State Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Jafry Ariffin said the state was ready for such collaboration with other countries.

On the local front, Jafry, who is Sukau assemblyman, is planning to personally meet with tourism operators after the conditional movement control order (CMCO) ends to gather feedback on how to kick-start the sector.

“I want to hear for myself their grouses and worries because they are among the groups who are the most affected by the pandemic,” he said in a statement here today.

“We will see what we can do to help them in the recovery period post-Covid-19.”

The Sabah tourism industry recorded losses of RM320 million for January and February this year due to the pandemic.

Meanwhile, Jafry is confident his ministry will be able to help the state’s tourism industry recover.

He said the planned initiatives would follow guidelines recently issued by the United Nations World Tourism Organization on how to revive the sector.

One of the initiatives will involve the creation of an app that can store the health data of tourists and establish whether they are free from Covid-19.

He said the challenge, however, was that they needed cooperation from tourists to furnish such data and, at the same time, convince them that their personal information was secure.

Jafry said the government would also prioritise tourist comfort by upgrading facilities and infrastructure in the state.

“In the short term, we will upgrade existing tourism infrastructure and follow the SOPs recommended by the health ministry,” he said.

The tourism industry post-Covid-19 will definitely change, he said, as the sector will rely heavily on new technology.

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