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Pandemic Outbreak: Resilience of Hotel Industry

After hearing complaints from the industry that the program did not help the business survive, especially Small &

Medium Enterprises (SMEs), the program was later modified to provide higher help based on the number of

employees. The maximum number of workers eligible for subsidies was also raised to 200.

The extension of the Wage Subsidy Program provides additional assistance to businesses with 75 employees and

below with a subsidy of RM 1200 per employee for three months. Although the industry sees this as a positive

step by the Government, it does not address the bigger impact on the tourism industry and longer term recovery

needs.

Other Initiatives Introduced by The Government for Tourism

In the early stages of the situation, the Government, through the first economic stimulus package, announced a 15

% cut in utilities of tourism- related properties, such as hotels, travel agencies, local airline offices, shopping malls,

convention centers and theme parks.

The Service Tax Exemption for hotels is announced for six months from 1st March to 31st August 2020. Together

with the RM 100 digital voucher for all Malaysians and deducting personal income tax of up to RM 1000 for

domestic tourism expenditure, the Government adopted an industry proposal to encourage domestic tourism.

This is, however, before there is a need for a Movement Control Order (MCO) announced by the government on

18th Mac 2020.

InternalcounselfortheGovernmentofministriesandagenciesto minimize hotel events and meetings

was also held to encourage economic activity in the hotel. A series of software loans and advice for commercial

banks to restructure loans and moratorium on emerging businesses. The industry has also been granted

exemption to contribute to the Human Resource Development Fund (HRDF) along with tax exemptions and l

limited exemptions.

Next, a second stimulus package was announced, followed by a " Concern" stimulus package and a " Bantuan

Prihatin Nasional " package focused on SMEs. Despite all the initiatives to date, the tourism industry has not been

particularly focused on recognizing it as the worst affected and the most recovered.

images courtesy: Crello.com