Malaysian Association of Hotels president N Subramaniam said while the industry would be “happy if borders were to open earlier”, he acknowledged that hotels would not be fully prepared to welcome guests just yet.
Subramaniam said the Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent movement restrictions affected the tourism and hotel industry, with many hotel staff seeking job opportunities elsewhere.
Their departure further aggravated an existing manpower shortage caused by a myriad of reasons including a lack of interest in the industry due to the perception it was a “dirty, dangerous and difficult” job.
In some cases, former employees were reluctant to return to the industry due to uncertainties, including further travel bans and safety concerns among housekeepers over possible exposure to Covid-19 when cleaning rooms.
“We need more workers and to do this we need attractive packages to bring them back. We need to attract the unemployed to the hotel line and change the perception that it is a 3D job,” he told FMT.
Subramaniam also said the association had spoken to Nancy Shukri, the tourism, arts and culture minister, about allowing more foreign workers to come in to fill the vacancies as well as an extra wage subsidy to entice more to return to the hotel line.
Donal Crotty, the general manager of the Irish Chamber of Commerce in Malaysia, said although the country had done well to vaccinate the vast majority of its population, it had yet to reap the benefits of doing so.
“We are ahead of so many countries in the region in terms of vaccination, yet we are still behaving as if only 40% of the population has been vaccinated. We must open up the international borders for the sake of the economy. Thailand and Indonesia have already begun opening up.”
According to the New York Times vaccination tracker, Thailand and Indonesia have only achieved a 50% and 30% fully vaccinated rate compared to Malaysia’s 77%.
Crotty said the benefits of opening up the country went beyond the direct economic benefits of tourist and traveller dollars.
“It’s about the message that you are sending to people in the country and the world. The reopening of international borders is a statement of confidence. We need to give people confidence. Vaccinations, SOPs, those are all part of the new normal. We should not be living in a condition of fear,” he said.
He believed the border closure was a reason that the economy had yet to really pick up despite the country being in recovery mode
National Recovery Council chairman Muhyiddin Yassin said recently that international borders should be reopened by Jan 1 at the latest.
“Even this is too long a wait,” said Crotty. “It’s not about 2022 or January 1. It’s about now. Every day that the borders remain closed, tens of thousands, especially those in the tourism, F&B and entertainment sectors, are jobless, making big losses and risking their futures.”