KUALA LUMPUR, Apr 19 — Tourism industry players must already start planning on how to attract visitors once the Covid-19 outbreak is contained, as the industry is only expected to bounce back in 12-18 months, former Malaysian Association of Tour and Travel Agents (Matta) president Datuk Ngiam Foon said today.
He said there should be several provisions in place to provide assurances to travellers that it’s safe to visit the country as well as provide them with the option of cancelling their plans in case of any unforeseen circumstances.
“It is important that any promotional activities should communicate the additional and subtle message that Malaysia is a safe destination from a health safety perspective.
“The obvious starting point is to promote and sell domestic tour packages. This will easily allow travellers time to adjust to the new reality in light of the hygiene protocols,” said Ngiam in a statement.
“After a few months with no deterioration in the Covid-19 situation during this period, travellers will feel more confident in venturing further across to neighbouring countries.
“Hopefully they will take their long haul holidays when the situation in the destination countries is stable,” he said.
Ngiam said tourism industry players should first target the free and independent travellers and small private groups. While for regional travel he said stakeholders should be involved in managing tourists expectations and work together on health safety protocols.
“This will ensure consistency across all touch-points from the time of arrival to time of departure and would involve all relevant government agencies like Tourism Ministry, Tourism Malaysia, Immigrations and Health Ministry and private sector stakeholders like hotels, public transportation, travel agencies, attractions and retail outlets,” said Ngiam.
“The private sector industry players need to be proactive to work together across the supply chain to come up with a free of admin charge cash refund policy allowing last-minute cancellations of bookings by the travellers.
“This will go a long way towards encouraging more bookings.”
The outbreak of the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) has hit the nation’s tourism sector hard, with an expected loss of RM3.37 billion within the first two months of the year.
As a result, Malaysia’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth for the year is expected to shrink as much as 0.8 to 1.2 points, with a total potential loss of up to RM17.3 billion.
