John Teo, chairman of the Malaysian Association of Hotels, Sarawak said only foreign hotel guests have to pay a flat fee of RM10 tourism tax per room per night.

“But, we haven’t had any foreign tourists visiting Sarawak for a year. Thus, we are not getting anything from the exemption of the tourism tax announced under the Pemerkasa stimulus package,” he told FMT.

He said the exemption of services tax for hotel accommodation did not benefit everyone in the industry as occupancy rates in hotels were low.

“Most of the hotels are not getting guests as a result of the ban on inter-district and inter-state travel, except those which have been used as quarantine centres,” he said.

Teo said the one-off grant of up to RM3,000 for tourism agencies and RM600 one-off payment for homestay entrepreneurs, could only ease some of their financial burdens temporarily.

“It is not that we don’t appreciate what the government has allocated.

“But, we really need a more holistic approach to stay afloat, such as to allow interstate travel in more areas or to create travel bubbles with other countries,” he said, adding that it must be done without compromising the health of locals and tourists.

With Sarawak continuing to record three-digit figures of new Covid-19 cases daily, he doubts if there will be light at the end of the tunnel in the next few months.

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