KUCHING, June 17: A total of 16 homestay operators from Sarawak are awarded certification of excellent quality assurance under Malaysia Tourism Excellence (MaTEx) Business Certification Programme by Tourism Productivity Nexus (TPN) with full support from Malaysia Productivity Corporation (MPC), an agency under the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (Miti).
They also received certificates of compliance under TPN’s Adopt and Adhere Covid-19 standard operating procedure (SOP) guidelines.
MPC in a press statement today said MaTEx business certification programme certifies homestay operators based on satisfactory fulfilment of the industry-level standard for homestays comprising 181 indicators, while Adopt and Adhere certificate of compliance is awarded to homestay operators who score 90 per cent from 69 indicators.
The certification process, MPC added, is fully conducted online.
The certified homestay operators took advantage of the stay-at-home Movement Control Order (MCO) to improve the condition of their homestays based on the standard’s indicators.
Evidence from video recording and documents sent, which were used as parts of the evaluation, showed operators’ diligent efforts in enhancing the quality of their premises.
“This is the best time for homestay operators to improve service quality and upgrade homestay premises.
“I understand that finance can be tight due to zero income from the homestay business. Yet, some improvements do not require much finance, but ask more of your creativity and diligence.
“I commend the recipients’ improvement efforts.
“The industry-level standard developed by TPN should give good guidance to all homestay operators on quality excellence,” said MPC’s director general Datuk Abdul Latif Abu Seman in his remarks during the virtual certificate presentation to the recipients.
Meanwhile, TPN’s champion Uzaidi Udanis echoed Abdul Latif’s statement.
“I am touched by the recipients’ efforts. This is the essence of the MaTEx business certification programme is about – continuous improvement of tourism products and services.
“Yes, this is possibly the darkest time in the history of the tourism industry, but we must not stop improving.
“The certified homestay operators are also awarded Covid-19 SOP certificate of compliance to prove that their premises and services are safe and clean, and most importantly adhere to strict Covid-19 SOP,” said Uzaidi.
MaTEx business certification programme is the first industry-level certification scheme in the country which set the entry-level requirements for tourism products and services in Malaysia.
The programme was officially launched by former Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister Datuk Mohamaddin Ketapi on November 27, 2019 and since then 192 tourism businesses have been certified under the programme.
In 2020, MaTEx went through the transformation phase in shifting the certification process from the conventional face-to-face approach to the online method due to restriction in movements imposed by the MCO.
MPC noted positive reaction from the participating companies indicating that they were receptive of the process and its effectiveness for future implementation whereas TPN is strengthening the efforts to enhance the overall MaTEx certification scheme, particularly the benefits certified companies will get. — DayakDaily
