Sabah tourism players urge govt to open up green zones to save ailing industry

By Paul Mu - May 25, 2021 @ 11:27am

KOTA KINABALU: Sabah tourism players backed the call by Malaysian Inbound Tourism Association (MITA) to start planning strategies now to revive the ailing industry while waiting for the Movement Control Order (3.0) to end.

Sabah Association of Tour and Travel Agents (SATTA) chairman Datuk Seri Winston Liaw said the association fully agreed and supported the proposals outlined by MITA to open up international borders to tourists who have been vaccinated.

"Tourism players have been suffering for 16 months without income to sustain their families. Government subsidies only help a little, maybe less than 10 per cent of their average spending or commitment.

"The only solution is to open interstate and international borders with strict and specially designed standard operating procedures (SOPs)," he told the New Straits Times.

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Liaw said when it comes to opening up borders, it should start with one or two green zones for a trial period and expand to more destinations when proven safe.

For that, he said the Transport Ministry should give preference and priority to Malaysian travel agents by considering point-to-point charter flights.

"Charter flight agreements should not be given to foreign travel companies as many take advantage to sabotage the local market by offering zero tour fares which is very unhealthy.

"Because of that practice, most travel agents were not making money the past few years. It is high time for the government to protect local tourism players."

As Penang has approved six direct charter flights to the state beginning November, Liaw also suggested the Sabah government also allow travel bubbles between green zones of China to Sabah as early as October 2021.

The Sabah Tourists Association (STA) chairman Tony Chew also concurred with the issues and challenges raised by MITA president Uzaidi Udanis.

Since the unfolding of the pandemic for almost one and a half years, he said tourism players still haven't seen any light at the end of the tunnel and the detection of Covid-19 Variant of Concern (VOC) recently has increased the number of positive cases in Malaysia.

Chew said perhaps the suggestion of a total lock down could be the solution to break the chain of infection.

Nevertheless, he said assistance from the government needs to be in place to help those badly impacted, especially those needy and stakeholders which provide millions of jobs during the total lockdown.

On the other hand, he believes a holistic measure with standard operating procedures (SOP) and safety mechanisms should be established to gain the confidence of foreign tourists and convince them of the opportunities of a bilaterally open border.

By establishing more such bubbles and eventually enough to form green channels that provide a green linkage between those bubbles, tourists can transit within such ecosystems with a minimum risk, he said.

Meanwhile, Malaysian Association of Tour and Travel Agents (MATTA) Sabah Chapter chairman Lawrence Chin said the only way out of this Covid-19 difficulty in Sabah is for the people to be fully or at least 90 per cent vaccinated.

"Currently only 17 per cent of the Sabah population have registered for vaccines which is one of the lowest compared to other states.

"We urge the Sabah government to get more vaccination doses for Sabahans directly to reduce the spike in infections compared to our neighbouring states or even countries," Chin said.

MITA had among others suggested Malaysia to look at and study other country's best practices, such as Qatar, the Maldives and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in preparation to reopen international borders.

The association also hoped that the National Security Council (MKN) would give the nod for the domestic travel bubble after the MCO, with travel bookings through travel agents only.

MITA also called for an automatic loan moratorium, with zero interest, for all loans until the end of the year to individual tourism players and tourism companies who had loan facilities before March 2020.