THE Malaysian travel and tourism sector has been landed quite a blow since the COVID-19 pandemic, and even now – a year and a half later – the outlook for the sector remains highly uncertain.
Tourism- and travel-dependent businesses are particularly struggling as the Government, along with its counterparts around the world, took measures to contain the spread of the virus by closing borders.
There were massive job and revenue losses all around. Many hotels shuttered, while travel agencies and tourism-related businesses, including travel agencies and tour operators folded as their funds dried up.
Malaysia Aviation Group (MAG), through the recent introduction of Journify, hopes to give the local travel and tourism industry a much-needed boost once the opportunity arises.
Journify is an integrated one-stop travel and lifestyle digital platform that focuses on providing end-to-end travel solutions to complement its established strength and expertise in the airline and aviation services businesses.
“In essence, the platform is created to help boost the travel segment. This is made possible by providing them access to information and knowledge to ‘discover’ places of interest that suit their own needs, facilitating them to ‘plan’ for a customised and bespoke experience.
“Meanwhile, the digital marketplace allows people to ‘shop’ for the products and services that are more lifestyle and travel related,” MAG Group CEO Captain Izham Ismail told FocusM.
With the COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing lockdowns impacting many businesses, Journify supports the local businesses and tourism sector holistically by providing them with the platform to create awareness of their businesses among Malaysians and reconnecting them with the right audience or market.
According to Captain Izham, Journify will soon offer the opportunity for homegrown merchants to list their products or services for sale.
“With this feature added, we hope the local merchants could grow their businesses’ exposure further, thus contributing to the turnaround of the domestic economy,” he said.
While the company’s Malaysia Airlines offers flights and MHholidays offers holidays and tours, Journify aims to offer the rest of it – all with an emphasis on Malaysian businesses. – July 14, 2021
