Wednesday, July 16, 2008

WEDNESDAY 16 JULY 2008- GOVT TO CONTINUE HOLDING FUNCTIONS AT HOTELS: MASIDI


Govt to continue holding functions at hotels: Masidi

KOTA KINABALU:

It has been decided that the State Government will continue to hold its functions at hotels on condition that ways to reduce cost and save money are applied. Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Masidi Manjun, who disclosed this yesterday, said he has discussed the matter with Chief Minister Datuk Sen Musa Aman, as this way the hotel industry will continue to grow and develop. He said it must be taken into consideration that the Lourism industry contributes greatly to the State’s revenue. The cancellation of Government’s functions and events at hotels will be detrimental to its revenue, he said. It will also result in an increase in unemployment when hotels start reducing staff because of poor business, he said. Masidi, who was met after a briefing with tourism players yesterday, said hoteliers in the State and those in the industry- have appealed to the Government to rescind the decision. “I fully support this call because even though the Government’s expenses are reduced, we forgot to consider the implication for the economy and those working in hotels,” he said. “When we reduce the Government’s sponsorship for hotels, we are in actual fact, reducing the hotels’ revenue and sometime the hotels have to take the drastic step of reducing staff,” he said. This is a new problem for the Government, he said, adding that the second problem is hotels and those in the related industry play a big part in generating the Government’s revenue. “So when we reduce the income, we (the Government) will get less returns in terms of tax collected from the hotel industry. I don’t understand how this decision can help the Government strengthen its economy when in the end, the Government’s income is greatly reduced because the hoteliers are not making any profit,” he said.

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