LETTER | Travel associations are one too many

LETTER | In 1963, the Kuala Lumpur Tourist Association (KLTA) was set up before the government established Tourist Development Corporation (TDC) in 1972. KLTA was wrongly named but TDC followed suit.

This is because tourists visiting Kuala Lumpur do not need an association and likewise, TDC should develop tourism, not tourist. This was pointed out in a forum that TDC’s name should be changed to Tourism Development Corporation, but the director-general retorted that he was not there to discuss grammar.

In 1987, a new Culture, Arts and Tourism Ministry was created and TDC became the marketing arm with the name changed to Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board (MTPB) or in short Tourism Malaysia. KLTA was renamed Kuala Lumpur Tourism Association 13 years later.

Earlier in 1975, the Malaysian Association of Tour and Travel Agents (Matta) was established and remained by far the largest travel association in the country with details of all corporate members listed in its website, numbering 3,649 as in May 2020.

In 1981, Persatuan Syarikat Pengendalian Pelancongan Bumiputera Malaysia, better known as Bumitra Malaysia, was set up; followed by the Malaysian Chinese Tourism Association (MCTA) in 1992; and the Malaysian Indian Tour and Travel Association (Mitta) in 1997.

The Malaysian Inbound Tourism Association (Mita) was formed in 2004, and it is a tourism association that includes souvenir shops, restaurants, and other service providers. Then we have a latecomer in the form of Malaysian Inbound Chinese Association (Mica) set up in 2016.

Another new entrant is Persatuan Agensi Pelancongan Umrah & Haji (Papuh) or Association for Travel Agencies of Umrah & Hajj Malaysia. All licensed travel and tour companies must be a member in at least one of the abovementioned associations, other than Mica.

The other association car rental companies with an inbound licence may join is the Car Rental Association of Malaysia (CRAM), which started as the Car Rental Association of Kuala Lumpur and Selangor in the mid-1980s with members from the Klang Valley.

The names of these travel, tourism and car rental associations clearly indicate their purpose, except for a new upstart that was registered in October 2019 as Persatuan Agensi Pelancongan Malaysia and can be translated as Malaysia Association Tour Agency (Mata).

It chose to publicise its brand name Mata, which closely resembled that of Matta. Whether intentional or otherwise, it had caused confusion with the public including the media, with some reporting Mata president, a former Matta president, as current Matta president.

The aim was probably after the lucrative Matta Fairs, as a travel fair was held by Mata from March 13 to 15 at the Putra World Trade Centre, on the same dates and venue Matta Fair was to be held but cancelled because of Covid-19 outbreak.

But with the collapse of the tourism industry, there is little left to fight for except pride fuelled by ego. In the past, association leaders mollycoddled by politician ministers were riding high, but all these are now over as limited budgets are now stretched thin by the pandemic.

With so many associations and no shortage of vocal leaders, the Tourism, Arts and Culture Ministry (Motac) should have received many fresh and sound proposals to revive tourism after Covid-19 is contained and movement control order (MCO) or conditional MCO is lifted.

These proposals, if sound, can bring much hope to travel industry players when announced by Motac. Perhaps they were echoing what was already well known and more on rescue measures such as preventing travel and tour companies from collapsing or retrenching staff.

If so, Motac should organise a public forum when it is safe to do so and open to suggestions by individual industry players who wish to put forward their ideas for public scrutiny. Some of the concepts may speed up tourism recovery and save many tour businesses and jobs.

Like political parties, tourism and travel association leaders are mostly elected by their members. This does not mean that the best and the brightest minds cannot be found among the rakyat and members. After all, associations are pseudo-political parties for their industry. 

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.