IT will be impossible for the tourism sector to survive estimated losses of RM100 billion this year due to the Covid-19 pandemic without a solid plan for its survival by the government, former finance minister Lim Guan Eng said.

Citing the estimated losses by Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister Nancy Shukri, Lim said the measures under Budget 2021 and one-off payments to the sector’s players were of little long-term help.

Instead, the Perikatan Nasional government should increase assistance and target sub-groups within the industry such as tourist guides, in-bound and outbound tourist agencies, express bus operators and hoteliers.

“For an industry in severe distress, a higher wage subsidy based on percentage should be offered instead of the monthly RM600, such as 50% for employees earning up to RM4,000 a month and 30% for employees earning between RM4,001 and RM8,000. 

“Pakatan Harapan has also suggested earlier there should be an increase in monthly welfare assistance to RM1,000 including the unemployed. One-off payments are just band aid to the unemployed and do not help the players to survive and remain in the tourism industry when it recovers,” the DAP secretary-general said in a statement.

He reiterated calls for an automatic extension of the bank loan moratorium, excluding the top 20, as well as adding a RM500 wage and RM300 hiring incentive every month to create more job opportunities for locals.

An additional RM10 billion in financial aid should also be given to small and medium enterprises especially in the tourism industry, added Lim, who is also Bagan MP. 

Lim also said the ministry was being an “ostrich in the sand” by predicting the average hotel occupancy for this year will be 61.1% and 58.4% next year.

“How can the ministry stick to its projections of 61.1% hotel occupancy for 2020 when the tourism industry faces RM100 billion in losses this year?  

“Such false and unrealistic rosy projections will damage public confidence that the government knows how to do its job to save our tourism industry,” he said.  

Lim also added that the industry is the biggest victim of the nation’s triple crisis of political instability, economic recession and the Covid-19 pandemic.  

He said the government’s failure to address these issues have had the country’s sovereign credit ratings downgraded by Fitch ratings agency.  

“Failure to address the triple crisis has contributed to Malaysia suffering the humiliation of being the first Asean country to have our sovereign credit ratings being downgraded by Fitch ratings agency, the first time since the 1997/98 Asian Financial Crisis,” he said. – December 19, 2020.