The Malaysian Insight

TRADERS in Pasar Payang, a well-known tourist market in Kuala Terengganu, said their businesses have incurred heavy losses since the cross-state travel ban by Putrajaya due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The biggest market in Terengganu, housed in a two-storey modern building, offers visitors a variety of traditional handicraft such as batik, silk, songket, handmade crafts and a traditional wet market.

Its biggest footfall are tourists but business has hit rock bottom for many traders since the pandemic and a series of movement-control orders (MCO).

Traders are now crying for more help from the state and federal governments.

Souvenir trader Wan Mohd Hafizul Nik Anuar, who inherited his family business of 15 years, said the lack of foreign tourists was the main cause of the declining business.

“I can no longer afford to cover the losses while coping with the shop rental, the cost to buy goods and my debts to employees, so I had to lay them off,” the 33-year-old told The Malaysian Insight.

“The effect is not just because of the cross-state travel ban but also the MCO which was initially implemented last March.”

He added that the assistance from the federal and state governments to small traders like him is insufficient.

“Even though there is help from the government, the money is to clear bad debts and to pay employees’ salaries.”

He said getting RM100 sales on a normal day itself was difficult.

“In one week, there will be no sales for three or four days. We just hope for the people of Terengganu, but what do they come here to buy?”

Spice trader Nur Ahmad, 32, said that his sales revenue could reach up to RM1,000 a day in the past, but currently, he describes his income as just “enough to survive”.

Although the government has resumed cross-state tourism activities for states under the recovery MCO, Nur said it was still not helpful.

“There will be more visitors to Pasar Payang only when the government allows for cross-state tourism in general.”

Nur’s business is also an inherited family business which ran in Pasar Payang for the past 10 years.

“In the past, when Pulau Redang was opened, we could see many visitors heading to Pulau Redang via the Shahbandar jetty near Pasar Payang.

He said despite Pulau Redang being opened now, the tourist traffic is almost non-existent.

“The ferry used to come two to three times in a day, and tourists who left the jetty, whether waiting for their busses or on their way home, they would come to Pasar Payang to buy souvenirs,” Nur said.

Mohd Syarafuddin Abdullah, 33, who sells basic necessities, said that his sales revenue slumped by 30% to 40% without foreign tourists.

He said some of his goods such as sugar, milk, bottled water and canned drinks had even exceeded the expiry date because there were no buyers.

“Pasar Payang depends on tourists who stream in during the school holidays, Terengganu people themselves do not come to this market,” Syarafuddin said.

The situation has forced him to look for other alternatives such as selling his wares online and offering deliveries in the neighbourhood.

“If people don’t want to come, then we have to go out because we can’t just laze around,” he said.

In total, Terengganu had recorded the loss of half a million tourists as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

State tourism, culture and digital technology committee chairman Ariffin Deraman said the reduction was influenced by the decline in visitors from Peninsular Malaysia and foreign countries.

Terengganu had ended MCO and changed its status to RMCO on March 2. – March 24, 2021.