I propose a tourist submarine for Sabah a long time ago but my initial surveys shows that it is extremely difficult to make them economical.
I proposed the idea to a television program specialising in making dreams come true. My dream was to be able to ride in one of the tourist submarine. A few months later, a tourist submarine business started in Langkawi but my dream was not realised. Instead the tv show turned to extreme sports that are not that popular to viewers. That series is now dead.
I believe there should be ways to make a tourist submarine viable. The failure in Langkawi is due to bad management and over ambitious requirements.
For Sabah or even Malaysia, we need just one small submarine that can carry at least 5 people, i.e. sufficient for one family to dive in confort and safety. It does not dive too deep. Just 20 feet is sufficient, in order to reduce cost. It must be easily transportable because one location will not be able to sustain the number of visitors.
Kota Kinabalu is a suitable site because it has a number of islands. The dive need not last long, just 5 minutes will be sufficient. Diving is not that interesting because what we see is just blue water. Only occasionally will you see giant manta ray in Kota Kinabalu and then only if you're lucky. Kota Kinabalu also has a number of islands and a harbour where people can dive a short distance from it with the submarines moving from place to place.
Once the number of visitors has waned, it can be shipped to other islands for a short period of time also. It may even be shipped all over Malaysia so that it can give opportunities for Malaysia to have a taste of what a submarine and undersea environment really is.
We cannot rely on foreign tourists for regular income. The submarine can also be chartered for longer periods by groups of people.
The amount of money involved will be at least RM1 million. It will be expensive and highly technical. This is the reason why our businessmen have missed the opportunities to explore this immense potential in our tourism industry.
A potential sumbarine is the Mergo 2. It is a 10 passenger tourist submarine but it is still too large. A smaller and cheaper submarine will be even better. I have just requested for pricing details so that I can make a feasibility study.
