The Long Game

As international borders remain blurred, the local hospitality industry faces its biggest challenge yet as Malaysia hit its third nationwide lockdown in May; but can there be a turnaround after all for consumer-conscious hoteliers with greener investments?

-  Koyyi Chin

Last December, a News Straits Times article reported that the nation’s tourism sector had suffered losses estimated up to RM100 billion, with tourist receipts (both international and local) taking a steep nosedive from an approximate of RM86.14 billion to RM12.68 billion. A devastating domino effect, what once was considered as Malaysia’s third highest gross domestic product (GDP) with a total labour force of 23.6 per cent—3.6 million people, to be exact—has been relegated to rank fourth, due to its declining contributions toward Malaysia’s foreign exchange earnings as many sub-sections in the business, namely the service as well as the F&B industry, have been affected by the blanket dine-in and interstate travel ban.

It’s no news that Malaysia’s economy is worse for wear since the 1997 Asian financial crisis as the nation’s GDP has shrunk by 5.6 per cent, which led to the shutdown of many players in the industry; in November 2020, it was reported on The Asean Post that a total of 204 tourism and hotel operators have shut down since the onset of the first MCO. According to Nancy Shukri, the minister of Malaysia’s Tourism, Arts and Culture organisation, she’s observed that “32 out of 109 entities from the hotel sector and 38 out of 95 tourism agencies were ordered to close by the courts or they closed voluntarily”, and as of May 2020, the unemployment rate of the industry’s workforce came up to 12,000 people. And in another article based on the statistics given by the Langkawi Development Authority, the popular tourist destination had only seen half of its usual crowd, from almost four million visitors annually to a startling new low at 1,281,107 by the end of 2020.