Sabah Association of Tour and Travel Agents (Satta) president Datuk Seri Winston Liaw was reported to have said, “After a study made and communicating with local operators, we found that the business of local operators has dropped due to lack of competitiveness against local China operators or joint venture (JV) operators which are offering zero tour fare packages or kickbacks on tour fares as much as RM800 to RM1,000 per person.”
He explained that under the zero tour fare arrangement, travel agents in China did not have to pay a sen when giving business to local Sabah operators, but instead they received kickbacks in the range of RM800 to RM1,000 per person.
He claimed that this scenario had greatly impacted local Sabahan operators and jeopardised their survival.
It is important that the complaint be understood clearly and articulated correctly.
Let us start with the terms zero tour fare or zero fare tours. They both mean the same, and that is tourists paid nothing for the tour.
Those who join such tours knowingly or naively will be taken for shopping disguised as sightseeing tours, and those who don’t buy or bought too little will be beleaguered, either subtly or blatantly, depending on the tour leader, tourist guide or shop assistant.
These tourists have no recourse as they have not paid for a service, which is normally bound by a contract.
But Satta president was not referring to Chinese tourists travelling on zero tour fare packages but local inbound tour operators not charging Chinese outbound tour operators for providing airport transfers and sightseeing tours in Sabah.
And not only that, some local tour operators are willing to pay Chinese outbound tour operators up to RM1,000 per head for the privilege of handling their tour groups.
With that being the case, the only party that loses out are local inbound tour operators who do not wish to bid or have submitted lower bids, while successful bidders and owners of retail outlets patronised by the Chinese tourists are laughing all the way to the bank.
It is well-known that almost a third of all visitors’ expenditure goes to shopping, and local tour operators will be doing tourists a great disservice for not facilitating this activity. But there is a fine line between ethics and cheating.
Instead of drawing the line, the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture (Motac) chose the easy way out by simply banning tour operators and tourist guides from pocketing shopping commissions.
Take Selangor Pewter for example. Its Kuala Lumpur factory had attracted millions of visitors and paid out millions of ringgit in commissions over the past decades, but not once was a tourist overcharged by a single sen. As such, Motac had always closed an eye, and rightfully so.
But the regulation regarding shopping commissions remains in force, and Motac will certainly act upon receiving a complaint from tourists. When there are no complaints, it means there are no issues; we should let sleeping dogs lie and not stir up a hornet’s nest.
The authorities should not be expected to act on complaints by tour operators that have lost out simply because they are less competitive. Just like in any other business, it does not mean every industry player is entitled to a piece of the tourism cake.
