KUALA LUMPUR: The recovery trajectory for the Malaysian travel sectors will remain long, however, the availability of Covid-19 vaccine will boost recovery for the sector in the first or second quarter of next year.
Digi Telecommunications, Digi-X business development Azwar Osman said the news of effective vaccines against coronavirus that are being rolled out will raise hopes that international and business travel will soon go back to normal.
Azwar is optimistic that once these vaccines get distributed, people's perceptions will change toward positive, as they would feel more safe to travel again.
"You know when you are going out somewhere to the place that has been vaccinated, it will give you a sense of security and assurance that you are actually being protected," he said at the Digi's virtual webinar on the topic of Covid-19 Business Travel.
Meanwhile, TruTrip co-founder Pinky Tham said domestic travel in Malaysia had a consistent recovery since April, 2020, amid the travel ban and restrictions imposed in the country.
TruTrip is a business travel management tool that provides companies with an online tool to book, manage and approve their business travels.
According to data gathered by TruTrip, Tham said over 6 million Malaysians have travelled since April.
"This shows that travel has been happening and necessary in Malaysia. Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) had also reported that this steady increase of travellers is a sign that the public is gaining confidence in the sector.
"Of course when we compare with other countries, we see a huge difference with Malaysia being behind. This is because, while the UK and US started their recovery, Malaysia is a flatline because of a more cautious approach," she said.
She said there are certain barriers that travellers need to overcome to start travelling including health and safety, financial risk and cost management.
"However, these barriers can be overcome with preparation. Knowing the health risk and travel requirements will help to build confidence among travellers.
"It is also important to minimise the cost caused by travel disruption by having a more dynamic solution - smart travel policy and flexible travel cancellation," she said.
Tham also said there are new challenges and significant changes in the travel sector, thus leveraging technology for business travel during a pandemic is important.
She said the use of technology to modernize operations and improve tourism efficiency with an emphasis on providing safety to travellers is important.
"This includes smart experiences across the customer journey, such as personalised real-time safety alerts and contactless interactions that promote sanitation and safety.
"For example, with TruTrip, we always help people to overcome legacy issues such as time spent on administration, booking fee, manual agent booking.
"TruTrip will be getting you the latest real time health and safety statistics as well as giving people the empowerment - travellers do prefer to book travel themselves," she added.