The Malaysian Association of Tour and Travel Agents (MATTA) and the Malaysian Association of Hotels (MAH) said the government had failed to address the need to sustain tourism businesses beyond the extension of the wage subsidy programme.
Matta president Tan Kok Liang said the government’s initiatives were “inadequate to empower the tourism industry” which was struggling to recover from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
He said the budget did not consider the welfare of 3.6 million tourism workers as well as small and medium enterprise (SME) tourism companies, adding that the allocation of RM50 million for maintenance works and overhaul of tourism facilities was not enough.
“Travel demands will continue to diminish with the ongoing travel restrictions until a vaccine is widely made available. The budget has failed to meet the needs of tourism enterprises, particularly SMEs, and does not address the key issue of protecting jobs.
“The outlook for the next 12 months is bleak and without the right support, we will inevitably see the industry contracting quickly and drastically,” he said in a statement.
Tan urged the government to reassess its wage subsidy programme to avoid further retrenchments, and to extend the loan moratorium up to June 2021.
Meanwhile, MAH president Yap Lip Seng said in a statement that the continued wage subsidy of RM600 per employee was insufficient, as the industry’s business had dropped by 80%.
Yap noted that Malaysia’s overall hotel occupancy rate had peaked over the Merdeka weekend at 42%, but dropped to 20% in the last week of October following the third wave of Covid-19 cases.
He welcomed the six-month levy exemption for the human resources development fund (HRDF), but said the industry needed further cash aid to sustain businesses.
“Without higher cash assistance to businesses and again leaving loan moratorium at the discretion of financial institutions and commercial banks, industry stakeholders especially hotels and travel operators are left stranded and will be forced to make difficult decisions as well as take drastic action to survive.”
He added that the government should also look at supporting airlines more, as it was an essential stakeholder for the industry.
“Malaysia cannot afford and should not allow anymore closures in the tourism industry or risk even higher cost of rebuilding the industry and losing tourism capacity leading to loss of revenue in the long run.”