: The Malaysian Budget and Business Hotel Association’s plan to increase their members’ hotel rates by up to 40 percent over the next three months would hurt the tourism industry in the long term.said increasing the rates should not be the solution to be considered in facing the rising operational cost or threats as claimed by the association.
He was commenting on a statement by MyBHA president, Sri Ganesh Michiel last Saturday that Sarawak budget hotels would raise their rates if nothing was done to tackle activities that threatened their businesses. Abdul Karim said his ministry as well as the Federal Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Arts had worked hard to organise over 200 events yearly to attract tourists to come into Malaysia, which in turn has benefitted the hotel industry.
“They have to stay somewhere, even without you doing the marketing . The industry is thriving. Bersyukurlah,” he said.