KUALA LUMPUR (May 16): The hospitality industry was banking on a phenomenal year for Visit Malaysia Year 2020 (VMY2020).

But when the World Health Organisation declared Covid-19 a pandemic and countries started closing their borders, all hope of a successful year were dashed.

This year’s arrival target was a record 30 million tourists and RM100 billion in foreign exchange.

In order to achieve this, Malaysia eased entry requirements for foreign nationals, upped their promotional campaign, added new entry points and managed to attract new charter flights and cruise ships.

The hospitality industry is now suffering. Hotels are closing temporarily or worse, permanently.

Some tour and travel operators and retailers catering for tourists are expected to fold too.

The hit on tourism is expected to have an impact on the country’s gross domestic product.

The Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture Datuk Seri Nancy Shukri has cancelled VMY2020 and the strategy moving forward is to focus on promoting Malaysia’s domestic tourism to revive the sector.

Will the reliance on the domestic market be enough to make up for losses from foreign tourism receipts?

With job security remaining uncertain, will consumers spend money holidaying? And now that Malaysians will travel less overseas, will they be willing to spend that money for a domestic holiday?

There is no doubt that we should definitely have another VMY to help boost tourism, but when is it the right time to have the next VMY? 2021, 2022, 2023?

Meanwhile, the hospitality industry is reinventing itself to survive. Tour and travel agents want to use their tour vans that are lying idle to deliver courier while accommodation providers like Airbnb have launched a fund to share the cost of cancellations in bookings.

Read all about this in our cover story in the latest issue of The Edge, out now.

https://www.theedgemarkets.com/article/washout-year-tourism