THE hotel industry expects to gradually recover after the government lifted restrictions on Covid-19 standard operating procedures (SOP), Malaysian Association of Hotels president N. Subramaniam said.

He said it would be realistic for the industry to take more than one year to operate on a pre-epidemic level.

“It may take about a year to recover and we will have to wait, if we want to see the occupancy rates go up to 60-80%,” Subramaniam told The Malaysian Insight.

He said currently, the hotels are nearly full because of the Hari Raya Aidilfitri festive season.

This, he said, was due to the reopening of state borders and easing of restrictions.

“We cannot predict what the increase in occupancy rate will be in the coming months. We will only know after the Hari Raya period,” he said.

“During this festive season, most of the hotels in the east coast, Malacca and Penang are enjoying high occupancy rates.”

He said the hotel industry relies on foreign tourists and they are yet to arrive here in big numbers.

“Mostly, we can see some tourists coming from Singapore and Thailand as well as a small number of them from other countries,” he said.

Subramaniam said the SOP should be simplified for foreign tourists to understand and adhere to.

Last month, Malaysia reopened its borders as the country transitioned to the endemic Covid-19 phase with the government relaxing the SOP.

There will be no more restrictions on the movement of the unvaccinated, opening hours and mass gatherings while physical distancing will no longer be required during prayers.

During the epidemic, the tourism industry was arguably the most affected economic sector and desperately needed to generate revenue.

The domestic market is the industry’s only hope to survive until international tourism recovers.

Shortage of workers

Subramaniam also said there is a shortage of workers in the service industry.

“Many have moved to other industries over the past two years,” he said.

“Moreover, the new minimum wage of RM1,500 has also aggravated the situation.

“We understand that many hotels have applied to employ migrant workers but are yet to receive approval from the authorities.”

He said the association is planning to send another memorandum to the government to consider extending the wage subsidy scheme for another six months as the hotel industry has been most affected since the onset of the epidemic.

“The government can also support the hotel industry by holding its functions and seminars at hotels,” he said.

Subramaniam said the association has about 1,000 members but since the epidemic struck, about 150 hotels have closed. – May 7, 2022.