Selangor Journal
Picture by PH B / UNSPLASH

MAH lauds Selangor’s call to attract tourists, says industry needs boosting

By Ashwin Kumar

SHAH ALAM, Feb 14 — The Malaysian Association of Hotels (MAH) welcomes the Selangor government’s recommendation for hotel room rates in the state to be lowered in order to attract more tourists.

MAH president Yap Lip Seng said the hotel industry, airliners and tour operators are jointly working on promotions and deals in order to boost the tourism industry following the slowdown due to the Covid-19 outbreak.

“Multiple discussions were held, including with Tourism Malaysia, for a concerted campaign for tourism recovery.

“We applaud the state government’s initiative in reaching out to the industry, and we hope to see stimulus initiatives from the government to further promote tourism in Selangor.

“While hotels and private industry stakeholders may offer special promotions for this period, we still need the state government to help promote and market the products and services further,” he told Selangor Journal when contacted today.

Yesterday, Selangor’s Culture, Tourism, Malay Customs and Heritage Committee chairman Datuk Abdul Rashid Asari said many hotel room reservations were cancelled due to the virus outbreak and had suggested that hotel operators promote lower room rates to bring in more tourists.

Abdul Rashid added the state government will arrange a meet with the Selangor hotel association sometime in March to discuss the matter.

On this, Yap assured that the hotel industry also welcomes any party including the government sector to hold events and meetings in hotels to support the industry during critical times.

The Malaysian Association of Tour and Travel Agents (Matta) on Tuesday revealed over 95,000 of hotel room bookings were cancelled, which were mostly from Chinese tourists since the coronavirus outbreak.

This amounted to almost RM40 million of losses.

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