Winston Liaw
KOTA KINABALU: Sabah Association of Tour and Travel Agents (Satta) has proposed to the government to convert idle tour buses into mobile vaccination centres for use to inoculate plantation workers in remote areas.
Its president, Datuk Seri Winston Liaw, on Friday welcomed the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture’s (Motac) proposal to revive the tourism industry in stages.
With the government’s aggressive approach in the immunization programme, he expected more than 60 per cent of the population to be vaccinated by October.
To expedite the progress even more, Liaw said the association suggested that the government help tour operators by utilizing their tour buses, which have been idle for 16 months, for the vaccination programme.
He said the seats could be removed to turn the tour buses into mobile vaccination centres that could travel to remote plantations to inoculate the workers.
While in the midst of revival, he encouraged private organizations like non-governmental bodies to initiate positive actions and get prepared for the reopening of domestic and international activities.
For example, he said Satta is organizing Sabah Virtual Travel Fair from September 16 to 29.
“We urge all tourism-related industries to support the event, which is positive and good for the whole economy.”
He also sought airlines’ involvement in the virtual travel fair, which only need to pay a special participation fee of RM750, which was a negligible amount to any organization.
Liaw added that all Malaysian travel agents who participated in the Sabah Virtual Travel Fair were eligible to apply for the Galakan Melancong Malaysia (Gamelan) subsidy from Tourism Malaysia
“We urge all travel operators, hotels, resorts and tourism-related business to join the travel fair.
“We must work as a team to revive the economy.”
Motac is in the midst of proposing to the National Security Council (NSC) to reactivate tourism activities in phases.
The proposal entails four tiers with Tier 1 allowing intra-district travel and tourism activities within the district, Tier 2 allowing inter-district travel and tourism, Tier 3 (inter-state travel and tourism) and Tier 4 (international travel/ inbound tourists).