‘Inject direct funding to help tourism sector’

SANDAKAN: MP Vivian Wong (pic) said the Ministry of Tourism and Culture should inject direct funding to help the tourism industry in Malaysia to survive the Covid-19 crisis before talking about any form of recovery.

She said this in response to the written reply in the Dewan Rakyat by the Minister of Tourism and Culture (Motac) on how the Ministry intends to utilise unused fund for “Visit Malaysia 2020” campaign promotion to help the industry, especially tourism stakeholders in Sabah. 

The Minister said other than the wage subsidy programme (Program Subsidi Upah) and SME grant that was introduced to all businesses under the various stimulus packages, the Ministry also introduced other assistance schemes such as tourism fee exemption till Dec 31, 2020, tour operator licence renewal exemption, extension of tour bus permit to 15 years for Sabah and Sarawak operators, 40pc discount for summons received, as well as various online and offline promotion campaigns for domestic tourism.

ADVERTISEMENT

Although Vivian appreciates the various measures put in place by the Ministry, especially the newly-announced additional RM1,000 for each tour bus driver in Sabah, she believes that the key is to help them to survive the current storm financially so that they can still stand a chance to recover later.

 

ADVERTISEMENT

Login to read the full article here.