Tourism Industry Shutting Down - How Do We Get Out Of This

First here is some news :

Another Melaka to shutter operations due to Covid-19

228-room The Emperor Hotel Melaka next casualty of pandemic

Covid-19 followed by MCO on March 18 this year impacted business

business no longer viable, " Lopez said in letter dated May 12, sighted by NST

Regretfully close business indefinitely," he added.

April 29 5 star Ramada Plaza Melaka cease ops June 30, due to Covid-19

294-room hotel 

My comments :

The private sector knows what to do. When times are bad the investment dries up. When times are better things will pick up again.

The question is how soon and with how much damage?

Conversely how can we minimise the damage?

How can we minimise the jobs lost, the supply chains disrupted, the cashflows impeded etc?

This is where good government planning will help. 

The government can give a tax holiday to the entire economy to assist the economy get back on its feet. This happened once under Dr Mahathir's first term as PM. I believe it was 1999 or thereabouts - during the Asian Financial Crisis. The government declared that Income Taxes were not payable for that year.

If we can lower the travel and arrival costs for foreign tourists to come to Malaysia that will certainly help promote foreign tourist arrivals. Travel and arrival costs means lower visa fees, faster processing times, lower landing charges at airports, no exit tax, lower airport taxes etc. Just lower everything. The international tour operators will then know what to do. They will package more affordable tours into Malaysia.  

And lets focus on those countries which have better spending capacity. China, Japan, South Korea, western Europe, the US, Canada, Australia etc. We want their visitors to come and spend money here.

Business is still grim. But with good planning we can shorten the recovery.