Press Room

The Foreign Office (FCO) has updated their advice for Borneo to advise against all but essential travel to an area east of a line joining Sabah’s most northerly point near Kudat to the Indonesian border in the south near Tawau.

This easterly region has been declared a ‘special security area’ by the Malaysian government. Additional police and military forces are being deployed to this location. 

This follows a recent invasion by armed men in the south of the country, which resulted in an exchange of fire and sadly a number of fatalities.

The current advice does not affect the main resort area of Kota Kinabalu or excursions to Mt Kinabalu.

Kuoni’s Wildlife of Borneo tour, Sepilok excursions and the two night Borneo Turtle & Orang-utans tour have been affected and will be cancelled until the FCO downgrade their current advice.

Kuoni policy

The Kuoni operations department will be contacting all customers who are in resort or travelling within the next two weeks and due to stay in the east of Borneo specified by the FCO. For customers due to travel Kuoni will work with them to amend their itineraries at no additional cost. If we are unable to find a mutually acceptable alternative itinerary, we will cancel the booking with no charges.

For customers who are staying in Kota Kinabalu and have booked the excursion to Sepilok to visit the Orang-utans, the excursion will be removed from their itinerary and refunded.

A safari balloon carrying 20 tourists has crashed in Luxor, near the Valley of the Kings.

Reports advise that sadly 19 of the passengers have died. There were no Kuoni UK clients on the flight. There were however nine Chinese nationals on board the balloon who were clients of Kuoni Hong Kong.

Should any media want to talk directly to our local Kuoni Hong Kong office, please call the dedicated hotline on +852 6699-4981.

For any UK press enquires please contact Fiona Harris on 01306 744 194 or mobile: 07774 678 338.

The convergence of two pressure systems is causing a massive storm to sweep across the north eastern USA today and will last until tomorrow evening.

Winter storm Nemo is predicted to deposit up to two feet of snow in the New England region and a large area could be affected by blizzards.

Some of the airlines are already cancelling flights in and out of New York and Boston and Canada may be affected later this weekend.

The Kuoni Operations team are currently in contact with customers that have been affected to ensure that suitable arrangements are made for them.

Kuoni Policy:

If an outbound flight from the UK is cancelled due to the storm and we are unable to rebook our customers on to an alternative flight or holiday within the airline policy restrictions, or if customers are delayed for over 12 hours, a full refund of their holiday will be provided.

For any customers in resort we recommend that they contact their airline directly for rebooking and advise Kuoni of their new flight details. If the airline will not agree to accommodate them, Kuoni will extend their stay and where possible at their original hotel. Anyone seeking guidance or assistance should call our Duty Officer pager number should call our Duty Officer pager number – 01306 744435 – and Kuoni will return the call in priority order.