Visitors to Langkawi around January and February each year show declining trends rather than declining coronavirus as claimed.

Kuah state assemblyman Mohd Firdaus Ahmad said the trend was happening every year and it was inappropriate to attribute the tourism industry to Langkawi affected by a coronavirus case involving a 4-year-old Chinese tourist on the island.

Mohd Firdaus, who is also Exco Information, Communication and Multimedia and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO) Kedah, said the lack of tourists in the year-end in Langkawi was due every year since January and February are not holidays in most places and countries.

"It would not be appropriate for any person to conclude that the tourism industry in Langkawi was affected when the trend was indeed a lack of visitors, the same situation has occurred in previous years," he told Sinar Harian today.

According to him, this is not an appropriate time to measure the level of deterioration of tourists to the island as it is a normal situation in Langkawi.

“Tourism incomes will increase in April, May and June when many Arab tourists will visit there.

In July and August, the trend of tourist arrivals declined again and increased in September and October while November dropped before rising again in December, ”he said.

Meanwhile, Mohd Firdaus said he had taken the initiative to distribute masks to the public to encourage the people of Langkawi to take precautionary measures.

“We distribute 400 face masks around Langkawi, 200 in crowded areas such as jetty and shopping center, 100 in schools and 100 in rural areas.

"This is the first phase and we are still waiting for new stock to be distributed to the people of Langkawi," he said.