KUALA LUMPUR:The Green Zone Domestic Travel Bubble initiative which began yesterday (Nov 22) is part of the government’s efforts to ensure the country's tourism sector recovers and remains active, says Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Nancy Shukri.

She said the initiative was in line with the three main strategies under the Tourism Rehabilitation Plan, namely to restore the people's confidence in travel, focus on reviving domestic tourism, as well as to identify all products and come up with more creative offers by maximising the available resources.

"Today the standard operating procedure (SOP) for the Domestic Travel Bubble has been approved. This initiative gives permission for movements between green zones in the country, and subsequently, (through) the country’s borders, InsyaAllah. The contribution made by the domestic tourism industry is huge.

"Tourism Satellite Account data from the Department of Statistics shows a record expenditure of RM92.6 billion by the domestic tourism sector in 2019," she said at a special press conference on the status of domestic travel bubble at the National Academy of Arts, Culture and Heritage (ASWARA ) here, today.

She said in line with the government's decision, the ministry had also prepared several initiatives covering accommodation, transportation and discounts on the purchase of craft products at Karyaneka outlets.

Nancy said under the accommodation initiative, various accommodation packages were offered in collaboration with the Malaysian Association of Hotels (MAH) and Shopee e-commerce platform, with users having to purchase a minimum accommodation package of three days and two nights to redeem voucher rebates of RM100 and RM50, based on the hotel’s category.

“Those who complete the payment will enjoy an RM20 cash e-voucher that can be used for the purchase of other items on Shopee to boost online shopping in Malaysia. This campaign targets Malaysian citizens, and the duration of this campaign is from December 2020 to February 2021,” she said.

Nancy said through the two campaigns by the Malaysia Budget Hotel Association (MyBHA),  namely 'Jom Nginap' and 'Malaysia Welcomes You' for selected 3-star hotels and below, there was also cashback offer and a rebate of RM20 in the form of Touch n'Go credit, limited to 62,500 bookings.

The Jom Nginap campaign offer would be from Dec 31 to March next year, while the Malaysia Welcomes You initiative would be from April till June.

She said under the transport initiative, the 'Cuti-Cuti Malaysia' campaign in collaboration with Malaysia Airlines Berhad (MAB), AirAsia, Firefly and Malindo Air also offered a discount of RM50.

“For example, Malaysia Airlines including Firefly are offering a discount of RM50 (one-way), or RM100 for round trip flight tickets for the economy and business classes. The offer is for a total of 9,000 seats.

“Air Asia also offers a rebate voucher of RM50 for ticket purchases targeting a maximum of 24,000 passengers. Malindo Air, on the other hand, is offering a limited discount offer of RM50 to the first 6,000 users registered,” she said.

Nancy also called on the tourism industry players to offer attractive packages while maintaining the SOPs under the new norm to ensure the sustainability of the tourism economy.

“I hope the programmes and initiatives designed can help revitalise the domestic tourism sector,” she said adding members of the public could refer to the Tourism Malaysia website ‘www.malaysia.travel’ for more information.

-- BERNAMA