ADUN SPEAKS | Govt must reform tourism strategy following ongoing outbreaks

ADUN SPEAKS | Following the decline in tourism due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the federal government should reflect on the reforms needed to change our local tourism sector and reformulate a series of development strategies for tourism in the new normal in the upcoming Budget 2021.

Visionary planning by the government is crucial to solve the structural problems of the tourism industry, to develop an integrated set of regulations about health and safety for the entire industry, as well as to usher in multidirectional innovation and recovery in the tourism industry.

In order to control and prevent the spread of the Covid-19 virus, many countries have implemented policies that unavoidably brought about devastating impacts to the global economy, such as restricting the spread of the virus at all costs, implementing quarantine measures, encouraging citizens to stay at home, and conditionally restricting people from travelling, eating out, and joining industry exhibitions and gatherings.

Among all, tourism is one of the most affected industries due to the implementation of many unprecedented measures and policies by different counties.

The outbreak of the new Covid-19 wave led to the re-implementation of the conditional movement control order (MCO) in regions such as Kuala Lumpur, Selangor, and Sabah. This has inevitably brought about severe challenges to business and impacted the domestic tourism industry that had just experienced slight improvement...