Hotels prepared for SEA Games influx

KUCHING: Hotels are expected to have sufficient capacity to accommodate around 4,000 athletes and several thousand officials for the 2027 Southeast Asian (SEA) Games.

Minister of Youth, Sports and Entrepreneur Development, Datuk Seri Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah, said selected hotels would be used to accommodate athletes from the 11 participating countries instead of establishing a centralised sports village.

He said the arrangement would provide greater comfort for the athletes compared with the sports village concept used during the Malaysia Games (SUKMA) 2024 in Sarawak.

“SEA Games is a bigger sporting event than SUKMA. For SUKMA, we had a sports village where we used universities to accommodate the athletes.

“But for the SEA Games, we will not use the sports village system. We will have selected hotels to accommodate the athletes,” he told reporters after officiating the one-year countdown to the SEA Games 2027 launching ceremony at The Spring here on Friday (Sept. 18).

Abdul Karim said the decision was made to ensure athletes enjoyed more comfortable accommodation throughout the Games.

“We know that if we use a sports village in a university, there may not be air-conditioning and so on. That is why we are changing the arrangement so all athletes coming for the SEA Games from the 11 participating countries can stay comfortably in hotels,” he said.

He said the total number of athletes was expected to be around 4,000, with several thousand more officials and members of the respective contingents.

“I think the capacity is sufficient because each country may bring a certain number of athletes. The total number of athletes is about 4,000, plus the officials and management,” he said.

On preparations for the Games, Abdul Karim said work on the venues was progressing well, with most of the 11 venues undergoing upgrading ahead of schedule.

He said this included Stadium Sarawak, where the opening ceremony is scheduled to be held, and Stadium Perpaduan.

“Almost all are ahead of time, including Stadium Perpaduan and Stadium Sarawak,” he said.

Meanwhile, Abdul Karim said there would be no dedicated sports village, but the Sarawak Sports Complex would serve as a hub for sporting activities and festivities during the Games.

He said the complex would feature a Malaysian kitchen, product sales and opportunities for entrepreneurs to showcase and sell their products and merchandise.

“We want it to be very festive, not only for sports, but entrepreneurs will also be able to showcase and sell their products and merchandise there,” he said.

The 2027 SEA Games, scheduled from Sept. 18 to 29, will see events held across four clusters – Sarawak, Penang, Johor and Kuala Lumpur.

The Sarawak cluster will host the opening ceremony and 18 sports, namely aquatics, weightlifting, basketball, bowling, lawn bowls, e-sports, gymnastics, golf, cricket, archery, shooting, muay thai, petanque, squash, taekwondo, tennis, wushu and dance sports.