KOTA KINABALU: The Malaysian Association of Tour and Travel Agents (Matta) hopes the government will fast track the deployment of the appropriate military assets and supporting infrastructure as soon as possible.
KL Tan
Matta Malaysia vice-president (Inbound) KL Tan pointed out that this is because safety and security are main factors for tourist selecting a holiday destination.
“We at Matta extend our heartfelt condolences to the family members of the marine police who was killed in the attack on Mabul island. We also hoped the other missing marine police will be found unharmed,” he said in a statement yesterday.
He said that Matta viewed the latest incident as a blatant challenge to the country’s sovereignty and it is also affecting tourism and investments in Sabah.
Tan stressed that the latest incident continued to adversely impact the tourism industry especially the diving sector in Sabah which is the leading dive sector for Malaysia and attracts some 63,000 divers annually to Sipadan and the nearby islands.
According to him the tourism industry is at a lull at the moment mainly due to the missing MH370 early March this year and kidnapping incidents the last few months.
The Football World Cup 2014 in Brazil has also influenced travelling pattern of tourists.
However, Tan refuted claims that the industry is collapsing and explained that the dive industry makes up some 6 per cent of the total tourism contribution.
Other components not adversely affected are the MICE, golf, and leisure and recreational components of the tourism industry concentrated on the West Coast and other locations in Sabah.
With regard to the declining Chinese arrivals which make up some 40 per cent of the estimated 3.5 million tourist arrivals to Sabah, Tan hoped the negative public sentiments of the Chinese travellers would be over.
“Give them time to heal their emotions and anger. We hope to recover by early October this year,” he said and urged the stakeholders not be unduly distracted by the current security issues and while waiting for the government to enhance security and confidence in the industry, it is timely to revisit current marketing strategies, service quality and product development to boost tourist arrivals to Sabah.
“Tourism has proven to be a resilient area capable of withstanding a challenging environment and there are various elements to boost travel and tourism growth.
“Other issues that we need to focus on are the airfare which is cheaper for Malaysians to travel to regional destinations rather than coming to Sabah and the increasing number of unlicensed vans and taxis providing excursion services depriving bona fide tour operators of business,” he added.
MATTA, he said, had made some proposals for changes to the Tourism Industry Act 1992 and tourism policies on licensing, tourists guides as well as enforcement.
“But we are not making good progress in our representation to the Ministry of Tourism in Putrajaya. This is disappointing for the industry,” Tan lamented.