{"id":71022,"date":"2020-04-21T12:46:46","date_gmt":"2020-04-21T04:46:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=71022"},"modified":"2020-04-21T12:46:49","modified_gmt":"2020-04-21T04:46:49","slug":"covid-19-mco-leaves-langkawis-famous-chenang-beach-eerily-quiet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=71022","title":{"rendered":"COVID-19: MCO leaves Langkawi’s famous Chenang beach eerily quiet"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
LANGKAWI: An aerial shot of the Kilim Karst Geo-Forestpark, a popular destination in the island for those looking for eco-tourism activities including bird watching, now looking quiet under the MCO. Tourism industry players in the island have been urged to come up with ideas to navigate through this tough period by offering attractive packages to domestic tourists in the months following the cessation of the MCO period.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

LANGKAWI (Kedah, Malaysia) April 21 (NNN-BERNAMA) — A few weeks back it would have been unimaginable to see the famous Chenang Beach in Langkawi Island looking as deserted as it is now, but this is the stark reality brought in by\u00a0the Covid-19 pandemic and the implementation of the Movement Control Order (MCO)\u00a0since March 18.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Without the\u00a0presence of local and foreign tourists, the normally bustling beach, synonymous with water sports and recreational activities, is now eerily quiet, a reflection of Langkawi’s tourism industry that has been adversely affected by the virus outbreak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Langkawi Tourist Guide\u00a0Association (LTGA) president Ardi Bahador said its 220 members who were the island\u2019s ‘tourism ambassadors’ had lost their income and were now contemplating their future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMajority of the association members are full-timers, freelancers and the daily tour guides,\u00a0that the presence of tourists have been their source of income. The current situation is very hard on them. Some did try e-hailing services and to operate online businesses but still cannot cope with the increasingly challenging life,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ardi said association members were grateful for the one-off assistance of RM600 received for registered tour guides and still hoped for more assistance due to the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on the tourism industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere are members who have received the one-off assistance, while some are still in the process. In addition, we really hope the state government\u2019s assistance to tour guides will be extended not only to the Kedah-born guides but also to members of the association who have been residing in Kedah for a long time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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LADA CEO Dr. Hezri Adnan.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, Langkawi Development Authority (LADA) chief executive officer Dr Hezri Adnan said the COVID-19 outbreak has had a devastating impact on almost all residents, not only those from the tourism sector but also from other economic sectors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said Langkawi was a \u2018green zone\u2019 as the last COVID-19 patient had been recovered and discharged from the Sultanah Maliha Hospital, but the tourism sector was still unable to function during the MCO period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe tourism industry contributes 60 per cent to the island, so when the tourist arrivals dropped dramatically the situation has become very challenging. There are about 150 travel agencies registered with the Malaysian Association\u00a0of Tour and\u00a0Travel Agents\u00a0(MATTA)\u00a0and with no arrival of tourists, they will face the risk of unemployment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAlso adversely affected are the \u2018beach boys\u2019 as they are unable to generate any income without the presence of tourists. In today\u2019s COVID-19 situation, I do not see how international travellers can arrive in three months, but hopefully they will, in six months, perhaps,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hezri said LADA was currently in the midst of gathering ideas from the industry players for the best way to navigate the tough situation through offering attractive packages to domestic tourists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

— NNN-BERNAMA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LANGKAWI (Kedah, Malaysia) April 21 (NNN-BERNAMA) — A few weeks back it would have been unimaginable to see the famous Chenang Beach in Langkawi Island looking as deserted as it is now, but this is the stark reality brought in by\u00a0the Covid-19 pandemic and the implementation of the Movement Control Order (MCO)\u00a0since March 18. Without […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":71032,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[213,208,215,288,300,209,318,217],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71022"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=71022"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71022\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/71032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=71022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=71022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=71022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}