The Malaysian Insight

PUTRAJAYA’S projection the country will reach Phase Four of the National Recovery Plan at the end of the year will not help tourism operators in Terengganu, as that is when the monsoon season will strike, industry players said.

As such, tourism recovery in the east coast state will take even longer, said Tourism Malaysia’s eastern division director Hafiz Hazin.

“The tourism sector in Terengganu will not recover quickly as it is usually closed during the end of the year due to the rainy season. So they will continue to struggle,” he told The Malaysian Insight.

Putrajaya’s projection for the country to reach Phase Four is in November or December. This is when all economic sectors can be reopened, including interstate travel. Domestic tourism and social activities are allowed.

Before entering Phase Four, daily Covid-19 cases nationally must be less than 500 and 60% of the population must be fully vaccinated.

Under the recovery plan, the country, or states that fulfil the criteria, can reopen in phases subject to a decrease in Covid-19 cases, an increase in the fully vaccinated population and the healthcare system is no longer in a critical state .

But daily Covid-19 cases are currently high, breaching 11,000 in recent days and 13,000 two days ago because of increased testing. Health authorities also blame the more contagious Delta variant and its rapid spread for the surge in cases.

Homestay operators like Tengku Aswadi Tengku Ibrahim are now in dire straits after not anticipating that lockdowns would drag and the pandemic in Malaysia would worsen.

Despite the ban on interstate travel since January this year, he decided to keep his business on Terengganu’s Pulau Redang open.

The 44-year-old was counting on local tourists from within the state to keep his homestay alive, confident that the interstate travel ban would not last long.

In March, he proceeded to take out capital of RM40,000, the amount needed to run the homestay for one season until the monsoon arrives towards the later part of the year.

Tengku Aswadi’s hopes were dashed when the government announced the movement-control order (MCO) in May. The interstate travel ban was continued.

“I was stunned when the MCO was announced because I had already spent a huge sum of money to resume business and operating on an island incurs a lot of cost.

“I cannot even earn my capital as I was only able to open for one month in March. The fasting month was in April and the MCO was announced in May,” he told The Malaysian Insight.

The MCO not only impacted his 10-year-old homestay business but also his restaurant and boat service.

He has now laid off 15 employees as he could no longer afford their salaries on top of the RM2,000 he has to spend monthly on maintenance.

“I also incurred losses from having to return the deposit to customers who had made bookings prior to the MCO. To survive all these months, I had to use my savings,” he said.

Suite 18 boutique hotel owner Eric Lee said his establishment, located in Kuala Terengganu’s Chinatown, used to be 75% to 80% booked but now his business has suffered 50% losses.

He can still hold out for the moment as he rents rooms to oil and gas employees.

Although he has received aid from the government through the Penjana economic package for small and medium enterprises, it has not been enough to cover losses incurred during the MCO.

“I think if businesses can survive until the end of this year, that will be a miracle because we expect the situation to remain this way until then.

“We know we can’t make any profits this year. So we will do whatever is necessary as long as we can cover our overheads and pay our employees. We can only survive,” Lee, who opened his hotel in 2016, said.

Tourist operators raise white flag

Tourism is the second most important sector for the east coast state but it has been ravaged by the pandemic and multiple MCOs.

Tourism Malaysia’s Hafiz said data from the Statistics Department showed that the number of domestic tourists to the state, famed for its beaches and islands, were halved by the pandemic.

It received 14.158 million domestic tourists in 2019 and just 7.420 million last year.

“We don’t have the data for 2021. We also don’t have the date on how much losses the sector has suffered,” he said.

Suaibah Harun, president of Malaysia Association of Hotels Terengganu chapter, said only 36 hotels in the state are still open because they rely on oil and gas workers.

Suaibah, who is also the manager of Primula Beach Resort said though the hotels remain open, business is bad.

“We make just enough to survive, though we house oil and gas workers. Many hotels have had to reduce their rates, which also contributed to their losses,” she said.

She said if the situation continues, many hotels in the state will go bankrupt.

“If possible, we would like the government to allow dine-ins in hotels,” she said.

Terengganu moved into Phase Two of the recovery plan on July 3, but interstate travel remains banned and dine-ins are still prohibited.

Other states under phase 2 are Kelantan, Pahang, Perak, Perlis, Penang, Sarawak and Sabah, while the rest of the county remains under MCO, or Phase One of the recovery plan. – July 19, 2021.