PUTRAJAYA: The Malaysian Association of Hotels (MAH) has revealed total cancellations of 95,972 bookings following the novel coronavirus outbreak, amounting to RM40 million in losses of revenue up to Feb 9.
“We are tracking cancellations from our member hotels and the number is growing every day. Most of the cancellations are up to the end of February this year, with the majority originating from China.
“There are also cancellations from local Malaysians, from Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, Vietnam, Korea and other countries,” said MAH president Kamaruddin Baharin in a statement today.
He cited concerns over worries linked to the disease outbreak although the situation in Malaysia remained under control.
“People are afraid to travel and that is a problem, despite the situation in Malaysia being well under control and we remain safe for tourism.”
MAH also revealed that a meeting with tourism stakeholders was held at the Finance Ministry today over a stimulus package for the sector to cushion the impact of the novel coronavirus outbreak.
It said the package would be similar to the budgetary programme implemented in 2003 to mitigate the effects of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome on the economy. The previous package was valued at RM7.3 billion.
Also present at the meeting was Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister Datuk Mohamaddin Ketapi.
“The tourism industry came to a halt when China first barred its citizens from travelling on Jan 26 at the height of the Chinese New Year holidays.
“Subsequently various similar restrictions were put in place by other countries to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus.
“Malaysia remains open for Chinese tourists, except for those originating from cities currently locked down by the Chinese government.
“The consensus in the meeting is to ensure industry survival during this period, and to retain Malaysia’s tourism capacity and capability, geared for recovery, hopefully by the third quarter of 2020,” MAH said.
In the same statement, MAH chief executive officer Yap Lip Seng said a slew of ideas was presented to both ministries, including on easing the industry stakeholders’ cash flow constraints.
“The ministers openly expressed willingness to consider a temporary suspension of certain mandatory contributions by tourism employers, as well as to introduce personal tax relief for individual Malaysians travelling within the country in 2020.
“We are also looking forward to the Finance Ministry’s review on reducing the rate of the tourism tax as an incentive to encourage international tourist arrivals, and possibly a temporary exemption of service tax for hotels as part of the Visit Malaysia Year’s initiative to counter the negative impact so far.”
MAH also said industry stakeholders were elated when Bank Negara “expressed positivity” for commercial banks and financial institutions to restructure and reschedule loans or hire purchase contracts for the tourism industry.
“It was recorded that commercial banks within its jurisdiction can offer moratorium from three to six months to its customers.”