Liaw (front, second right) seen with his staff in a photo-call taken early last year.
KOTA KINABALU: The arrival of the first batch of Covid-19 vaccines in Sabah on Thursday and the continuous drop in the number of daily positive cases are starting to convince major players in the local tourism industry to restart their operations.
One glaring example is the announcement by Kota Kinabalu-based Airworld Travel and Tours Sdn Bhd that its doors would be opened to the public starting this
March 1.
“Our staff will be reporting back to office from Tuesday onwards after the company had temporarily shut down operations in December because of the negative domino effects of the pandemic,” said business proprietor Datuk Seri Winston Liaw.
He said as a result of the life-threatening disease discovered in January last year, Airworld Travel and Tours had suffered an estimated loss of RM1 million in revenues.
He said the local tourism industry had come to a standstill because of the pandemic – there was almost no business transaction throughout the year that was.
Liaw said as a result, some tourism players took various measures like opting to temporarily close shop to avoid further losses.
“I am estimating that Sabah encountered a loss of at least 90 per cent of its tourism receipts when tourists stopped coming to the famous ‘Land Below The Wind’ since the start of the pandemic,” said the Sabah Association of Tour and Travel Agents (Satta) president.
Nonetheless, he expressed optimism that foreign visitors would start returning to Sabah in the very near future.
He said tourism players in China, Korea and Taiwan – among other countries – had been closely monitoring the Covid-19 situation in Malaysia, particularly in Sabah.
Liaw said rith the arrival of the Covid-19 vaccines and the immunisation programme to start here this March 4, Satta members and other local tourism stakeholders would be expecting visitors to arrive within the months of May and June.
In view of this, he observed the need for the federal and state governments to seriously consider the resumption of inbound international flights.
“Satta would like to suggest that direct international flights to Sabah be reinstated if the number of Covid-19 cases drops to 30.
“The process of giving the injectable vaccines to the local populace should also be sped up to help the badly-affected tourism industry recover,” he said, adding that it would also be of great help if the government could allow designated medical clinics to provide vaccination to individuals at a minimal cost.
By doing so, he pointed out, he people would not need not have to wait for a long time for the vaccination, which could cause delay in travel programmes.
Liaw also said lifting the inter-state travel ban and easing the standard operating procedures (SOP) requirements for travellers should be worth considering during this difficult time.
Likewise, he said, major tourism sector players including airlines should work in unison to help attract tourists to come to Sabah again, by way of organising and launching attractive tour packages.
Liaw said the association would also be embarking on a vaccination information campaign in response to Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin’s recent call for the people to avail themselves for the ongoing free National Immunisation Vaccination Programme.