In a world full of uncertainty, there is at least one thing we do know for certain – it won’t be business-as-usual after this crisis.
The Covid-19 crisis has upended the status quo and left no part of life untouched. Business paused. Borders closed. Travel halted. Life won’t return to how it was before the pandemic; life will adjust to a new normal.
Even now, as businesses have gradually resumed operations during Malaysia’s conditional movement control order and the nation as a whole has begun looking towards recovery, there’s no doubt that travel and tourism remain among the hardest hit sectors.
The UN World Tourism Organisation estimates that international tourist arrivals could plunge by up to a third in 2020, and the World Tourism & Travel Council (WTTC) has found that one million jobs are being lost every day due to the virus. In Malaysia, the prime minister announced an expected loss of RM3.37 bil by the nation’s tourism sector from January and February 2020 alone.
But travel will recover. Travel is resilient and will return. Despite countless conflicts and calamities, tourism has continued to go from strength to strength. The number of tourist arrivals globally grew from just 25 million in 1950 to over 1.5 billion in 2019. Before the coronavirus emerged, the growth of the travel and tourism industry in the Asia-Pacific region had outpaced the regional economy for five straight years.
While the desire to travel remains undiminished, how people travel will be different. We expect the immediate future of travel will see demand for more local, longer, unique and value-for-money experiences. With long-haul international travel likely to be limited in the short term, people will look much closer to home for their holidays such as exploring off-the-beaten path destinations they haven’t visited domestically. The Malaysian government’s plans to promote Cuti-Cuti Malaysia will lend itself to driving domestic tourism, once interstate travel restrictions are lifted.
In this new tourism environment, it is important that industry players come together to ensure the sector’s recovery. Short-term rentals such as Airbnb listings can play an important role: In 2019, Airbnb’s host and guest community generated over RM3.7 bil (+24% yoy) in direct economic impact to Malaysia. More importantly, as travel recovers, 92% of hosts have told us they plan to host at least as often as before the pandemic once travel resumes. As the pandemic evolves from a public health crisis to an economic one, diverse tourism accommodations, including short-term rentals, put ringgits directly into Malaysians’ pockets.
An Airbnb survey revealed that 53% of Airbnb guests felt safer staying at an Airbnb, while 59% of Airbnb guests said they would have made a shorter trip if they were not able to stay at an Airbnb. With safety and cleanliness being top-of-mind for all travellers in the months ahead, Airbnb has also announced our new Enhanced Cleaning Protocol for cleaning and sanitisation, the first standardised set of guidelines of its kind in the home-sharing industry.
Regardless of how long the storm lasts, Airbnb is committed to continue being a good partner to governments and local communities. We want to work hand in hand with them to rebuild the much-needed and critically important tourism industry. We have broadly welcomed the new guidelines for short-term accommodation which was recently released by the Malaysia Productivity Corporation. These guidelines take us one step closer to having clear sensible rules for short-term rentals. Federal and state governments looking to help tourism recover faster and stronger have an opportunity to use the guidelines as a starting point to implement regulatory stimulus and create jobs.
In the post-Covid-19 world, we believe that local and authentic travel powered by the Airbnb community will be an invaluable tool for helping grow and future-proof tourism in Malaysia and the rest of the region. We remain committed to working collaboratively to ensure the long-term, sustainable growth of short-term accommodation as well as the recovery of the local tourism industry. – June 6, 2020
Siew Kum Hong is Airbnb’s Regional Director for Asia Pacific based in Singapore.
