KUANTAN: The Malaysia Budget Hotel and Business Association (MyBHA) has urged state governments to follow in the footsteps of the federal government in providing assistance to the tourism and hospitality industry to help its players get back on their feet.
Its deputy president Dr Sri Ganesh Michiel said state governments along with government agencies should emulate efforts taken by the federal government to offer initiatives to help those in the already hard hit industry.
"Contributing and providing initiatives to the tourism and hospitality industry players will certainly have greater impact in efforts to revitalise the sector. We need support from all quarters and agencies.
"The government should realise the move to close the country's and state borders has contributed to zero domestic tourism and a significant drop in hotel guest numbers. We hope the government can consider lifting the interstate travel ban to help revive domestic tourism," he said in a statement today.
Sri Ganesh said while the MyBHA praised the special assistance under the the Strategic Programme to Empower the People and Economy (Pemerkasa) package, which was announced yesterday, they hoped more measures will be introduced.
"We are grateful towards the government's efforts to help hoteliers and tourism industry players who have been affected by the Movement Control Order and the Covid-19 pandemic.
"However, MyBHA realised the initiatives and aid announced by the government is still at a minimum level and could not offer much to help the industry, which is in a desperate situation to sustain the challenges.
"We request the government to introduce a special stimulus package solely for the industry (tourism and hospitality industry)," he said, adding while efforts were underway to bring the pandemic under control, the tourism sector would need a long time to recover.
Yesterday, Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, in a special televised address, announced special discounts of electricity bills of 10 per cent for another three months, until June 30 this year to help reduce operating costs for hotel operators, theme parks, convention centres, shopping malls, local airline offices as well as travel and tourism agencies.
He said the exemption of tourism tax and service tax will be extended for accommodations provided by hotel operators until Dec 31 this year.
MyBHA is the umbrella body for all budget hotels, categorised as three-star and below in the country. It has about 2,500 members consisting of hotel owners or their representatives.
