KOTA KINABALU: The Sabah Association of Tour and Travel Agents (SATTA) has urged the government to subsidies the tourism industry as their cash flow is shrinking thick and fast following the Covid-19 Movement Control Order.
Its chairman, Dato’ Seri Winston Liaw appealed recently that the tourism industry needs urgent help and hoping the government can subsidise 70 per cent of their employees’ salaries and rental of premises for six months starting from April to September.
“We are in dire need of government financial help to overcome this crisis because the tourism industry has faced three months of zero income since January.
“We have also suffered huge losses. We foresee many industry players could no longer sustain their business and will be forced to lay off their employees,” Liaw warned.
He stressed the employers have to bear the huge overhead expenses from January to June because of the continuous six months of zero income.
Liaw hopes the government can emulate the measures taken by Singapore and Australia who subsidised 75 per cent of their employees’ salaries.
“This move will effectively help ease the burden of the tourism industry,” he believes.
Furthermore, he said the second economy stimulus package only focused on the B40 and M40 groups which doesn’t solve the long terms problems that the whole industry facing.-HS
