KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 18 — Malaysia’s tourism industry continues to suffer post-pandemic due to labour shortage and because it lacks the financial pull to attract talent from local and foreign workers.
Sara Shera, who runs Perhentian Rambo, a family-owned travel service providing lodgings and tour packages in Pulau Perhentian, Terengganu explained that as business revenues dropped because of Covid-19 lockdowns and border restrictions, it has become increasingly difficult to attract talent to work in tourism-related jobs when better opportunities are available elsewhere.
“It’s difficult to attract workers because the pay isn’t very competitive. Why would people want to do back-breaking work when they can earn more doing things like Grab?”
She suggested that the government put more effort into luring talent to the industry and making it easier for tourism operators to remain competitive with other sectors.
“I think the government should try to make working in the tourism industry more appealing. The government should focus on providing more opportunities for small entrepreneurs to be able to do business without red tape.”
According to the Department of Statistics Malaysia, as of 2021, there were 3.52 million people employed in the local tourism industry compared to the 3.6 million persons recorded in 2019.
The National Recovery Council (NRC) had previously pushed the government to provide initiatives in order to address labour shortages and aid in the sector’s recovery.
Its chairman Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin suggested that the government make it easier for local businesses to hire foreign labour in order to quicken the country’s economic recovery process.
Sara Shera added that the government should also focus on keeping an eye on illegal activities taking place within the country’s tourism industry if local operators are to survive.
“The government could also improve the laws and enforcement because we also have a lot of illegal operators here who take business away from legit businesses.”
Meanwhile, a source working at a 5-star international hotel chain in Kuala Lumpur agreed that the government should increase initiatives and provide direct aid to workers in the tourism industry in order to retain more talent.
“Give incentives to people when they rejoin the travel industry such as income tax subsidies or free use of local transport when working for the travel industry.”
They added that although the government’s previous Prihatin Wage Subsidy (PSU) program had assisted in retaining valuable workers, the industry is still struggling to recover from the effects of the pandemic.
“Yes, we did receive the wage subsidies, however, it wasn’t much help because, at the end of the day, companies need to increase their income in order to be able to sustain the business and pay employees their salaries.”
Earlier this year, the Tourism, Arts and Culture Ministry (Motac) launched its Tourism Recovery Plan 2.0 in order to restore and further grow the tourism industry following the nation’s transition into the endemic stages of the Covid-19 crisis.
However, NRC argued that the four-year plan put in place by Motac was far too long of a process and urged the government to increase initiatives to promote tourism in Malaysia as well as improve the nation’s tourism infrastructures in order for the country to remain competitive and not be left behind by our South-east Asian neighbours.
