GEORGE TOWN – Travel groups are calling for the green light to be given to vaccine recipients to help rejuvenate domestic tourism, sidestepping the recently announced National Recovery Plan.
Malaysian Association of Hotels Penang chapter chairman K. Raj Kumar said the government should allow those vaccinated – be it with a single- or double-dose jab – to travel as the industry has been “bleeding” since the movement control order in March last year.
“The government should allow at least two people to travel if it is worried about allowing group travel. It will be fatal to the hospitality and tourism industry if the government follows its recovery road map that is dependent on the daily Covid-19 caseload.”
Raj Kumar said this during an event with the Penang Convention and Exhibition Bureau over Zoom today.
For example, he said, the UK provides an 80% wage subsidy while Australia pays A$1,500 (RM4,681.21) per fortnight and Singapore’s wage subsidy is at 75%, but Malaysia is only paying RM600 per staff until this month.
“Hotel owners paid full salaries last year and many took loans to cope. But how long can this last? Hotels are not made to survive on selling hawker food.”
He hopes the government will reopen the hotel industry by the end of July or early August.
He also urged the government to vaccinate those in the hospitality trade to ensure they are ready to work when the industry reopens.
Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin unveiled a four-phase National Recovery Plan on June 15.
He had said the plan will be based on data and refer to three primary indicators.
“The first indicator is community spread, based on daily cases. The second is ICU (intensive care unit) bed capacity. The third is the percentage of the population that has been fully vaccinated.” – The Vibes, June 22, 2021
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