THE COVID-19 pandemic has caused an unprecedented crisis for the travel and hospitality industry, which came to a grinding halt when the Government took the necessary measures to contain the spread of the virus by closing borders.
This has resulted in massive job and revenue losses. Many hotels had shuttered in the past year or so, while a vast number of travel agencies and tourism-related businesses closed down as their funds dried up.
Amid the industry’s woes, what has become the most obvious in the past few months is certainly the deafening silence from the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture (MOTAC), especially on how the tourism industry can get back to its feet once the country achieves herd immunity from the pandemic and tourists start coming back.
Beyond the obligatory press statements on PEMERKASA and COVID-19, there has been silence all around on how the ministry is planning to help revive the ‘dying’ tourism industry.
Where is everybody? More importantly, where are your recovery policies, your plans to revive the tourism industry, and your strategies to provide support to keep tourism-related businesses afloat and sustain the industry in the long run?
The lack of manpower couldn’t possibly be an excuse for the silence. If memory serves, doesn’t the ministry have a new tourism deputy in the form of Datuk Guan Dee Koh Hoi?
What exactly is he doing to help the tourism industry in his capacity as deputy minister? He, too, has been strangely silent since his swearing-in ceremony in mid-April.
Following the announcement of the full movement control order recently, industry stakeholders have put in a slew of requests to reduce the burden on the domestic travel industry.
These include automatic loan moratorium, wage subsidies extension until year end, cancellation of the Travel & Tour Enhancement Course (TTEC) and financial assistance for travel agents affected by the continuous movement control order (MCO) and closure of state and international borders.
Sure, these requests are directed at the Government, but shouldn’t the ministry have a say in this matter as well, especially when it is concerning affairs under ministry’s purview?
And what have the stakeholders received in return, you ask? More silence, what else.
Nobody likes to be told to do their jobs, but it becomes necessary when the survival of millions of people employed in the industry is at stake due to the pandemic. Simply keeping mum until the dust settles isn’t going to help anyone any good. – June 18, 2021
