The Malaysian Hotels Association of Malaysia (MAH) Kedah and Perlis are ready to accept the presence of both domestic and foreign tourists in boosting the tourism sector severely affected by COVID-19.

Its chairman, Eugene Dass, said all preparations including adopting standard operating procedures (SOP) and new normal tourism were also implemented with regard to hotel operations.

He said promotional efforts were also being made including providing attractive packages for the public to offer.

"This has been discussed with stakeholders including hotel operators, especially the SOP issued by the Ministry of Health (MOH) before the start of operations.

"The SOP has also been distributed to all hotels under MAH and according to a study found, 35 per cent of the preparations were made involving new levels of training and normal practices such as social incarceration and so on," he said through the AWANI Newsletter program on Monday.

Following the COVID-19 pandemic and the implementation of the Movement Control Order (CPP) since March, the tourism sector has been among the worst affected by the dismissal of workers and the termination of operations involving the hospitality industry.

Eugene said MAH was committed to negotiating with stakeholders including local airlines to offer reasonable prices to the public.

"There is no doubt that the cost of operations will increase after almost three months of non-operation and be forced to comply with the new SOP, but we will endeavor to hold discussions with several parties to identify the best way of offering prices such as discount to visitors," he said.