Travel Bubble Malaysia – Langkawi starts first

Travel Bubble Malaysia – Langkawi starts first. It has just been announced by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob. News here. An earlier article about this potential was posted earlier too with my views about potential for Covid-19 cases from this travel bubble. Read it here: Langkawi as a tourism bubble and zero Covid-19 cases, possible? We can also read a little more details why Langkawi can be a good choice to try this out.

Article in freemalaysiatoday.com Tourism, arts and culture minister Nancy Shukri said the resort island was the first choice for the tourism sector because of its closed location as an island which made controls easier to manage.

“International airlines also fly to Langkawi, so it is a focused and a concentrated area for the tourism sector for those who have been fully vaccinated,” she told Bernama

Langkawi, the jewel of Kedah, with a population of 119,000 is expected to achieve herd immunity tomorrow (Aug 31). “We will set vaccination as the main criteria for travellers,” she said. D read the full article here: Article in freemalaysiatoday.com

Ready, Get Set and Fly to Langkawi soon

I do think it will be a great hit as soon as this first travel bubble Malaysia featuring Langkawi is launched on 16th September 2021. The reason is because everyone has not travelled for a long time. The temptation from a resort, a beach and lot of other attractions within an island may be too hard to resist too. Perhaps we can start with local tourists first. After all, it is to help the local businesses.

What about international tourists?

As for international tourists, it is also possible to start with Singapore too. If everything goes well with the local tourists. There are flights from Singapore to Langkawi even though they are connecting flights. Information from google.com I checked Hong Kong and it’s available too, with connecting flights as usual. We will see what is decided probably in October?

Some results from Phuket sandbox as reference

Phuket is a more famous island versus Langkawi. When it started its sandbox, it attracted 26,400 foreigners to come to Phuket and 0.3% or 83 people have tested positive for Covid-19. The sandbox scheme targeted 100,000 tourists in the third quarter but if we look at the numbers for July and August, it may be hard to achieve. Do read the full article about this news here at StraitsTimes.

By the way, even if just 8,000 local tourists arrive in Langkawi in 30 days…

8,000 divided by 2 since all would be sharing rooms. 🙂 We also assume they stay just 2 nights. That’s 4,000 rooms needed and a total of 8,000 nights booked yeah.

Assuming they spend just RM150 per room. That’s RM150 x 4000 x 2 nights = RM1.2 million

Assuming they spend just RM100 for meals. That’s 4,000 x RM100 x 2.5 days = RM1 million.

It’s okay, we will not count how much they spend on souvenirs, on car rental and on the other expenses. These additional money spent will have multiplier effects and it will really benefit the local businesses which has not been having tourists for a very long time. Now, let’s wait for the 16th September 2021 date then for this very first travel bubble Malaysia. Happy visiting if you are going to be one of them.

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