‘This year is about survival’: on Langkawi, Malaysian holiday island, tourism staff and businesses stretched by Covid-19
- Malaysia’s border closure and domestic lockdowns to combat Covid-19 appear to have revived an ancient curse cast by a beauty who drove islanders wild
- As tourism businesses and their staff face lean times, a businessman suggests it could be time for the ‘jewel of Kedah’ to develop medical tourism and education
Langkawi’s sole historical site, surrounded by glistening rice paddies, is easily missed.
The Mahsuri Tomb is a relic of a 19th century tragedy, the final resting place of a beauty who – according to legend – drove the islanders wild with her good looks. She married a warrior but when he went to serve in a war, a jealous village chief had her framed as an adulterer. Mahsuri was executed and, with her dying breath, cursed the island for seven generations.
Langkawi was made a duty-free zone in 1987 as an incentive to lure holidaymakers. It worked; by 2016, three and a half million people were visiting the island annually. In 2018, the government announced it was “targeting 9 billion ringgit (US$2.17 billion) in tourism revenue in Langkawi by 2020”, helped by a newly expanded international airport that could handle four million passengers per year.