Bernama file photo for illustration purposes
KUCHING (Nov 27): The Sarawak Economic Development Corporation (SEDC) is planning to capitalise on local tourism to help boost the state’s tourism sector as well as occupancy rates in its hotels and attractions around the state.
The corporation’s chairman Tan Sri Datuk Amar Abdul Aziz Husain said SEDC will step up its effort to draw in more local tourists and visitors to its hotels and resorts in Kuching as soon as the Conditional Movement Control Order (CMCO) in the district is lifted, expected to be tonight 11.59pm.
“Of course it (Covid-19 pandemic) has affected us very badly. Occupancy rates have gone down to below 10 per cent.
“However, our hotels and resorts have benefited in some way due to local tourism especially during the weekends.
“We hope to capitalise on this local tourism after this CMCO is lifted,” he told reporters during a press conference at the Sarawak Cultural Village here today.
Abdul Aziz revealed that during the weekends, many of its properties saw a rise in the number of local tourists and visitors, which in a way had softened the impact of the pandemic on its revenues for its hotels and resorts, particularly from the food and beverages side.
“Before the CMCO, we were able to get good revenue for our hotels and resorts, especially from the food and beverages side.
“Hopefully after the CMCO is lifted with less strict measures in place, we would be able to improve on this (occupancy rates and revenue) situation,” he said.
Asked if SEDC had carried out retrenchment to ensure business stays afloat, Abdul Aziz said the corporation had never carried out such practices and will only relocate its employees to other areas where they could be of more use.
“So far we have not retrenched people. Of course we do have some people who left or retired, but we are not replacing them.
“But as far as possible we will retain and try to place them in some other areas where they can be useful,” he said.
At the same time, Abdul Aziz said SEDC is also playing its part to help the business community struggling in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic.
One of them was rental exemption for Small-Medium Enterprises (SMEs) tenants renting at the corporation’s premises, and charging only 50 per cent rent to non SMEs.
“We have a lot of tenants in our premises and we are following the government to give free rental to SMEs. We won’t charge them rental till the end of the year.
“But tenants which are not SMEs we only charge 50 per cent rental,” he said.
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