Johor State through the department of tourism with Malaysian Association of Tour and Travel Agents (MATTA) Johor chapter had organised a networking session with Kedah state delegation made up of Tourism Kedah, MATTA Kedah and Perlis Chapter. Kedah State Chairman of Tourism, Arts and Culture, Youth and Sports, Mohd Firdaus Ahmad officiated the networking event that was attended by 62 travel agencies from Kedah and Johor.
MATTA Johor Chapter Chairman, Kenny Ngi Chin Soon in his welcoming speech mentioned the need for more efforts to help rejuvenate the tourism industry that has received the biggest impact from the ongoing pandemic, and travel agencies are among the most affected.
As an inception of Kedah and Johor state tourism direct cooperation, Mohd Firdaus said he believes that the pandemic has made the nation realise the need to collaborate domestically to rejuvenate the tourism industry, as it is one of the main sectors that contributes to the economy. “As international borders nationwide remains closed for now, it is the right move to promote local tourism by having direct engagement of key industry players through states’ tourism departments,” he added.
Afzan Haji Azhari, Deputy Director of Tourism Johor, said among the initiatives that Tourism Johor has taken to support the industry is releasing the ‘Johor Tourism Safety Standard’ certification of COVID-19 Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) guidelines compliance with the cooperation of Ministry of Health (MOH), Fire and Rescue Department of Malaysia (Bomba), Malaysian Association of Hotels (MAH) and MyBHA (Malaysian Budget Hotels Association). First phase of the certification was done in August with participating hotels attending the guidelines briefing conducted by MOH and Bomba. The hotels would be audited first before receiving their certificate and list of hotels with the certification would be placed on Tourism Johor’s website for easy reference.
