Malaysian tourism looks to a turnaround in the coming months

Kuala Lumpur

WITH Malaysia finally lifting the ban on interstate movements and relaxing restrictions on outbound international travel - now that the country has reached its target of fully vaccinating 90 per cent of its adult population - tourism analysts are hopeful that the hard-hit sector can spring back to life in the coming months.

Yap Lip Seng, the chief executive officer of the Malaysian Association of Hotels, expects the domestic tourism market to pick up first, given the fact that, in the pre-Covid era, 55 per cent of all hotel guests in the country were local.