KUALA LUMPUR: The reopening of Langkawi and looming travel bubble of other destinations is a big relief industry players but they are banking on more support particularly in the 2022 Budget.
They said the opening of more destinations was crucial in reviving the industry devastated by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Industry players have claimed that they were on the brink of "total collapse". This was due to regulatory constraints imposed by the government as borders had remained closed for the last 18 months, while other countries were recovering at a faster rate in their battle against Covid-19.
Melaka, Genting Highlands and Tioman island reportedly will soon join Langkawi in the tourism green bubble project.
In 2019, Malaysia received 26 million foreign tourists with a revenue of RM89.1 billion, exceeding the exports of palm oil at RM70 billion and rubber gloves at RM22 billion.
The Malaysian Association of Tour and Travel Agents (Matta) honorary secretary general Nigel Wong said with the reopening of Langkawi, it was crucial for the government to level the playing field for other tourism destinations in Malaysia.
"The opening up of more destinations is crucial in reviving the tourism industry. Domestic tourism, however, is not sustainable in the long run and the government must ensure that there are no U-turns on domestic travel bubbles.
"The government needs to use the opportunity to streamline processes and make SOPs (standard operating procedures) more efficient to be applied to the re-opening of our country to foreign tourists," Wong told the New Straits Times.
Malaysian Association of Hotels has proposed various initiatives to the government to rebuild the sector.
MAH chief executive officer Yap Lip Seng said the association was hopeful that more prime holiday destinations such as Penang, Johor and Sabah can also be considered for reopening to fully vaccinated travellers.
"With Langkawi as reference point and standard operating procedure (SOPs) pretty much firmed up, the upcoming reopening SOPs can be simplified for easy understanding and compliance not only for operators but also tourists.
"The current high vaccination rate is also encouraging and acts as added assurance for safe travels," he told the New Straits Times.
Nevertheless, Yap said for the upcoming 2022 Budget, MAH had proposed various initiatives to support reopening of tourism stakeholders with financial support.
He said the industry players were expecting more support related to operating expenses such as utilities as well as special funding or grants for them to remain competitive.
"The budget must introduce initiatives to drive tourism. From incentives and tax reliefs to encourage tourism spending to individual income tax relief and corporate tax exemption on hotel and tourism expenses," he added.
Matta's Wong said the industry had asked for various initiatives, ranging from moratoriums and subsidies on wages and utilities to a waiver of statutory payments and licencing fees for the upcoming 2022 Budget.
"Matta has suggested a special tourism industry fund to provide loans or grants that is managed independently and not by banking or financial institutions.
"The financial institution till today, have failed to provide aid to industry stakeholders due to overly restrictive policies that are not applicable to the current pandemic-situation despite government assurances that it was supposed to help ailing tourism businesses," he added.