The easing of interstate travel restrictions beginning Dec 7 provided a welcome reprieve for hotels and express bus operators who saw a jump in their businesses.
In the meantime, to reinvigorate the tourism sector and help tourism players to cope with the losses they have been enduring since the COVID-19 crisis struck Malaysia and the rest of the world, the government has provided a slew of near-term and long-term initiatives under the Short-Term Economic Regeneration Plan unveiled in June last year and National Tourism Policy 2020-2030 that was announced last month.
Many hotels nationwide enjoyed higher occupancy rates between June and September last year after RMCO was imposed nationwide and interstate travel was permitted. According to Emmy Suraya, since the start of the MCO last March, 20 percent of the estimated 2,300 budget hotels nationwide have been forced to either close down or stop their operations temporarily.
“Many hotel workers now have to do multitasking whenever their hotels receive heavy bookings,” she added.Peninsular Malay Express Bus Operators Association president Mohamed Kaharrudin Salleh said ticket bookings went up by 30 percent last month.