2020

Dear Friends of Malaysia,

Our industry player has ramped up its effort to revitalize domestic tourism by organizing the first-ever Malaysian Association of Tour and Travel Agents Fair Online starting September 23 until 30.

This initiative is adopting the new digital platform to facilitate MATTA members of travel agents and tours operators as well as other tourism service providers to sell over 1,000 holidays packages to consumers focusing on domestic travel.

Sabah Tourism Board, on the other hand, has launched the Domestic Travel Stimulus to help tour operators. Under the stimulus, all Sabah based-licensed tour operators offering minimum three days two nights domestic travel packages in the state including accommodation, transportation and tours, are eligible to apply for an incentive of RM50 per traveller with a minimum of four and up to 25 pax per package.

At the same time, we at Tourism Malaysia also continues our efforts by providing a platform for industry players to promote their products at our website, malaysia.travel; in fact, a total of 103 deals and 107 packages have been listed to date.

Our Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin has announced RM10 billion special additional initiative package ‘Kita Prihatin’ which include the second round of RM7 billion cash aid for two-income groups categorized as B40 and M40 known as Bantuan Prihatin Nasional (BPN) 2.0.

Besides, our caring government also allocates RM2.4 billion Wage Subsidy Programme (WSP) 2.0 as well as RM600 million for Special Prihatin Grant (GKP) to help micro-businesses with financial difficulties due to COVID-19 pandemic.

Under WSP 2.0, the wage subsidy of RM600 monthly will be given to a maximum for 200 employees each for three months to assist companies that are experiencing revenue reduction up to 30 per cent compared to last year during the ongoing Recovery Movement Control Order (RMCO).

On a related note, the current situation of pandemic COVID-19 in Sabah at the moment is still under control even though there is a surge in new cases following the emergence of eighth COVID-19 active cluster in the state. However, individuals returning from Sabah would not be required to undergo the 14-day mandatory quarantine unless showing COVID-19 symptoms. But they are encouraged to take the test.

As of September 23, Malaysia recorded 9,602 cases of COVID-19 recoveries or 91.40% of the total positive cases. The total deaths are 133 cases or 1.27% of the confirmed cases.