Motac optimistic with domestic tourism activities, urges public to comply with SOP

While there is no drastic rise in tourism activities, these are positive signs in revitalising the domestic tourism activities. NST/file pic

KUALA LUMPUR: Over 180,000 flight seats have been booked from June 10 to 28 for domestic travels between July and September, the Dewan Rakyat was told today.

Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Nancy Shukri said this was reported by Air Asia, while Firefly had also seen an increase in bookings for domestic flights in July through its promotions.

"This is one of the positive indicators in measuring improvements for the tourism sector since ease of restrictions under the Recovery Movement Control Order (RMCO) was enforced from June 10 to replace the MCO.

"Surveys show the public's willingness to travel domestically, in addition to promotional efforts by the sector."

She said there was an encouraging public response which reflected in average occupancy rates at several hotels in cities and resorts nationwide, especially at popular islands, highlands and forests. 

"While there is no drastic rise (in tourism activities), these are positive signs in revitalising the domestic tourism activities with traffic volume at main highways showing a weekly increase," she said.

Nancy was replying to a question by Yamani Hafez Musa (Bersatu-Sipitang) who had asked on public and tourist operators' reception towards the government's efforts to encourage domestic tourism. 

Nancy, however, said Malaysian tourism still had a long way to go in its recovery, especially sub-sectors that relied heavily on foreign tourists. 

She also reminded the public to always adhere to the Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) set by the government to break the chain of Covid-19 infection.

Nancy added the RM90 million allocation for the Visit Malaysia Year 2020 (VMY2020) could be used for future campaigns following the programme's cancellation due to the pandemic.

"As of now, we are monitoring the situation closely and only cooperate with countries categorised as green zones (for cross-border travels).

"At the same time, we will ensure the public's compliance with the SOPs, which is one of the factors in place to help revitalise tourism sector which contributed 15.3 per cent to the Gross Domestic Product," she said in reply to a supplementary question by Ahmad Hassan (Warisan-Papar).

-nst online.