TOURISM industry players have taken up a new role as they wait for their sector to open up, acting as “vaccination ambassadors” in urging Malaysians to sign up to receive their Covid-19 jabs.

They believe that the faster Malaysians are vaccinated, the sooner the tourism sector can reopen.

“So instead of sitting and doing nothing, we rather go out and help the country reach its vaccination target,” said Malaysian Inbound Tourism Association (Mita) president Uzaini Udanis.

Uzaidi told The Malaysian Insight they would rather suffer now and help get as many people vaccinated than to face the prospect of another lockdown.

He said although the industry is bleeding money, having been dormant for the past 15 months, they understand the government’s need to push for the reopening of the tourism sector.

“We can see, this is a timeline for us (national recovery plan). Even (Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister) Nancy Shukri has indicated that we can open up for the domestic market in October, that’s the target based on the three barometers.

“We can’t help to reduce the number of cases or beds used in intensive care units, but we can help by getting more people to sign up to get vaccinated.

“We have volunteer teams at all the destinations to get people to sign up for the vaccine. They make home visits, text and WhatsApp to make sure their relatives and friends sign up,” Uzaidi told The Malaysian Insight.

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin announced the national recovery plan to steer the country out of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The plan will see the economy reopen in phases as the number of daily infections decrease, the burden on the healthcare system lessens and the percentage of population who have been fully vaccinated increase.

As of 5pm yesterday, 14,637,437 people have registered to be vaccinated.

A total of 5,330,654 individuals have been vaccinated, of whom 1,520,583 have received both doses while 3,810,017 have received the first dose.

Uzaidi said industry players are determined that this third lockdown is the last. They do not want a fourth or fifth lockdown.

He added that for tourism to return to pre-pandemic levels, it would take several years.

“We know that looking at this scenario, to go back to 2019, it will take a few years, on the conservative side, 2024. In the meantime we need to survive.”

According to data from Tourism Malaysia in 2019, the sector contributed RM86.14 billion to Malaysia’s gross domestic product and welcomed more than 26.1 million international tourists.

Allow fully vaccinated individuals to travel

Langkawi Tourism Bureau chairman Ahmad Pishol Ishak said the island is hoping to reopen by September by ramping up the vaccination rate.

“We are trying to get more of the people in Langkawi to be vaccinated. We are doing a campaign in our community to get them vaccinated as soon as possible.

“Once we have reached 80%, we want to speak to the government to allow fully vaccinated tourists back to the island.

“If they have the vaccine passport they can come, but they have to follow our standard operating procedure to make sure everything is in order,” he said.

He said Langkawi should look to the “Sandbox” method that is being used in Phuket, Thailand to allow tourists back.

“Langkawi is the best setup. It’s easy to control as there are only two ports of entry – the jetty and the airport.”

Phuket will launch its “Sandbox” scheme on July 1, which will see measures implemented at its international airport, three seaports and security checkpoints on the road leading to the island to curb the spread of Covid-19.

The scheme also requires tourists to have a vaccine passport, Covid-19 insurance policy and a location tracking wristband put on them.

Alternative jobs

Malaysian Association of Tour and Travel Agents president Tan Kok Liang said there is huge uncertainty in the sector, prompting many of them to turn to other businesses to survive.

“A number of our enterprising members are doing alternative business. They have become real estate agents, sell cakes, food, groceries, opened up cafes for the time being. Some have closed shop, some are hibernating,” he said.

Tan said the industry was an unfortunate victim of the pandemic and unless there is help from the government they may not be able to hold on.

“I don’t think the tourism industry can hold on any longer, subject to perhaps automatic loan moratoriums to tourism businesses and tourism workers for their loans. (And) of course, the extension of the wage subsidy.”

Uzaidi said many of Mita’s members have also ventured into other businesses to make ends meet.

“Our agents and our members are selling all kinds of things like blue-eyed anchovies from Langkawi, even durian and exporting them to China,” he said.

Meanwhile, Pishol said he has been selling ayam pasu (chicken roasted in a flower pot) to sustain himself for the past year. – June 19, 2021.