KOTA KINABALU: Foreign tourists planning to visit Sabah are encouraged to buy a comprehensive travel insurance plan to cover medical costs and hospitalisation, including for Covid-19 infection.
Sabah Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Jafry Ariffin said the objective of having travel insurance was to make sure the tourism industry was able to survive when the international borders reopen.
As of now, he said, the state government only allows domestic tourism activities to be carried out, while the proposal to implement the Malaysia-Singapore vaccinated travel lane (VTL) to Sabah was still under discussion.
He also suggested that Sabah should be given the option to implement the travel bubble concept.
"We need to work together as a team to revive the tourism industry and to bring it back as one of the main contributors to the state's economy," he said.
Jafry said this in welcoming recommendations by the National Recovery Council (NRC) headed by former prime minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin that the country's borders be opened as early as March 1 without the need for mandatory quarantine.
He said stricter standard operating procedures (SOP) should be put in place when the country's borders reopen to curb the spread of the Omicron variant in the country.
He added that these stricter SOP needed to be prepared by the National Security Council (NSC) and the Health Ministry and further defined with industry players.
"The reopening of the country's borders needs to be done as soon as possible as Sabah needs an international market to revive the tourism sector," said Jafry.
He said his ministry was also ready to hold engagement sessions with all stakeholders, including industry players.
"We need to prepare early to formulate promotional and marketing campaigns to ensure the foreign tourists will choose Sabah as their holiday destination," he said.