JOHOR BARU: As hotels here reel from cancellations brought on by the Covid-19 outbreak, senior executives from the industry spoke of an urgent need for the government to staunch the red ink that threatens to overwhelm their trade.
The executives say the only way for the industry to withstand the effects of the calamity of drastically reduced arrivals of tourists from China and the steep fall-off in weekend visitors from Singapore is to allow for a moratorium on a host of payments hoteliers have to make to the government and employees.
Assistant Front Office manager at New York Hotel, Mohamad Nurshafiq Zainudin, said the coronavirus outbreak has led to a tremendous drop in the hotel’s business.
“The number of guests visiting the hotel has dropped sharply up to 40 per cent of its capacity and the hotel’s revenue decreased 30 per cent compared to last year’s data report,” he said.
Nurshafiq said the hotel annually draws a huge number of tourists from Singapore, China, Japan and Vietnam and has come to depend heavily on this tourist influx.
He added that the Covid-19 outbreak has also resulted in the loss of many reservation groups, especially from China.
He said more cancellations are expected in coming weeks.
“What more, from websites, the hotel also suffered many cancellations, of up to 14.4 per cent or more than 292 rooms per night,” adding that some 12 events have been cancelled due to the coronavirus scare.
Jaz Zafina, general manager at Swiss Inn Hotel, said there has been a sharp decline in business because of a fall-off in arrivals of Chinese tourists who used to flock to Singapore and proceed to Johor Baru to continue their stay in Southeast Asia.
She also said the vast number of Singaporeans who used to visit Johor Baru and other tourists spots in the state over weekends has whittled down to a trickle.
Jaz said there has been a tremendous cancellation in bookings and this has meant patronage of the group’s hotel outlets has also plummeted.
Exacerbating the bleak prognosis is the actual cancellation if not reduction in scale of the Chingay Festival, the annual procession of Chinese deities through the Johor Baru town centre, a celebration that draws festival-goers from the smaller towns of the state. It was scheduled to be held on Feb 15, but the fear-ridden psychosis generated by the Covid-19 outbreak has chilled popular enthusiasm for the event.
Meanwhile, Malaysian Association of Hotels Johor Chapter secretary Yvonne Loh said to counter the impact of the epidemic, they plan to collaborate and organise familiarisation trips with the help of the Johor Tourism Association.
She said the familiarisation trips with various tourism players are aimed at targeting neighbouring tourist catchment areas like Batam, Manila and Singapore with special packages to visit Johor.
“Tourism Johor would help provide subsidies for local inbound packages and give more competitive rates for local transportation between Singapore and Johor,” she said.
To check the spread of the virus, she said most hotels are taking necessary measures like scheduled temperature checking of staff, groups and guests checking-in, and having transport on standby to rush sick guests to the nearest hospitals.
She urged hoteliers to ensure their staff use protective masks at all times and that there must be scheduled disinfectant cleaning of toilets, lifts and public areas.
Loh called on hoteliers not to impose any cancellation charges on pre-paid bookings.
She also urged the adoption of a positive outlook towards promoting Visit Johor Year (VJY) 2020, saying the dissemination of more information, knowledge and care is the path out of the crisis and a return to pre-epidemic levels of tourist arrivals in the state.