Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Economy) Mustapa Mohamed said many things needed to be considered before a decision could be made.

“This proposal has been brought to the Economic Action Council. However, the government has yet to make a decision on the matter as it involves certain countries and there are things we need to do in a bilateral way before we can make an announcement.

“Of course, we need to be prepared. So we’re pretty positive when we look into this. Yes, it is definitely time for the travel bubble to happen,” he said in a television programme in Astro Awani last night.

Travel bubbles, also known as travel corridors, are agreements allowing countries that have successfully contained the Covid-19 outbreak to open their borders to each other, allowing free movement within the “bubble”.

Mustapa was asked whether the government would follow the path of New Zealand and Australia as well as several European countries in implementing a travel bubble as part of its bid to revitalise the tourism sector.

However, plans by Australia and New Zealand to implement a travel bubble presently face hurdles due to reports of new Covid-19 infections.

Canberra has also said that it will not open its borders to foreign tourists until next year.

Within the Asean region, Indonesia and Thailand are said to be interested in resuming cross-border travel.

At least 3.5 million direct and indirect tourism workers in Malaysia have been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

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