KUCHING: The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) for instance, is working on formulating standard operating procedures (SOPs) to facilitate travellers without neglecting essential aspects of health and safety of frontliners.
Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Nancy Shukri revealed this in a webinar session on ‘Malaysia’s Tourism Embraces Travelling in the New Norm’ yesterday.
“For tourists and tourism employees, for example, there is a need for a standardised health certificate within Asean,” she explained.
The SOPs, she pointed out, would ensure the safety of the tourism workforce and travellers as the sector shifted to a new normal.
Asean, she added, would also be using digital technology.
“This is also to support the recovery efforts of tourism activities and to help prevent the spread of Covid-19 in Asean member states. For example, mobile applications will be used for contact tracing and as tracking tools to control the spread of Covid-19,” she said.
“Another measure to regain travellers’ confidence towards the health and safety of Asean tourism destinations is through effective communication on the current status of Covid-19 and Asean tourism destinations operations.
“Certainly, travel trends will change for the time being, and according to travel analysts, international travel will take a lot more time to recover.
“Nevertheless, let us all focus on battling this pandemic and hope the situation will improve so that we can open our borders in the immediate future,” added Nancy.
“Ultimately, we envision a future of travel which is safe, secure, and seamless and provides an authentic and meaningful experience to travellers, one which supports the livelihoods of millions and contributes to sustainable economic growth.”
The minister added that her ministry had submitted 12 SOPs for the reopening of tourism and cultural sector and those four sub-sectors would start operating with the SOPs from today.
The SOPs include the implementation of physical distancing; sanitisation and disinfection of hotels, guestrooms and vehicles and training of tourist guides to ensure compliance to the SOPs and to safeguard tourists from possible infection.
So far, the National Security Council (NSC) and Ministry of Health (MoH) had approved the SOPs for the following:
i. Art, culture and heritage exhibition at premises and public cultural facilities
ii. Hotel accommodation premises
iii. Tour operating companies
iv. Licensed travel and tour guiding
v. Tourism training institutes (ILPs)
vi. Malaysia homestay experience programmes
vii. Adventurous and outdoor activities
viii. Scuba diving and snorkelling activities
ix. Dry theme parks
x. Live performances and shows
Nancy said these SOPs had been officially published by NSC and were accessible from all platforms.
She also revealed that the ministry had finally concluded the long awaited negotiations with NSC on the SOPs for 1) spa and wellness, 2) MICE events and 3) travel and trade fairs and 4) water theme parks.
“Some countries in the world have imposed new regulations on international travellers. These include paying for a Covid-19 test or spending 14 days in quarantine, with the focus very much on providing the maximum health and financial security possible.
“Under the new ‘user pays’ system, a set fee will be charged for whatever process an inbound foreign passenger requires, with all undergoing a mandatory RT-PCR test on arrival,” she added.
