KUALA LUMPUR: The Langkawi International Travel Bubble (LITB) will continue to welcome foreign tourists until the country's borders are fully reopened.
The Tourism, Arts and Culture Ministry, in a statement today, said the Covid-19 Quartet Ministers Meeting agreed to extend the travel bubble after revising the standard operating procedures (SOP) based on the Health Ministry's latest requirement on Feb 8.
The latest SOP, that took effect yesterday, allows children aged 12 and below to enter the island with their fully-vaccinated parents or guardians, without having to show proof of vaccination.
Meanwhile, children below 2 do not have to undergo Covid-19 screening tests.
Fully-vaccinated tourists with boosters may now leave Langkawi on Day 5 if they test negative for Covid-19 using the Reverse Transcription-Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) on Day 4 or using the Antigen Rapid Test Kit (RTK-Ag) on Day 5.
Starting Feb 22, foreign tourists can also enter the island via domestic flights from klia2.
Foreign tourists are still required to purchase an insurance policy worth US$50,000 (Covid-19 and travel) for the duration of their stay.
This insurance policy can be purchased from a Malaysian or foreign insurance company before departure to Malaysia and can be packaged into a tourist package by tour operators or travel agents.
However, Malaysian citizens living abroad are exempted from this requirement.
The ministry said the LITB programme would be the benchmark for the reopening of Malaysia's international borders.
The LITB started off as a three-month pilot project on Nov 15 last year to assess the readiness and preparedness of Malaysia's tourism ecosystem to gradually receive international tourists in a safe manner.
The island received close to 90,000 visitors within the first 27 days of the travel bubble programme.