KOTA KINABALU: Addressing health-related concerns should be a top agenda as this is the underlying issue of many travellers' enquiries.
Tourism Malaysia chairman Datuk Seri Ramlan Ibrahim said these are the common concerns expressed by both domestic and international travellers.
"Tourism Malaysia will continue to engage with our international partners that we are eager to resume business once Malaysia's international borders are opened.
"At the moment, Langkawi is a pilot test for international travel to Malaysia.
"The success of the programme would enable the government to open Malaysia as a whole with the appropriate standard operating procedures (SOP) in place," he said during a networking dinner with Sabah tourism players yesterday.
Ramlan hopes the remaining months of 2021 will be used to prepare and adjust to new demands and expectations. He urged industry players to calibrate strategies that will take the industry to the next level.
He said although the pandemic will eventually be classified endemic once vaccination had run its full course, it continues to hover over many matters.
He urged the tourism industry players to not let their guard down, he said.
He said the lifting of the interstate travel restriction on Oct 11, after the Health Ministry recorded 90 per cent of complete vaccination for the adult population, was a government effort to revitalise the tourism sector, and this was very much expected by the industry.
He said it was the government's intention to help with the recovery of tourism industry. He appreciated all industry players who have persevered during a most trying period.
"Let us walk hand-in-hand in our efforts to revive the tourism industry and restore it to the level it was prior to the pandemic," he urged.
Also present were Sabah Assistant Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Joniston Bangkuai, Tourism Malaysia deputy chairman Datuk Seri Dr Anil Jeet Singh Sandhu, Tourism Malaysia director general Datuk Zainuddin Abdul Wahab, Tourism, Arts and Culture Ministry Sabah director Ibrahim Othman and Sabah Tourism Board chief executive officer Noredah Othman.