KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian Association of Tour & Travel Agents (Matta) has praised the 2020 Economic Stimulus Package announced by interim Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad today.
Its deputy president Mohd Akil Mohd Yusof said the RM20 billion economic stimulus package would help to boost domestic tourism which have been severely affected by low number of foreign tourist arrivals due to the Covid-19 outbreak.
“We are very happy that almost all our requests have been approved.
“We hope our current 3,500 members will make full use of the allocation to promote existing facilities, so that they are able to cope during the difficult period.
“The stimulus package will be able to boost hotel occupancy rate, which is already down 20 per cent to 30 per cent,” he said, at a press conference here today.
Mohd Akil also revealed Matta would be organising a special exhibition titled, Matta Fair “CutiCuti Malaysia” at Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre, from April 4 to 6, in efforts to promote domestic tourism.
Earlier today, Dr Mahathir announced the economic stimulus package in Putrajaya to address economic risks associated with Covid-19.
According to him, the package was anchored on three strategies, namely mitigating impact of Covid-19, spurring rakyat-centric economic growth and promoting quality investment.
The stimulus package offers Malaysians personal income tax relief of up to RM1,000 on expenditure related to domestic tourism; digital vouchers for domestic tourism of up to RM100 per person for domestic flights, rails and hotel accommodations through a RM500 million allocation, and additional matching grants for tourism promotion.
Dr Mahathir added the government would relax existing guidelines that restrict the use of hotels by government agencies in order to help compensate the reduced tourism demand.