Malaysian Hospitality Industry – Badly Affected By The Pandemic

The pandemic has so far proved to be a nightmare for the Malaysian hospitality industry. More than 100 hotels in the country have closed down either temporarily or permanently. The hospitality industry is said to have incurred losses over RM11.3 billion till now due to the pandemic.

Malaysian Association of Hotels (MAH) chief executive officer Yap Lip Seng said that 20 hotels have been forced to shut down this year owing to monetary losses. This is in addition to the 100 hotels that had shut down operations the previous year.

There are no signs yet of full recovery in the near future. This year could also prove to be tough for the hospitality sector due to various restrictions on travel and movement of goods.

Yap Lip Seng has further stated that the livelihoods of more than 3 million people are at risk due to huge revenue losses which the industry has been experiencing since the onset of this pandemic. Mr Lap further said that the lockdown was indeed necessary in order to arrest the spread of the disease, and finally he expressed hope that the government would provide some assistance to the industry to prevent further losses or closures.