing travel ban on visitors from China have predictably upset tourism in Sabah, along with other businesses that used to thrive on the regular stream of tourists to the north Borneo capital seaside city now strangled by the Wuhan virus.

Since the ban on Chinese visitors arriving via direct flight earlier this month, the streets of Kota Kinabalu have been visibly empty of the colourfully garbed visitors from the Far East and their tour buses parked kerbside outside shopping malls, coffee shops and other tourist attractions.

With their biggest source of income cut off, local business owners, tour and travel companies, hotels, and food and beverage outlets here resorted to coming up with contingencies to fi...