Jail illegal tour operators – MATTA

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KOTA KINABALU: Legitimate tour and travel operators are clamouring for the relevant authorities to conduct stricter enforcement on unlicensed operators, which they claimed are bigger in numbers than those that are licensed.

The mushrooming of unlicensed tour operators is affecting not only the business of those who are legitimate, but also the tourism industry and image as a whole.

President of the Malaysian Association of Tour and Travel agents (MATTA), Hamzah Rahmat, said that while there are enough laws and regulations pertaining to the matter, there is lack of stringent enforcement on the part of the authorities concerned.

“We have enough laws. All that needs to be done is to enforce the stiffest of penalties as laid out in the law; send the culprits to jail or impose the heftiest fines on them.

“I believe that if these steps are carried out seriously, these illegal operators will not dare to try their luck again. But unfortunately, this is not the case, hence, the mushrooming of unlicensed tour operators,” said Hamzah, when chairing a press conference on unlicensed tour operators organised by MATTA Sabah chapter, at a hotel here yesterday.

Under the Tourism Vehicle Licensing Act 1999, unlicensed tour operators can be liable to a fine of not more than RM10,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or both upon conviction. Repeated offenders would be liable to a daily fine of not more than RM500 for each day during which the offence continues to be committed.

MATTA Sabah chapter president, Robert Chong, disclosed that based on MoTAC Sabah statistics, only 34 unlicensed tour vehicles have been nabbed during integrated operations with the Road Transport Department (RTD) from October 2013 to April 2014.

This number, said Robert, is not reflective of the actual situation.

According to Hamzah, there are some 3,000 MATTA members nationwide and about 400 in Sabah alone, at present. Unlicensed tour operators are found to be more than these numbers, as claimed by the members.

He said that while the authorities, especially the Ministry of Tourism and Culture Malaysia (MoTAC), may have their own challenges in enforcing the laws to nab illegal operators, it is unacceptable considering the technology available in current times.

MATTA vice president (inbound), KL Tan said that MoTAC as the custodian of the tourism industry should advise Parliament to make the necessary changes to the existing laws so nabbing of illegal tour operators could be enforced easily.

Many of these unlicensed operators, he said, are operating their business on the pretext of taking their ‘relatives’ or ‘friends’, making it difficult for them to be charged as illegal tour operators.

On another note, Hamzah noted that the present guiding system in the tourism industry has become obsolete.

“I’ve been promoting the need to change our way of doing business. Especially on the part of tour guides, we have to bring ourselves to the level of advanced countries. We are a country aiming to become a developed country in 2020, which is not too far away from now. But we are still adapting (guiding) practices based on 20 years ago.

“In advanced countries, he said, guides are only engaged at the points of interest. So there is no term such as ‘tour guides’, only local guides.

“We should do away with the tour guiding system (here) because it adds on to the cost of operations, tour packages.

He said that there had been instances of tour guides caught on camera to be sleeping (during transfer journeys).

“We are not saying that we don’t need guides. We do. But we need to promote local guides whereby tourists only engage guides once they reach their points of interest,” said Hamzah.