BUILDING the confidence level is essential to reviving the business events in the state as well as nationwide, says Penang Convention & Exhibition Bureau (PCEB) chief executive officer Ashwin Gunasekaran.
Ashwin shared this during the virtual discussion ‘Tuesday Talk LIVE – The Future of BE in Malaysia’ hosted by Mona Abdul Manap on May 5.
“The tourism industry has been badly damaged globally due to the Covid-19 pandemic. It actually contributes 10 percent of the global gross domestic product (GDP).
“What we need to focus now is the destination itself, let it be in Penang or even Malaysia. We, as the host, could recover fast but our clients could be still halfway through the whole process.
“So, now we are working on the initiatives to build the safety measures or in other words, the confidence level with regard to business event industry or the tourism industry in general,” said Ashwin.
Elaborating on building the safety measures, Ashwin said of utmost importance is initiating the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for venues, hotels, bureaus, biding system and the destination.
“We need to think from the perspective of our clients, if we were in their place definitely we would look for an assurance that the destination is safe.
“It is important to have these SOPs to show that we are ready to offer our services,” he said.
According to Ashwin, Penang has taken the next step to rejuvenate the industry whereby it will take at least six months to a year to get back on track.
“When I mentioned that six months to a year, it is based on the ripple effect model. So, Penang will be now focusing on the national business (domestic business).
“We are all at a stage where we need to recover the national economy. It is only right that we start back from our home ground to rejuvenate our own platform in business event or tourism as a whole,” he added.
In this respect, Ashwin said the state government has formed a task force to strategise ways to restore the tourism industry.
“We just had our first virtual meeting with the industry players and stakeholders. It was chaired by our Chief Minister.
“The task force will function as a listening ear to the problems faced by the industry players as well as give them an insight on the direction that the state government is heading towards.
“Soon, PCEB will be also forming our own task force which will then give input to the task force set up by the state government,” Ashwin said.
Ashwin added that Penang has its support programme pertaining to the recovery of the industry.
“We do have a programme called ‘Privilege Penang’ which has been around for quite some time. Now due to this current situation, we are launching a new programme called ‘Enhanced Privilege Penang’.
“Besides giving more incentives to the industry partners, we are looking into supporting national meetings and even regionally as well as globally from as low as 20 person,” said Ashwin.
He believed that post pandemic three main industries would take the lead, namely technology, medical and medical sciences and pharmaceutical in the business event.
The education sector and the research sector relevant to these industries, he said, would also be changing according to the trend.
Also joining him were Malaysia Convention & Exhibition Bureau (MyCEB) CEO Datuk Sri Abdul Khani bin Daud, Sarawak Convention Bureau acting CEO Amelia Roziman, Sabah Tourism Board general manager Noredah Othman and Asia Pacific Chapter International Congress & Convention Association (ICCA) director Noor Ahmad Hamid.
Abdul Khani agreed with Ashwin’s idea of the need to focus on the domestic business.
“I had a meeting with my team yesterday on how we could develop our own resilience in the business event.
“Just like what Ashwin had mentioned, we can focus on the domestic corporate sectors where
we have a lot of ‘incentive’ companies in the country.
“Once the borders at our neighbouring countries such as Brunei, Singapore and Thailand are open, we can also focus on bringing back business into Malaysia. We do not have to go far,” said Khani, who also suggested looking into regional marketing.
Amelia and Noredah exchanged opinions on how Sabah and Sarawak could forge a closer tie with each other to restore the industry.
Noor Ahmad Hamid, in his part, encouraged all the industry partners to work together and come up with a good recovery plan.
The 5th edition of TuesdayTalk LIVE was organised by Place Borneo Sdn Bhd together with the Malaysian Association of Convention and Exhibition Organisers and Suppliers (MACEOS).
Story by Tanushalini Moroter