Kuala Nerus: The domestic tourism industry is being actively revived through several strategies such as vaccination and the adoption of digital technology.
Chairman of the state Tourism, Culture and Digital Technology Committee, Ariffin Deraman, said most tour operators on the resort island and Lake Kenyir wanted to make more thorough preparations at their respective premises by taking into account various aspects of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs).
“Some owners of the premises informed me that they want tourists who come to do the smear test first as a more precautionary measure because they do not want the risk of the premises being closed after operations later.
"Similarly, the monitoring at the tourist jetties will be done by the enforcement in each district so that tourists comply with the SOP, including the number of individuals in the boat must follow the quota allowed only," he said.
He said this during a live broadcast on Ruang Bicara published by Bernama TV, recently.
Meanwhile, Ariffin also narrated the efforts to increase public confidence through vaccination initiatives to come on holiday to Terengganu and revive the domestic tourism industry.
“The public needs to be reassured that all industry players have received a complete dose injection and strict SOPs by the enforcement of government departments and agencies so that tourism activities do not become the cause of the new COVID-19 cluster.
"Apart from the focus of the vaccination program on the resort islands and Lake Kenyir, we have also been informed by the Terengganu Branch of the Malaysian Hotel Association that all employees at registered hotels also have an appointment date to receive the complete vaccine in the near future," he added.
In addition, Ariffin also shared, the state government's strategy of testing an application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) health technology known as AI Cough.
"Based on the study, the case of COVID-19 transmission in Terengganu stems from cross-state activities, so we want to use this Cough AI technology at the state border gate in order to detect the health level of an individual earlier.
“If positive, the individual should make treatment directly to a nearby health facility.
"This is one of the state government's efforts to curb the spread of the virus from outside Terengganu, thus increasing the public's confidence to travel to Terengganu," he added.
Earlier, the Prime Minister (Provisional), Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin announced that all domestic tourism activities for the state were in phase two of the National Rehabilitation Plan (PPN) and subsequently allowed to involve activities in homestays and hotels starting last August 10.
