MELAKA: The National Recovery Council (NRC) opines that the five-year target set by Tourism Malaysia for the country's tourism sector to recover is too long.

Its chairman Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin (pic) said the reason being that more issues and problems would crop up during the period.

He said he had raised the matter during a recent NRC meeting where Tourism Malaysia presented a report on the recovery of the country’s tourism sector.

"The one thing I commented about it (report) at the meeting was on the five-year period it will take for the country’s tourism sector to recover...as long as the five-year Malaysian Plan,” he said in his speech at the Tangga Batu Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) Aidilfitri Open House on Friday (May 20) night.

Muhyiddin, who is also Perikatan Nasional chairman said following that, he had requested for the matter to be reviewed.

"Three or four years will suffice because it is in this (tourism) sector that many of our entrepreneurs, both bumiputera and non-bumiputera, had been hard hit during the past two years,” he said.

Muhyiddin, after chairing the NRC meeting last Tuesday, was reported to have said that the council recommended that the government come up with new initiatives and assistance to help increase the capacity of tourism industry players who have been severely affected for the past two years following the Covid-19 pandemic.

He said the reason being that the tourism sector was among the most affected by the pandemic which saw the number of tourist arrivals to Malaysia dropped by almost 99.5 per cent in 2021 compared to 2019.- Bernama

https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2022/05/21/five-year-target-for-recovery-of-tourism-sector-too-long-says-muhyiddin