JOHOR BARU: The implementation of the Vaccinated Travel Lane-Land (VTL-Land) has not had any economic spillover effect on the local businesses in the city as the traffic volume is still limited.

       According to Lan Collection owner Roslan Harun, he had eagerly hoped that the VTL-Land would help to increase business, which once focused mainly on Singaporean customers before the pandemic hit.

       "Since the closing of the borders, my customers have been 100% locals.

       "I was really hoping that VTL-Land could help bring back some customers but until today, the situation has not improved much," said Roslan, who sells Baju Melayu, when contacted on Friday (Dec 10).

       However, Roslan, 42, said his business picked up about 40% since the government announced Johor would go into Phase 4 of the National Recovery Plan (NRP).

       "We have started to get bookings and orders from local customers. So far, everything has been running smoothly.

       "But I still hope that I could get back the number of customers during the pre-pandemic period with more people now allowed to travel," he said.

       De Aurora jewellery store owner Dayana Haironi, 31, said there have been requests from her customers in Singapore to send items via post.

       "But our insurance does not cover postal losses, even though the demand is there, so we are not able to fulfil their requests.

       "So far, most of our customers are locals. I think this is probably because the majority of our Singaporean customers are still reluctant to cross the border," she said.

       SPV Textile owner C. Suresh, 49, who owns a clothing store in Jalan Trus here also agreed.

       He said the majority of those travelling into Johor were locals who are returning home from the island republic and not spending money to buy things.

       "Those who travel via VTL go straight back home as they have been across the border for quite some time, so their priority is to see their family.

       "But I managed to get back 50% of sales based on the support of local customers," he said.

       Since the start of the VTL-Land on Nov 29, a total of 11,963 travellers had crossed the Malaysia-Singapore borders via the Causeway.