WHEN Malik Ben reopened his cendol stall in George Town’s heritage zone soon after the movement-control order (MCO) was lifted, there were few customers at his shop.

Today, there are times when there are not enough seats to cater to the crowd who have returned after Malaysia reopened interstate travel to private vehicles two weeks ago.

The return of tourists, said Malik and other business operators, have sparked hopes that they can recoup some of the money they lost when the MCO was enforced on March 18 to fight the coronavirus.

“When I first reopened, there were not that many customers who came because there was still no interstate travel. We only depended on the locals,” Malik told The Malaysian Insight.

Malik is from the third generation of owners who run the Haji Chendul and Coconut Shake restaurant in front of the Lebuh Acheh mosque, a landmark in the old Malay enclave of the city’s heritage zone.

“But after two to three days, when interstate travel was allowed, people started filling up the shop and the street in front of it.

“I can now make about RM1,000 a day, especially on weekends,” said Malik, whose forefathers started the shop in 1925.

“Now there are so many customers that there are not enough seats for all of them.”

In 2017, Penang welcomed more than 2.02 million domestic tourists and 1.5 million international visitors, according to the Penang economic and development report.

Penang was listed by CNN as one of the best 17 places to visit in 2017.

The tourism sector was brought to a screeching halt when Malaysia imposed the MCO from March 18 to May 12, which was then replaced by the conditional MCO.

Although the CMCO allowed restaurants to accept diners, it still barred interstate travel, which affected domestic tourism.

On June 10, Malaysia reopened interstate borders again under the recovery MCO.

When that happened, bicycle rentals at Tan Teik Leong’s shop started to recover although he knows it will be some time before business returns to pre-MCO levels.

“Maybe business will fully recover at the end of the year or next year. In the past, I could rent about 100 bicycles a day but these days its only 50 to 60 bikes.

“But I am still happy compared to the past three months when we had no income at all,” said Tan at his store.

He increased his stock of bicycles in anticipation of Visit Malaysia Year 2020 but all that investment has been for naught.

“Covid-19 hit the whole world so we have to be patient and wait for the recovery.”

Although domestic tourists are starting to return, Penang will have to wait a lot longer for foreign visitors to come back.

Malaysia has closed its borders to non-citizens but is considering reopening them to Singapore, Brunei, New Zealand, Australia and South Korea.

Due to the drop in tourists, businesses relying on them have started scaling back their services and products.

Tan Teik Chuan, who peddles both coconut water and cendol, said he has scaled back on his drinks by more than 50%.

“Before the MCO, I could sell about 200 coconuts per day but in the two weeks after locals came back, I sold only 40. I also do not want to take on too much stock because we are slowly recovering.

“I think it will slowly go back to normal by year-end,” he said, adding that he was thankful to be open again.

Other types of businesses in the heritage zone, however, are still struggling to survive because locals have different priorities and tastes compared to international ones.

“The local tourists come here for food and they rent bicycles to get around,” said Jane, who runs a souvenir shop in Lebuh Acheh.

“I’ve gotten some customers but not enough to make my money back,” she said, observing that locals are not that interested in trinkets. – July 1, 2020.