TripZillaMalaysia’s tourism tax has officially kicked in, with roughly half of the 10,000 hotels nationwide collecting an additional RM10 nightly from foreign tourists since yesterday.
This is expected to be implemented throughout all hotels operators, which are expected to register for the tourism tax by the end of September. Hoteliers also have to display the tourism tax rate separate from the room rates.
According to the Malaysian Association of Hotels president Sam Cheah Swee, “Not all hotel operators are ready. We will do it manually until the system is ready.”
Initially, the tourism tax was planned to be implemented on August 1 and to include domestic travellers. It was then delayed, and exemption was made for locals and permanent residents.
The rate is also now fixed at a flat RM10 across all hotel classifications, instead of a range between RM2 to RM20 as initially announced.
