THE ongoing interstate travel ban under the current movement-control order (MCO) has sounded the death knell for hotels in the country, said Malaysian Association of Hotels (MAH). 

The association said the longer the prohibition remains, more hotels will sooner rather than later be forced to close down for good. 

MAH chief executive Yap Lip Seng told The Malaysian Insight since the first MCO in March last year, more than 100 hotels have either closed temporarily or permanently. 

“More hotels will be forced to make a decision this year to close, due to the second MCO.   

“If the interstate travel ban is extended with no further assistance from the government, we expect to see more closures, between 10% and 20%, with more losing their jobs.”

The association has about 1,000 members nationwide and for every two weeks of MCO, the industry is expected to lose a minimum of RM300 million in revenue, said Yap.

The industry did see a rebound during year-end holidays last year with occupancy peaking at 43%, when interstate travel was allowed. 

However, this quickly disappeared with occupancy dipping below 20% when MCO 2.0 was imposed mid-January.  

Yap said many hotels nationwide were hugely impacted as borders are closed and local tourists minimal.  

“Hotels in the main cities are impacted mostly due to their dependency on international arrivals. 

“Hotels in popular domestic destinations like Penang, Langkawi, Perak and Pahang have also been suffering with no guests. 

“Sabah is also badly impacted with the surge in cases since late September,” he said. 

On Friday, the Malaysian Association of Hotel Owners called on the government to allow hotels to take guests in for room accommodation and meetings. 

Its president, Teo Chiang Hong, also hopes the government would lift the ban on interstate and inter-district travel, to revive domestic tourism. 

Since the borders are still closed to foreign tourists, hotels are depending wholly on domestic tourists to generate revenue.

“Otherwise, many hotels are no longer able to sustain their business or survive any longer. We expect to see a number of hotels closing down.” 

On January 25, Equatorial Hotel Penang said it will close effective March 31 given the adverse business conditions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

General manager Alan H.C. Ong said the last day of business has yet to be decided but it will be before March 31. 

Likewise, some popular hotels in Kuala Lumpur have also decided to shut down, including Royale Chulan in Bukit Bintang. 

Other hotels have redirected their focus to drive-through food and beverage sales to survive. 

Last November, Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister Nancy Shukri told the Dewan Rakyat a total of 204 tourism and hotel operators had closed their businesses since March. 

Yap said apart from voicing out the needs of the industry and updating on-the-ground situations to the government, MAH had also initiated the “Clean & Safe Malaysia” initiative.  

“The hygiene and safety certification is to prepare the industry to receive guests. 

“MAH had also collaborated with various partners, including Tourism Malaysia, for domestic promotions. We had also launched the domestic hotel stay campaign late December last year with government subsidy.”

On the ground, MAH initiated aid programmes for employees of the hotel industry and its own 0% commission hotel-promotion website and hotel job-listing website.

As for government assistance, Yap said Putrajaya launched a series of economic stimulus plans and assistance programmes, but it lacked any direct and dedicated support for tourism and the hotel industry.   

To facilitate tourism recovery, he said tourism and hotel employees must be given priority in the Covid-19 vaccination plan. 

This, he said, would build confidence and give assurance to inbound travellers when borders reopen. – February 14, 2021.