H.R. Institute of Hotel Management, India recently organized a Webinar entitled “Tourism and Hospitality Industry in Malaysia”. Prof. Dr. Neethiahnanthan Ari Ragavan, President of ASEAN Tourism Research Association (ATRA) & Executive Dean of Faculty of Social Sciences and Leisure Management, Taylor's University Malaysia and Dr. Puvaneswaran Kunasekaran, Honorary Treasurer of ATRA and Senior Lecturer from Taylor’s University, School of Hospitality, Tourism and Events were invited by Prof. Dr. CN Sinha, Director of HR Institute of Hotel Management to deliver a presentation.
The session was moderated by Ms. Urvashi Atri, Assistant Professor at HR Institute of Hotel Management. Various strengths of the Malaysian tourism industry were discussed. Apart from that, the impact of COVID-19 on the Malaysian tourism landscape was extensively debated during the webinar. The participants were among lecturers of the institute, graduates, and the interested public. They raised concern on global tourism post-pandemic.
The speakers suggested the urgency to design and implement proactive short-term policies by governments to make the tourism business revive in 2021. The session was fruitful and timely as it integrated the influence of the current pandemic into the main theme of the webinar. Short term travel boosting trends such as Travel Bubble, staycation, solo travel, pilgrimage tourism, domestic tourism were highlighted.
