Tourism players discuss action plans
Published on: Tuesday, February 11, 2020
By: David Thien
KOTA KINABALU: The Malaysian Association of Tours and Travel Agents (Matta) called on the mass media, including social media, to help Malaysia’s tourism industry by highlighting more positive news on the country as the Federal Government moves to provide stimulus to help tourism players.
“We have submitted our memorandum to the Ministry of Finance and will be meeting Minister Lim Guan Eng,” Matta national President Datuk Tan Kok Liang said, stressing that Malaysia’s and Sabah’s tourism products remain attractive and this fact should not be negatively distorted by news on the outbreak of the Wuhan coronavirus affecting the influx of China tourists into Sabah.
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He claimed that due to unsubstantiated negative news, some tourists from the non-China market were influenced which led to unnecessary cancellations of booked travel and tours affecting many tourism players and worried bankers over viability of loans to the business community.
This was aggravated by reported claim of unsubstantiated losses which only served to be alarmist to bankers with imagination of travel agencies being insolvent.
There is no case of any tourist or local admitted for treatment in Sabah due to Wuhan virus illness to date.
“I am here to brief our Sabah chapter members and to go through our recovery plans with good packages supported by all skateholders and tourism players – hotels, airlines, Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture, Tourism Malaysia with more focus on domestic tourism and tourists from Asean with a population of more than 600 million,” said Tan.
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He was speaking at a press conference after the Crisis Management Meeting with Matta members and industry stakeholders at Promenade Hotel, Monday.
He recalled a RM60 billion economic stimulus package in 2009 to help Malaysia weather the global economic crisis and similarly being boosted by such aid would be helpful for Malaysia now to meet the 30 million tourist arrival target in Visit Malaysia Year 2020 to earn RM100 billion in tourism revenue.
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At the event, Air Asia spokeswoman indicated that the budget airline would be promoting cheaper fares to boost domestic and Asean tourism. She said airlines were currently stressed by three different rulings for China tourists’ entry, namely into Sabah, Sarawak and West Malaysia.
Sabah has barred all China flights to the State, as well as allowing only seven-day extension of visas to those currently in the State. Sarawak imposed quarantine restriction only on those who had visited China while Peninsular Malaysia is allowing China flights except those from Wuhan and three other regions.
The Federal Government is also allowing 14-day and a month’s extension for visas.
Tan hailed the Air Asia promotion as well as on offers by Malaysia Airlines whose spokesman asked the public check its website for promotion packages.
Boosting domestic tourism was touted as the best measure to counter the downturn expected from the decline in the influx of China tourists due to the current Wuhan novel coronavirus outbreak.
On a suggestion to give discount, a local tourism player responded: “There is no business so how to give discount. This is not the time to talk about giving discount. There is a need to act against illegal operators. This is tough time for travel agents.”
It was learnt that Malaysia Airports and Malaysia Tourism are expected to provide incentives to boost air travel among Malaysians particularly to boost domestic tourism.
Travel agencies and tour guides were advised by Sabah Tourism General Manager Noredah Othman to take any downtime to focus on attracting tourists from markets like Brunei, India and Russia.
“If we get more budget from the State Government, we are happy to do more to promote our tourism attractions,” Noredah said, with the possibility of getting Sabah Parks and Forestry Department’s parks to waive or reduce entrance or admission fees.
Tourism Malaysia Sabah Director Jamilah Abdul Halim would be holding a townhall meeting with skateholders and players on Wednesday. She was optimistic about growing the Brunei market segment as well as MICE events with the completion of the Sabah International Convention Centre (SICC) this year. Among the programmes lined up by Tourism Malaysia this year at SICC include PATA Meeting 2019.
Malaysia Tourism is going to incentivise MICE agencies with tactical campaign with Malaysia Airlines. Matta will hold a similar session in Tawau this Wednesday.
Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture Malaysia, Sabah Office Director Ag Ahmad Zaki Abu Bakar offered various incentives from tourist guide fees to licensing rates.
Veteran tourism player Albert Teo said: “We should not be engrossed with being in a reactive mode, but look forward to the future.” He called on tourism players to be less dependent on the government for aid but build up their business resilience in the face of disruptions brought about by a Black Swan event like the 2019-nCoV contagion.
Datuk Tan Kok Liang concurred with the need to be forward-looking and work towards a planned recovery for the China market segment.
When STB’s Noredah complained that some Koreans were not allowed to get refunds on their hotel bookings, a hotel industry spokesman retorted as to why airlines were not asked the same. Hoteliers insisted that refunds were made to China customers.
Airline representatives then insisted that refunds were accorded to cancellations on the China-Sabah routes.
“We need to work on a two-year recovery plan,” Teo suggested to Matta, hoping for success in organising a tourism conference in Kota Kinabalu as was the case during the last haze hit season for Sabah in the recent past, after the SARS incident and others.
On spending funds to promote tourism, Teo opined that its pointless to spend when people don’t travel.
According to him, “This is the best time to upgrade facilities, tourists have been avoiding potholes or whatever holes we have. We should not give up. It’s no longer business as usual.”
Teo called for support for the Sabah Government’s focus on rural tourism, including homestay where tourism players need to “grow and learn the skills.”
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