KUALA LUMPUR: In order to prevent the public’s negative perception on the spread of Coronavirus Novel Cluster circulated by Chinese tourists particularly from Wuhan city and Hubei Province, the government of Malaysia through the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture (MoTAC) has taken a positive step by establishing a Tourism Recovery Committee to monitor current developments for this issue.
The Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture, Malaysia, Mohamaddin Ketapi, said, “This committee is responsible for providing advises and clarifications to all tourists including the steps to be taken to safeguard their personal health as advised by the Ministry of Health Malaysia to prevent them from being infected with the virus while in the country.”
The committee is also responsible for safeguarding the safety of tourists and ensuring that all visitors are in a good condition and confident with the control steps taken by the government in addressing this issue. This includes supporting the efforts of the Ministry of Health Malaysia to conduct health screening for all tourists, whom using air, sea and land routes at all entrances to the country.
In addition, this committee also plays an important role in planning and devising actions to search new markets to replace the tourism sector especially from China which have been affected with the virus.
Mohamaddin said MoTAC will continue to work with the leading people in tourism industry to ensure that the tourism sector will not be affected and will operate normally despite the constraints caused by the spread of the virus in Malaysia. This includes agree in allowing the airline to inspect all passengers before boarding their aircraft.
He affirmed that the Malaysian Government welcomed the approach taken by the Chinese government which prevented resident of Wuhan city, Hubei Province and surrounding areas from visiting countries including Malaysia to prevent the spread of this epidemic.
He agreed with the decision of the Prime Minister of Malaysia to temporarily suspend all immigration facilities including eNTRY (visa-free facilities), Visa on Arrival, e-visa and manual visa for Chinese tourists from Wuhan city and Hubei Province.
He said, “Malaysia has had experience in dealing with the outbreak and is confident that it will succeed in addressing the drastic measures taken to ensure that every tourists arriving in the country is healthy and free from any contagious disease.
MoTAC will maintain its target of attracting 30 million tourists arrival this year despite facing the virus and not planning to review it, although the virus attack will have a significant negative impact on tourists’ influx.
BIZ TODAY MONITOR
