Tourism, Arts and Culture Ministry secretary-general Noor Zari Hamat said the tourism industry has suffered an estimated RM3 billion losses from cancellations and bookings due to the Covid-19 outbreak.

The outbreak could affect the government’s target of achieving 30 million arrivals during the Visit Malaysia Year 2020 campaign.

“We have to accept the reality that the tourism industry is the first to be affected by the outbreak in China. The losses are suffered by all, from the airlines, hotels and homestays down to the cottage industry,” Zari said in his speech.

He said it was aimed at gathering the views and recommendations of the tourism players on how the government could assist them in cushioning the impact of the Covid-2019 outbreak.

According to Zari, the committee was established to listen to the views and recommendations of tourism players on how to recover from the weakening tourism sector.Musa said the government would push for the promotion of domestic tourism as part of the recovery plan.

He said domestic tourists, including those from neighbouring nations like Singapore, Brunei and the Philippines, had contributed RM70 billion to the economy.

“When we checked on all the hotels in the country, 86% of the occupants were Malaysians.This shows that domestic tourism has contributed much to the industry.There are two types of tourists from within Malaysia. First, there are those who visit for leisure and the second category are those here for business,” he said, adding that many of the bookings were done online”.

Musa said this is the right time for all the hotels, airlines and others to provide their inventory and promotions as the school holidays are just around the corner.