KUALA LUMPUR: The government should do away with the requirement to "check-in" at premises using the MySejahtera application as the country begins its phase of transitioning into endemicity in April.
The Centre for Market Education (CME) chief executive officer, Dr Carmelo Ferlito, said the mandatory use of MySejahtera would hamper the revival of international tourism, since it would discourage senior citizens and those reluctant to have their movements tracked, from visiting Malaysia.
Carmelo also urged the government to only require tourists to undergo the Reverse Transcription-Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) tests before departure and not subject them to RTK-Ag (Antigen Rapid Test Kits) tests upon arrival.
Without these two measures, Carmelo said Malaysia will be unable to boost tourism to pre-pandemic levels, and consequently impede economic growth and revival of employment.
"The Malaysian tourism industry is looking with great expectations at the reopening of international borders which is scheduled at the beginning of April.
"In fact, the tourism industry has been battered by prolonged closures and lockdowns, seeing international visitors drop from 26 million in 2019 to 4.3 million in 2020 (and revenue from RM 86.1 billion to RM 12.7 billion).
"While the border reopening is a step in the right direction, it still presents too many obstacles to make Malaysia an attractive destination for mass tourism.
"Harsh measures (that were imposed previously) have not prevented Malaysia from recording poor scores in terms of Covid-19 deaths per million people at the regional level.
"Despite the highest vaccination rate, the longest lockdowns and closure of international borders (accompanied by severe domestic movement restrictions) and the highest compliance to face masks mandates, Malaysia recorded 1,044 deaths per million people, while Indonesia stands at 553, the Philippines at 520, Vietnam at 425 and Thailand at 349.
"Since current restrictions play a very limited role to rein in the pandemic, CME proposes the following measures to the government.
"Firstly, RTK at arrival should be dropped, while the PCR test prior to departure, which already represents an important cost for tourists, should be sufficient.
"Secondly, MySejahtera should disappear once and for all, to give back citizens and visitors their freedom of movement, in respect for their individual privacy.
"These steps will move the country in the right direction of a true border reopening. Otherwise, the tourism industry will just be illuded, not revived," he said in a statement.
If other Southeast Asian countries insist on retaining testing requirements, Carmelo said the region's reputation as a key tourism market will eventually wane off.
"Imagine if a family of four from France that wants to visit Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand. Each family member will have to undergo a series of PCR and RTK-Ag tests, during their entry and exit from each country.
"Currently, the price for PCR tests is between USD100 and USD200 per person, and this significantly increases a family's travel budget.
"Instead of paying the additional testing cost, the family would rather opt to travel to countries within Europe. So, Southeast Asia is the biggest loser in terms of tourism revenue here.
"Over the last two years, the Covid-19 pandemic has taught us that non-pharmaceutical intervention does virtually nothing to contain the virus. It is, therefore, pointless to retain such measures any longer," he added.
Malaysia is set to reopen international borders on April 1. Both Malaysia and Singapore also agreed on Thursday, to remove all testing and quarantine requirements for fully vaccinated travellers that commute between both countries via land.