It has been recorded by wolrdometers that as of July 15, 2020, there was about 13,465,183 confirm cases of Covid 19 worldwide and about 581,405 recorded death due to this pandemic virus.
As most countries around the world are in transition of recovery due to the effect of this pandemic Covid19, more and more business owners from the tourism industry are still suffering due to loss of sales and guests to visit their destinations.
March 18, 2020 has been a nightmare for most of the tourism industry players around Malaysia as the government has forced all non-essential businesses to ask all employees to stay at home to avoid the strike of Covid19. This was in effect with the country's Movement Control Order (MCO).
Indeed, the move of the government has been a good effort as the number of new cases as well as recovery rate in Malaysia has been one of the most outstanding results not only in Southeast Asia Region but also in the world.
As the MCO extend to another weeks to more months until it goes to the recovery stage, we have witnessed that most of the prominent players of tourism industries in Malaysia like Hotels, F&B players including small-scale attraction /theme parks parks has to close down permanently and thus affected thousands of employees to be unemployed.
Here are the 5 documented faced by tourism industry players in Malaysia due to Covid19:
1. Salary Pay Cuts
As the MCO is still in effect, most business asked their employees to work from home to avoid the spread of corona virus. The country has also shut down its borders thus, international tourist is not allowed to enter the country.
Inter-state traveling was also restricted hence local tourism was badly affected forcing tourism operators to have salary pay cuts to up to 60 % to survive during this difficult period.
2. Lowered Package Rates
To allow the community to book their packages, most of the industry players has to cut down the rates of their packages and is with extended promotion until the end of the year.
3. Hotel Give Up To 50 % Discount Or More
Most industry players specially the hotel line has to lowered down their rates. Other online players such as Airbnb and other platforms has also need to lower down their rates in order to compete with the new market trends.
4. More Refund More Profit Lost
Most tourism players nowadays are being called by their own customers for a full refund on all their bookings. This has gives additional burden to the industry players specially for flights and other attraction packages in the country.
5. The New Normal Means Additional Hassle To Operators
With the implementation of the SOPs from the government authorities, the new normal has required all the operators to spend money on sanitizers and other chemicals (disinfectants) to ensure that their premises are safe for the public to use.
On top of that, this will require all players especially in the city to focus on these sections and may be required to have additional staff to ensure that the entire premise is safe for everyone.
Disclaimer: All details mentioned are purely based on observation and gathered news by the writer. There maybe some point didn't highlight as some details need to be verified by the industry player itself.