Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture, Datuk Seri Nancy Shukri said that the government is considering opening our borders to help boost the tourism sector.
“We are now working at negotiating with countries such as Singapore, Brunei, Korea, Japan, Taiwan and New Zealand which have been identified as Green Zones,” she said at a press conference after visiting the Centre of Technical Excellence Sarawak (CENTEXS), according to BERNAMA.
She also added that many requests from the local tourism industry players to consider reopening borders in order to keep their businesses afloat were received.
Nevertheless, due to the recent heightening of Covid-19 cases, Nancy said that the matter has to be discussed further with other ministries as well, such as the Ministry of Health (MOH) to ensure that reopening the country’s borders are allowed.
When asked by BERNAMA whether the green travel bubble did help in boosting the tourism sector, Nancy said: “Yes, even some of the hotels such as in Langkawi are fully booked. So, it has been a good initiative.”
At the same time, she also urged visitors from the green zones travelling to other places for holidays to fully practise government’s standard operating procedures (SOPs), especially maintaining social distancing during their travels.
“We do not want the number of Covid-19 cases getting high after the government has approved the green travel bubble because, at the end of the day, it will affect the economy, especially our tourism sector,” she said.
As of today (27 December 2020), Malaysia recorded a total of 1,196 new Covid-19 cases, 997 recovered and one death. Selangor recorded 392 new cases today, highest among all states.
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