M’sia Hoping For Leisure Travel With S’pore To Resume From Early 2021

By
Zhi Hao
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Lest you’re unaware, leisure travel has become a very rare occurrence amidst these tumultuous times.

So rare, in fact, that people have started coming up with their own local travel plans.

Yeah, it’s that ‘restricted’ nowadays.

But like everyone else, we hold out hope that someday, leisure travel will be possible again.

And it seems that across the causeway, our friendly neighbours wish for the same thing too.

M’sia Hoping Leisure Travel To JB Resumes Early 2021

As Malaysia’s local tourism industry struggles amidst the current epidemic, Tourism Malaysia has reportedly considered the implementation of travel bubbles…

With cross-border for leisure tentatively set for the first quarter of 2021.

Lest you’re unaware, Malaysia and Singapore have since re-allowed cross border travel, but for essential services only.

Should the plan go ahead, this would mean that residents from both sides will be able to travel back and forth like old times, for leisure’s sake.

Director-general Datuk Musa Yusof said: “From the tourism point of view, hopefully, we should see some movement by the first quarter of next year. This is what I mean by green travel bubbles.

“As an example, Malaysia and Singapore have allowed cross-border travel already, but for essential services only, and not for leisure yet. If this goes well, and no untoward issues arise, God willing, leisure [travel] will begin,” he said.

However, cross-border travel will be restricted to the country’s direct Asean neighbours.

International visitors, on the other hand, will not be able to travel to Malaysia for leisure’s sake for the time being.

This is to mitigate the risks of any potential COVID-19 cases.

“For our research, we looked at countries within the region, which is Asean nations. Asean alone has some 600 million people and is a major contributor to tourists coming to our country.

“What we mean by cross-border tourism is situations where one doesn’t necessarily have to get on a plane to travel here. We are looking at countries such as Singapore, Brunei, Thailand, and even Indonesia.

“These are the four nations that we are examining and reviewing as to whether travel can be allowed,’’ he said.

Makes Sense

According to Malay Mail, Musa pointed out that Singapore alone constitutes a whopping 65 per cent of Malaysia’s incoming tourists.

Speaks volumes about how cheapo we really are but that’s beside the point.

Musa also revealed how tourism in Malaysia was down by 68.2 per cent within the period of January 2020 to June 2020.

So in a sense, you can kind of understand where they’re coming from, and why they’re hopeful of the measure’s success.

Though of course, we are equally hopefully of travelling across the border once again too.

Reciprocal Green Lane

Lest you’ve forgotten, on 18 March, the Malaysian government announced a nationwide partial lockdown that resulted in the closure of the border between Johor Bahru and Singapore.

And on 23 March, Singapore shut off its own borders, with few exemptions allowed to enter.

Because of this border closure, more than 35,000 Johor residents working in Singapore have lost their jobs.

Since then, the border between both countries has remained closed until 17 August, when hundreds of Malaysians were allowed to return to their jobs in Singapore through the Reciprocal Green Lane (RGL) and Periodic Commuting Arrangement (PCA).

The RGL permits cross-border travel for essential business and official purposes, while the PCA allows Singapore and Malaysia residents with long-term immigration passes (for business and work purposes) to enter that country for work.

And with that said, we hope that the idea will go through and that leisure travel will be a thing again.

Just make sure to take all the necessary precautions, because in the end… your safety is still the most important thing.

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Zhi Hao
Email: [email protected]