SINGAPORE — Hotels that hosted guests who were suspected or confirmed to have the Wuhan coronavirus will have up to half of their additional cleaning and disinfection costs covered, the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) said on Sunday (Feb 2).

The STB will also waive licence fees for all hotels, travel agents and tourist guides in efforts to mitigate the impact of the coronavirus, which has infected 18 people here — mostly Chinese nationals from Wuhan — so far. 

As the first in a broad set of measures, the STB will waive licence fees for hotels for the rest of this year, while travel agents and guides who need to renew their licences this year will not need to pay to renew their fees.

The full details of the relief measures will be revealed during the Budget on Feb 18. 

The STB will cover up to 50 per cent of third-party professional cleaning fees, it said in a press release on Sunday.

This will be capped at S$20,000 per hotel with confirmed cases, and S$10,000 per hotel with suspected cases — backdated to Jan 23 when the first case was reported.

Affected hotels can apply for this package from Feb 10 to April 30, after which the STB said it will assess the situation to see if further help is required. 

Hotels can email STB_Incentives [at] stb.gov.sg for more information.

During a visit on Sunday to Oasia Hotel Downtown in Tanjong Pagar, where a guest confirmed to have the coronavirus stayed at, Minister for Trade and Industry Chan Chun Sing said that the tourism industry has already seen a “direct impact” from the outbreak.

But the Government’s primary focus will be on job sustainability for Singaporeans, he added.

“What we must expect at this point in time is that the shock is not just isolated to China… And as the rest of the world progressively tightens their border controls, there will also be serious implications on tourism and other industries, including manufacturing and elsewhere,” Mr Chan said.

Affected companies facing cash flow problems can also approach Enterprise Singapore for help, he added.

Manpower Minister Josephine Teo, who was also at Oasia Hotel Downtown, noted that the hotel’s workers have had to take on extra workload. 

This is due to a need to give guests added assurance, such as by increasing the frequency of cleaning, or a result of workers having been asked to go on leave of absence.

On how the labour force has been impacted by a mandatory 14-day leave of absence for those who have recently travelled to China, Mrs Teo estimated that about 30,000 work pass holders — less than 1 per cent of the workforce — of Chinese nationality have left Singapore and not returned yet.

This does not include Singaporeans who have travelled to China and would be required to go on a leave of absence.

Most companies have seen “one or two” employees affected by the leave of absence, which Mrs Teo said were “fairly small numbers, manageable at the company level”.