Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing
PETALING JAYA: Domestic hoteliers should have confidence in the government to improve the ringgit's value, says the Tourism, Arts and Culture Ministry.
Its minister Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing, believes domestic hoteliers would give the government sufficient time to recover our economy.
Tiong commented that domestic hoteliers had urged hotels to increase room rates to increase yields, and consider charging tourists in US dollars to mitigate higher costs from raising the minimum wage, overtime payments and electricity charges.
He said now that the US dollar is strong, there may be a day when the US dollar drops.
"People and hoteliers should have faith in the government's efforts to raise the ringgit exchange rate, just as we must have faith in our country.
"Give the government some time; efforts are being made to attract foreign investment," he said after launching the Malaysia Budget and Business Hotel Association (MyBHA) 23rd-anniversary dinner on Thursday (June 22).
The Malaysian Association of Hotel Owners (Maho) President Teo Chiang Hong said tourism and the hotel business had not recovered fully from before the pandemic, and hotel room rates are still low and not at the level they should have been after dropping rates by 30% to 40%. Tiong said the government recognised that the pandemic had severely impacted the hotel business, and he expressed this to the Prime Minister for additional funds to support the hotel industry, including funding to upgrade tourism facilities.
Earlier, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim announced three key efforts to promote market activity and the attractiveness of the local capital market.
According to him, the ringgit is projected to strengthen as a result of efforts taken to enhance the local capital market.
The first critical step, he says, is to broaden investment and wealth creation options for people, including attracting a broader pool of investors to help small and medium-sized firms (SMEs) and emerging economies.
In addition, he stated that market and structural reforms must be completed in order to restore faith in the country's dynamism and competitiveness.
