Hotel closures left, right, and centre along with the dire state of Malaysia’s tourism industry have gotten the attention of local authorities. The plan? To slowly revive travel hot spots in Malaysia. Authorities in Kedah have taken the lead by announcing Langkawi island’s reopening in September.
But holidays to Malaysia’s foremost island doesn’t come without conditions (thanks, COVID-19). To ensure the reopening of Langkawi to visitors, the state’s legislative assembly is pushing for mass vaccination on the island with the goal to vaccinate 80% of its population. In addition, those planning to take a trip here are required to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
Unvaccinated travellers, or those jabbed with only one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, will not be permitted to enter the island at all. In Malaysia, the authorised vaccines are Pfizer/BioNTech, CanSino, Janssen (Johnson & Johnson), Oxford/AstraZeneca, and Sinovac.
There’s also hope that reopening the country’s most visited travel destinations will allow Malaysia to form travel bubbles with other countries that are also progressing towards travel recovery.
