KUALA LUMPUR: Hoteliers have urged the government to come up with more holistic solution to assist them in coping with the adverse economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Despite the initiatives unveiled in the newly-announced Prihatin Rakyat economic stimulus package for small-medium enterprises (SME), they said it was not enough to assist the industry which has been badly affected by the situation.
Malaysian Association of Hotels (MAH) chief executive officer Yap Lin Seng, in a statement, said the hotel industry lost almost RM76 million in booking cancellations and more in future demand.
He said hotels had suffered almost RM1 billion in loss of revenue during the ongoing four-week Movement Control Order (MCO).
“There is a need to look at the tourism industry and perhaps a special package specifically for tourism stakeholders.
“The reason for this is simple. Tourism is hit twice as hard if not three times more than any other industry.
“A generic economic stimulus package that helps all is obviously not enough to keep tourism afloat,” he said.
He said while the recently-announced structure looks positive and would alleviate the burden of cashflow on SMEs especially on payroll, the blanket subsidy does not address industries that are directly impacted by the situation.
He said hotels in general were not expected to make any profits, with occupancy lower than 40 per cent, depending on its business model.
“Our survey shows average occupancy levels dropping to 25 per cent and less in the coming months and we do not expect it to improve at least for another six months.
“In the past two weeks, the industry has already received reports of hotels closing down permanently due to economic pressures, and more might be forced to do the same in the next few months.
“The Malaysian hotel industry is not on track to even reach 30 per cent for this year if the situation persists,” he said, adding that MAH had submitted several proposals to the government to address this issue.
“We are suggesting a tourism industry wage subsidy of a minimum of RM1,000 per employee with pay less than RM4,000 or 50 per cent, that is of a similar mechanism to the United Kingdom and Canada of up to 80 per cent subsidy.
“For employees with monthly wages of RM4,000 to RM8,000, MAH has proposed a 30 per cent subsidy for up to six months,” he added.
Earlier, Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin announced that the government has allocated an additional RM10 billion for SMEs under the Prihatin economic stimulus package.
From the total, RM7.9 billion has been allocated for the Wage Subsidy programme, an increase from RM5.9 billion to RM13.8 billion.
He said the additional allocation includes a total of RM2.1 billion in grants that would be channelled to micro businesses registered with the Inland Revenue Board (IRB).