He said that at present, different countries have different sets of protocols and SOPs in engaging the pandemic, with few travel bubbles, which has made travelling difficult.

“Of course, the challenge now is to adjust the protocols according to the uncertainties and occurrence of new variants but instead of adjusting, we need to standardise SOPs across Asean countries and also work together with corporate and private sectors,” he said during a virtual webinar titled ‘Asean Tourism Webinar 2021: Outlook and Pathways to Recovery’ today.

He was of the view that continued discussion was required in terms of understanding the proper and accurate technology when addressing SOPs across the border within Asean.

“For example, AirAsia came up with the super app recently, and we are going to have our own digital passport which will allow all our passengers to upload their certificates and Covid-19 test results into the app,” he said.

Riad said AirAsia would also be working with other partners in the region to standardise the requirements and to make sure that the information provided was valid and authentic.

“Furthermore, I think proper outlines with consistency across the region would make travelling much easier, enabling the tourism industry to recover from all the setbacks caused by the pandemic,” he added.

Malaysia witnessed a massive drop in international tourist arrivals last year, which plummeted to 4.33 million compared to 26.1 million in 2019.

Tourist receipts also plunged by 85.3% to RM12.67 billion in 2020 from RM86.1 billion in 2019, while the average per capita expenditure amounted to RM2,928.40, down by 11.3% from RM3,300.40 in 2019.

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