YANG di-Pertuan Agong Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah today called for the hard-hit tourism industry to be rehabilitated immediately to maintain the sustainability of the industry.

He said that post Covid-19-pandemic tourism norms must be designed to give the people the opportunity to go on holiday as well as to cultivate safe tourism for all.

“To achieve this goal, the focus should not only be given to domestic tourism, but also to explore opportunities to return foreign tourists to Malaysia as one of the efforts to further accelerate the recovery of the country’s tourism industry,” the King said in his speech at the opening of the first meeting of the fifth session of the 14th Parliament.

Tourism is one of the largest industries in Malaysia. However, the industry has faced uncertain times since Covid-19 hit the country. 

As more restrictions ease and with Malaysians nearly returning to normal daily life, he called on the government to be cautious when deciding to transit from pandemic to the endemic phase.

The King also applauded Putrajaya’s approach in its strategy moving forward, saying the decision to reduce the price of self-test kits would strengthen public health actions and community empowerment.

“Through this approach, the reopening of the economic and social sectors can be safely realised,” he said. 

Referring to Malaysia’s ranking in Nikkei’s latest Covid-19 Recovery Index, where it sits on 13th position, His Majesty said the positive number was due to the success of the nation’s immunisation programme. 

To further protect oneself from threats of new variants, Al-Sultan Abdullah urged all Malaysians to get their booster doses.

“To maintain immunity at the optimal level and as a defensive measure against the threats of new variants, I call on my people to get the booster dose under the ongoing Covid-19 Immunisation programme implemented by the government,” he said.

Latest data shows 14,578,408 individuals or 62% of the country’s adult population have received the Covid-19 vaccine booster, while 22,948,424 individuals or 97.5% have completed their vaccination and 23,228,204 individuals or 98.7% have received at least one dose. – February 28, 2022.