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Ministry reaching out to travellers

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Datuk Seri Nancy Shukri

KUCHING: Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture (MOTAC) will continue to restore people’s confidence in travelling again, followed by plans to promote travel bubble with green zone countries.

Its minister, Datuk Seri Nancy Shukri, said the ministry needed to give assurance that the industry practised the new norms to ensure safety and hygiene as the top priorities.

“Through our agency, Tourism Malaysia, we will strengthen our domestic tourism initiatives under the Cuti-Cuti Malaysia campaign; intensify our public relations activities and social media promotions including online collaborations with companies, key opinion leaders (KOLs) and influencers.

“We will also enhance the quality of tourism products and services by adapting to the new normal to boost the confidence of tourists to travel again, hence encouraging them to stay longer, visit more places and spend more,” she said in a Webinar Session on ‘Malaysia’s Tourism Embraces Travelling in the New Norm’, yesterday.

Besides that, Nancy urged the industry players from both tourism and cultural sectors to ensure the services and products provided were of the highest quality especially with regards to health and safety.

As for the international market, the ministry plans to promote arrivals from short-haul markets such as Asean countries mainly through cross-border tourism.

According to Nancy, the concept of travel bubble with green zone countries identified by the World Health Organization (WHO) was gaining popularity among countries that had managed to contain the spread of Covid-19. They are worth considering.

However, its implementation is subject to bilateral discussions with paramount consideration on the aspects of health, immigration, data tracking, and continuous monitoring by respective agencies concerned in both countries.

“Currently, Malaysia is discussing with Singapore on the Reciprocal Green Lane (RGL). At the same time, we are also exploring the possibilities of having travel bubble with other safe/green zone countries such as Brunei, Australia and New Zealand.

“The Ministry of Health’s director-general, Datuk Noor Hisham Abdullah, said that other countries with no new cases for 28 days would also be considered. However, this is just in planning and we have not allowed people of any country in yet,” she said.

Nancy also explained that the planning must be mutual as some issues must be ironed out by both countries before they could allow the green lane or green bubble.

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