First and foremost, the negative impact of pandemic covid-19 is leading the Malaysian

economy to a decline. According to News Straits Times,2020, “The impact on the economy
is debilitating. Its beggar belief for anyone to say the Malaysian economy is doing just fine. It
is not, has been slowing down and will slow down further with the dislocations and
contractions caused by the pandemic. There is a credible forecast of a 80 percent chance of a
global recession, as bad as if not worse than that which followed the 2008 Western Financial
Crisis.” It shows that Malaysian economy decline during the pandemic that cause leading to
the devaluation the value of Malaysian Ringgit. The pandemic also affected several key
sectors of economy in Malaysia.

One of the biggest sectors experiencing a decline in the economy is the tourism sector
which has a sharp decline that contributes to the value of the ringgit in Malaysia. Based on
Tourism Malaysia Website,2020, Malaysia welcomed 4,299,419 tourists from January until
September 2020. In comparison, Malaysia welcomed over 20.1 million tourist arrivals for the
same period last year, so it shows that decreasing of 78.6% from last year. Besides that, it is
more affected when Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin has been announced a total
lockdown in Malaysia. Because of that, all economy sectors except essential and economic
sectors under the National Security Council (MKN), not allowed to operate. So, the economy
activities especially in tourism sector more effected. After that when Prime Minister
announced Movement Control Order (MCO) several plans of tourism were cancelled. It is
because the states that in phase 1 and 2 of inter-state and inter-district travel is not allowed,
unless with express permission from the police. According to Nancy (2020) during MCO a
freeze on all over the counter and online services for new application, license renewal of
travel operating business and travel, tourist guide, tourism training institute and registration
of rated tourist accommodation premises as well as spa and foot massage centre. So, it will
affect the economy sector include the tourism activities involving citizens and foreign
tourists.

Not only that, the Visit Malaysia 2020 campaign also had to be cancelled. “In 2019,
the tourism industry recorded a contribution of 15.9 percent (RM 240.2 billion) to Malaysia
Gross Domestic product (GDP) as compared to 15.2 percent (RM 220.4 billion) in 2018.
Because of that, it is the main reason Malaysia launched Visit Malaysia 2020 campaign
which aimed to welcome 30 million tourists to Malaysia and register RM 100 billion in
tourist receipts. But unfortunately, pandemic Covid-19 came and it had affected the tourism
sector and the campaign was forced to be cancelled. (Goh, Beh, Lin 2021). So, it shows that
Malaysia suffered net losses due to decline in tourism sector.

An addition, the fall of tourism in Malaysia and the decline in global crude oil prices
will reduce the demand for ringgit, causing its value to drop. (Liew Kwan Jet,2020). Those
are the main contributors to the country's economy. If one of each fall or decline so the
economy will decline also and suffered net losses. According to Liew Kwan jet (2020), stated
that as for Malaysia’s stock exchange, Bursa Malaysia had sunk to its lowest in the last 10
years, falling by a staggering 20.52% since the start of 2020, as of March 27, 2020. It is
because the tourism sector like Airline or hotels cannot operated as usual because of
movement control order which causes it to slow down more than before.

For example, the government suffered significant losses as a result of travelers being forced
to postpone their trips and cancel hotel bookings.