GEORGE TOWN: Tour operators must resume operations by July if they are to remain in business.
Industry players said yesterday that most tour companies will “close shop” if the sector is not reactivated by then. “We are already running very low on funds,” they said.
Tourism Langkawi chairman Ahmad Pishol Isahak said none of the industry players are prepared for such a situation because no one expected a pandemic the likes of Covid-19.
“We have already spent a lot on promoting the Visit Malaysia Year 2020 campaign. Instead of getting tourists, we got a contagious virus, causing us to incur billions in lost marketing and branding capital,” he told theSun.
“By hook or by crook, July is the month we need to reopen the tourism sector,” he said in an interview.
He expressed hope that the authorities will work towards containing the virus in the next six weeks or the industry will head for serious trouble.
His views come on the heels of a report that up to 30,000 hotel workers have been laid off due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Former tourism, culture and arts deputy minister Muhammad Bakthiar Wan Chik said tourism contributes 15% of the gross domestic product.
The VMY campaign was supposed to generate revenue of up to RM100 billion; instead the country will have nothing from tourism due to the virus.
The economy has also been badly hit in the wake of lockdowns to curtail the spread of the virus.
Although the infection rate is now concentrated among the migrant labour community over the past week, the National Security Council has yet to decide when foreign tourists can be allowed back in.
Currently, all visitors into the country must undergo a compulsory quarantine for 14 days upon arrival to check if they had contracted the coronavirus.
