THE Covid-19 pandemic or "Covidemic" has hit the economy hard and the tourism industry is no exception.
Like it or not, we have to discard the "old norms" as the menacing coronavirus is forcing us not to shake hands, stand a metre apart from each other, wear sanitation masks and wash our hands frequently.
This has led to the increasing level of travel anxiety and health concerns. This pandemic poses an immediate impact on businesses catering to lodging, food and beverage (F&B), health and fitness services, as well as air, sea and road travel.
Most affected countries have frozen international travel, leading to almost zero arrivals in some. In Malaysia, too, inbound tourism has collapsed, with hotel occupancy down, business trips and vacations cancelled, and workers across the industry laid off.
Some hotels are reportedly on the verge of folding up, or have closed shop and sold off their assets. The Malaysian Association of Hotels (MAH) mentioned that up to March 16, 170,085 hotel room bookings, to the tune of RM68 million, have been cancelled and the losses are expected to double by the end of the year.
MAH foresees the trend sliding further, and 30 per cent of hotels registered face the dire prospects of closing down.
In the same vein, the Malaysian Association of Tour and Travel Agents (Matta) stated that its revenue during the March school term break was RM150 million less compared with the same period last year. Matta members also lamented a potential liability of around RM500 million arising from customers seeking compensations, regardless of cancellation and refund policies of service providers.
Matta expects the country's tourism sector to take up to 10 months or, at the earliest, by June next year, to recover and stabilise. Industry players must come together, pool their ideas and discuss the issue from every angle.
With travellers altering their international travel plans, the obvious question is: where would they travel now? Where will their money go to?
We could still harness the domestic tourism potential to soften the blow from travel restrictions and the Movement Control Order (MCO). They would hesitate to travel unless the domestic tourism industry changes and is tailor-made to their post-Covidemic behaviour and preferences.
Thus, if there is any glimmer of hope left to rejuvenate the industry, the little ray of sunshine coming through the gloomy clouds of the Covidemic is our domestic market.
While providing a faint gentle sign that something positive could happen if industry players get more Malaysians to travel around the country but away from their home base. Domestic tourism holds the key "to make the impossible possible".
Even though household budgets of the "common people" are understandably hit, the Tourism, Arts and Culture Ministry and the Tourism Promotion Board of Malaysia (Tourism Malaysia) could take the lead to make local travellers aware of the countless and myriads of experience, sights and beauty in their Truly Asia Malaysia; as long as it remains a safe and viable alternative.
Fortunately, we already have in place the Cuti-Cuti Malaysia campaign that started in 1999 to give the much-needed impetus for the growth of domestic tourism. The way forward now is to rebrand Cuti-Cuti Malaysia as the premier tourism driver with necessary adjustments in light of the CMCO and other measures to cut the chain of infection of the deadly coronavirus, considering the domestic tourism trade offers the prospects of keeping the hotels, homestays and resorts open for guests, visitors and family groups.
As an extension, businesses related to the industry, such as restaurants, souvenir shops, travel agencies, transport and rent-a-car companies, can also jump on the bandwagon to join the movement and support the cause.
Thus, for the industry to perk up again, the professionals in the travel and tourism sector could perhaps work urgently on at least a two-year agenda for an immediate short-term solution before a more permanent solution can take its course.
The writer is Associate Professor, Faculty of Hotel and Tourism Management, UiTM and President, Tourism Educators Association of Malaysia
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Times