Being a popular tourist destination, Penang welcomes the opening of international borders with “green countries”.


This is following the Director-General of Health, Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah’s announcement that six countries as Singapore, Brunei, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and South Korea being in this safe category.

Datuk Dr Noor Hisham had also announced that Malaysia has begun discussions with these six “green” countries.

Accordingly, Penang State Exco for Tourism, Arts, Culture and Heritage, Yeoh Soon Hin has also expressed his support for the opening of international borders with “green countries”.


Yeoh said he has earlier proposed the “travel bubble” approach in order to gradually ease into restarting international travel and tourism industries during the new norm.

“I had earlier written to the Tourism Minister, Dato Seri’ Nancy Shukri last month to propose this approach for Federal consideration as this could be a viable solution to begin with, rather than total reopening of international borders.

“This is to ensure that our efforts made in risk mitigation measures for months long in controlling Covid-19 are sustained,” he said in a statement recently.

As the tourism and its hospitality industry in the state is greatly dependent on local and foreign tourist arrivals, the move will greatly help in the recovery of the state’s economy overall.