TOURISM bookings have not been flowing in as expected, despite relaxations for vaccinated Malaysians to holiday within the same state, industry players said.

Only lifting the interstate travel ban will help the industry recover, as people find this more attractive than taking a holiday within their own state, they added.

Malaysia Budget and Business Hotel Association (MyBHA) national president Emmy Suraya Hussien said response has been slow, even in states in Phase 2 of the national recovery plan.

“Not many people will travel for a holiday unless it is to other states, then we will see an improvement in bookings,” she told The Malaysian Insight.

She said one reason for the reluctance, even among fully people, is the worry that not all hotel staff may have completed their Covid-19 vaccination.

“Not all employees have been double dosed. The Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture previously promoted vaccination at certain island attractions, but there are still hotels in urban areas where staff have yet to be so,” Emmy said.

Effective August 10, tourism businesses such as staycations at homestays and hotels within the same state, are allowed for those who are vaccinated.

This is defined as having had two doses of a Covid-19 vaccine and completing a 14-day wait for the vaccine to be effective, or 28 days for those who received single dose vaccines.

Emmy said MyBHA members reported that there was a slight uptick in bookings when restrictions were first relaxed, but that has since dropped.

To worsen the situation, some Phase 2 states, where tourism within the state was allowed prior to the relaxation for the fully vaccinated, are now seeing a surge in Covid-19 infections.

Phase 2 states are Kelantan, Pahang, Terengganu, Sabah, Perak, Penang and Negri Sembilan.

“People are worried, even those in Phase 2 states, because of the increase in cases,” she said.

Malaysian Inbound Tourism Association (Mita) president Uzaidi Udanis agreed that there has been no obvious demand in the market despite the relaxations.

“Negri Sembilan has just entered into Phase 2 and people can visit Port Dickson, but the response remains to be seen. Let’s wait for another week or two,” he said.

Some hotels are also not rushing to open fully for the same reasons many eateries are not accommodating dine-ins for vaccinated people, despite being allowed to do so.

Uzaidi said restaurants were still opting to offer takeaways or deliveries only to avoid the risk of infection.

Lack of manpower and avoiding other risks factors, such as fines for slip-ups, are also reasons.

“A restaurant may not have enough workers to fulfil all the check-in requirements for customers and this carries a risk of a fine,” he said, referring to the need for temperature checks, and checking customers’ risk status and digital vaccination certificate on the MySejahtera app.

In the case of hotels, it is even harder to reopen, and plan the manpower and other operational requirements when customer interest is uncertain.

“Even if hotels want to launch promotions, it will not be immediate. They are still preparing and it will take some time.”

Nevertheless, Uzaidi said it was still good that the government has allowed tourism within the same state as the hotel industry cannot effort to stay closed for longer.

“There will be more disadvantages if we delay further, so we must open as soon as possible and try our best to recover.”

Malaysian Chinese Tourism Association (MCTA) president Albert Tan also said only interstate travel will help the tourism industry begin the road to recovery, but he agreed that this must wait until the Covid-19 epidemic in hard-hit states improves.

“When the pandemic situation improves, then the tourism industry can feel confident about launching promotions.

“Once domestic tourists feel safe, this will give confidence that we can resume foreign tourism again.”

Tan added that the Langkawi tourism bubble, scheduled to start in September, is an important trial run for tourism hubs in other parts of the country to learn from.

The Langkawi bubble was announced by Muhyiddin Yassin while he was interim prime minister on August 15.

It will allow only vaccinated people from other states to enter the duty-free island once 80% of its population is also vaccinated.

Travel website Lifestyle Asia said the Langkawi Development Authority is making plans to launch the tourism bubble soon as the 80% target is expected in the first week of September. – August 30, 2021.