Malaysian tourism bodies plead for moratorium extension as crisis deepens

 

GEORGE TOWN: The government's strategy to recalibrate tourism and cultural industries has proven to be the right one with Malaysians responding to calls supporting domestic tourism.

Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Nancy Shukri said this also implied that one of the key strategies, which is restoring confidence to travel by promoting feel-good factors and success stories in overcoming the Covid-19 pandemic, was a step in the right direction.

To encourage domestic tourism, she said, the ministry had launched the Reigniting Domestic Tourism Campaign in eight states.

"And so far, we see that our own people are responding to calls to support domestic tourism.

"Based on occupancy report from the Malaysian Association of Hotels (MAH), the overall occupancy of the country is approximately 38 per cent with high occupancy recorded at beach and island destinations, while cities are still at a low of 20 per cent.

"For Penang, the average occupancy is at 37 per cent. However, while George Town and main areas experienced lower occupancy rate, Batu Ferringhi fared really well at over 70 per cent, especially on weekends but lower on weekdays.

"As such, I believe our domestic tourism industry will slowly recover when we have strong support from everyone in this country," she said, reaffirming that Malaysia remains committed to prioritising domestic tourism to ease the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

She was here to launch the World Hospitality, Lifestyle and Entertainment Exhibition (WHOLE) 2020.

Nancy said, as all know, trade and business events are industries that are highly dependent on international arrivals.

However, she said the goverment has to be cautious on opening the country's international borders in the best interest of the country to curb the spread of Covid-19.

"Hence, together, we are working in full force on ways to help local industry players to get ready to bounce back when the time comes," she noted, stressing the outlook for the trade and business events is positive.

Nancy said from January to August this year, the Malaysia Convention & Exhibition Bureau (MyCEB), in collaboration with local associations, had successfully managed to bid and secure 20 international conferences from 2020 until 2024 with an estimated targetted number of 14,000 delegates.

"This will bring an estimated economic impact of RM173 million into the country," she said.

Meanwhile, Nancy said the time was ripe for local travel agents to include arts and cultural programmes, which is slowly coming back to life, in their domestic tourism packages in efforts to spur the sector.

To date, 12 arts and cultural performances are planned from September to December this year with the up-coming Colours of Malaysia by Orkestra Traditional Malaysia on Sept 23.

"The re-opening of Istana Budaya in Kuala Lumpur on July 17 has brought back the arts and cultural sector to life and provide income for those affected by the implementation of the Movement Control Order (MCO) and Conditional Movement Control Order (CMCO).

"The first 'Konsert Norma Baharu' received tremendous response from the public with a 500 fully-seated hall. This portrays that the public is supporting the arts and culture industry, and accepting the new normal with strict compliance of the Standard Operating Procedures (SOP).

"This is what it means to live in the new normal. We must adapt to this new way of life, and not avoid the challenges it has presented. In fact, we can even thrive in the new normal by cleverly navigating the threat of this pandemic," she added.

-TTG Asia.