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INTERVENTION BY H.E. AMBASSADOR SYED MOHD HASRIN AIDID

PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE OF MALAYSIA TO THE UNITED NATIONS

 

HIGH-LEVEL THEMATIC DEBATE ON

“PUTTING SUSTAINABLE AND RESILIENT TOURISM

AT THE HEART OF AN INCLUSIVE RECOVERY”

 

 

Mr./ Mdm. Chairperson,

 

1.       At the outset, I wish to thank the President of the General Assembly for convening this debate as well as the UNWTO for the collaboration in organising our important event today. In the spirit of time efficiency, I also would like to take this opportunity to combine pertinent points related to all three roundtables in my single intervention.

 

2.       Malaysia’s tourism industry, like many others’ around the world, was one of the hardest-hit economic sectors impacted by the pandemic. As a people-oriented industry, tourism is expected to take a longer time to recover. Malaysia remains committed to implementing its National Tourism Policy 2020-2030 and Tourism Recovery Plan to safeguard the industry which, prior to the pandemic, had contributed 15.2% of the national GDP and 23.5% share from the total employment in Malaysia.

 

3.       Building on that note and in consistency with my advocation in many of our previous debates, Malaysia will continue to call for equitable access to vaccines, particularly for developing countries in special situations (LDCs, LLDCs, SIDS and MICs) to assist them in achieving sustainable recovery from the pandemic.

 

4.       Fortunately, Malaysia is now starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel, thanks to the positive developments in relation to vaccination rates in the country, with at least 97% of vaccinated adult population. Reinforced by the positive progress, the Government has launched a full reopening of Malaysian borders beginning 1 April 2022, allowing quarantine-free entry for vaccinated travellers.

 

Mr./ Mdm. Chairperson,

 

5.       In ensuring sustainability of tourism-related businesses, thus far, the Government has disbursed close to USD$ 35 million in financial aid. The Government is also prioritising the element of inclusivity in the sector by aligning relevant policies, focusing on the development of sustainable rural tourism, ecotourism and Community-Based tourism. For the rural communities, the homestay programmes provide a supplementary source of income as they are not only trained in hospitality services, but also better cultivated for entrepreneurial opportunities. For example, the Miso Walai Homestay in Malaysia’s state of Sabah, which was the recipient of 2021 UNWTO award for the inaugural Best Tourism Village has created employment and generated significant regular income particularly for the women who provide homestay accommodation and guiding services.

 

6.       In preparing the tourism sector for long-term resilience and crisis preparedness, the Government will be enhancing tourism crisis management guidelines by taking into account the latest insights in relation to health pandemics, climate change, natural disasters, and economic shocks. Further, the National Tourism Policy reinforces the role of tourism as a catalyst for environmental protection, preservation and conservation of local culture and heritage. Among the main strategies include advocating responsible tourism in fragile destination areas as well as managing the development of tourism islands in synergy with conservation by repositioning the tourism islands as premier marine ecotourism destinations.

 

7.       On the other hand, Malaysia believes that infrastructure and connectivity are key priorities to unlocking new premium investments. Towards this end, a tourism infrastructure scheme which consists of a special tourism fund is set up to help build and maintain tourism facilities as part of recovery efforts from the pandemic. Such initiative is further complemented through sustainable financing mechanisms such as in Malaysia’s Habitat Penang Hill which was designated as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve last year. The Habitat Penang Hill is a potential model for public-private partnership with revenue partially allocated to a sinking fund for disaster relief in case of landslides or floods and creation of opportunities to develop capacity, skills and access to capital for the local community.

 

Mr./ Mdm. Chairperson,

 

8.       In addition, the National Tourism Policy also provides a strategic direction to transform the tourism industry by embracing digitalisation to foster innovation and competitiveness. Special Tourism Investment Zones have been designated throughout the country, where incentives are being formulated to attract technology-based investment to encourage innovative tourism products and services in response to growing market sophistication.

 

9.       In building back better, I wish to underline the importance of bridging the gaps of vaccines and digitalisation as the first and early steps to building back better for the tourism sector. Without these factors, alas, countries would continue to grapple with the impacts posed by the pandemic and be left behind. In fact, if carefully managed and planned, tourism can effectively and immensely contribute across multiple SDGs.

 

Thank you.