But this year, the raging Covid-19 pandemic has hit the tourism industry the hardest, with the usual tourist hot spots eerily quiet with no visitors.

Azhar Aziz, a tour guide, said he misses engaging with the foreign tourists he used to host. He would crack jokes and even dance on their tour buses.

“I loved that joyful feeling. When they were happy, I was also happy. They come to Malaysia to have fun, not to be stressed out. We are the ones who could make them all the happier,” he said.

The country’s borders have been closed since March as a measure to curb the spread of Covid-19. Many expect the tourism sector to only recover in the second quarter of next year, with less optimistic observers pushing it further to 2023.

The new norms mean no tourists, and for those like Azhar, it also means no work. This affects many in the tourism sector, including guides, tour bus drivers, tourism agencies and airlines.

Nadira Mohsin, 33, had not expected the pandemic to last this long, with the tour guide losing her main source of income since the flow of tourists stopped.

“I feel sad and stressed just looking at the dire situation we’re in now. When there are no tourists, we have no income. With no income, all our arrangements are disrupted and we can’t fulfil our commitments,” she said with a sigh.

“As tour guides, the months of October to December were the peak periods.

“We would get so busy that sometimes we won’t even get to go home. Even if we do, it would be just to grab a fresh change of clothes,” she said, reminiscing about the pre-pandemic days.

Tourism accounted for an estimated 3.5 million job opportunities in 2018, 23.5% of the total workforce in the country, with many of them being tour guides.

In 2018, there were 15,363 tour guides compared with only 567 in 1972. However, Covid-19 has changed the landscape of the industry even on the global stage.

Nadira was grateful for the one-off aid measures she had been receiving from the government but questioned how the long-term burden of others would be taken care of.

“I’m grateful because I still live with my family, but some of my other friends have five kids and some are single mums. Their situation is bad,” she said.

With tourism expected to be the last sector to fully recover from the pandemic, Azhar hoped that the government will find a way to temporarily sustain the livelihoods of workers while they wait for the industry to recover.

“When all this is over, I will still go back to being a tour guide. It’s been my interest since I was in school,” said Azhar, who now works as a personal assistant to a local celebrity.

Meanwhile, Nadira hopes that efforts to restore the industry will include the necessary safety aspects in order to attract tourists back to Malaysia.