The Malay Mail
TMM,Thursday 22 September 2011
KL: Travel Industry
Nothing much to show after 40 years
Once again, Malaysia is on the radar of the world tourism industry with the recent announcement that the 46th United Federation of Travel Agents Association (UFTAA) Congress will be staged here in 2012.
This will be exactly 40 years after the 1972 Pacific Area Travel Association (Pata) Conference held in Kuala Lumpur, which was the watershed of our tourism industry.
Our government, through its national tourism organisation, has earmarked 2013 as the next Visit Malaysia Year. However, it may not put a stop to other countries proclaiming their “Visit My Country” in the same year.
Therefore, the Malaysian Association of Tour & Travel Agents (Matta) ought to be congratulated for bringing the annual UFTAA Congress back to our shores so soon, after hosting it in 2002.
The size and influence of UFTAA is enormous. Matta alone has 2,800 corporate members and it is just one of the 100 national travel associations in UFTAA.
Larger members of Matta are in the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) category. The majority of the members are micro or tiny. The travel industry is driven more by passion than professionalism.
Matta members are mainly involved in airline ticketing, hotel reservations, outbound and inbound tours, rental of tour buses, vans and cars, management of events such as meetings and conferences, and sale of cruises and other travel-related services.
The government introduced licensing of tourist guides in 1975, and Tour Operating Business and Travel Agency Business (TOBTAB) in 1986.
These measures ensured some control but there has been no significant progress in the travel industry other than modern day conveniences such as hand phones, Internet, computerisation and modern highways.
Take road transport, for example. During the 1972 Pata Conference, the low-deck monocoque buses used were fitted with air-suspension. They were much more stable, solid, safer and comfortable than the high-decker and double-decker buses we have today.
In 1975, the bus charter rate was RM500 per day and it has yet to double after 35 years whereas the price of a new Mercedes sedan or a double-storey linked house has risen by more than 15 times.
Some of the licensing conditions for tour buses, vans and cars have been a hindrance to the industry and have not helped to raise safety standards or service quality.
Although Matta has continuously engaged with the various authorities and resolved some of the issues, thorny problems remained. This is hardly surprising as new officials tackled the same old problems by starting from scratch all over again.
What both the public and private sectors have failed to do is to set their own detailed policy on various road transport matters. Such a policy should be beyond the usual vision and mission statements of an organization.
An open and transparent policy in place would reflect the wishes of the industry as it can be vetted by hundreds of stakeholders and strengthened over time through continuous reviews. On the other hand, talks involve only a few representatives.
As such, Matta should determine and state clearly its position on various issues with supporting data in a strong official document. It will then be up to the authorities to accept, amend or reject with explanation.
Similarly, the 20-year master plan to be announced this month by the Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD) would be carefully studied by industry players.
It is well known that the most effective way to transform an industry or country is to raise the human capital through education and training. South Korea is a fine example. They overtook us and has left us far behind.
If we remain complacent, other countries with citizens who are more willing to work, learn and embrace English will soon race past us. Many Malaysians are too spoiled and not putting in sufficient effort to learn or develop themselves.
Our leaders spend too much time posturing and politicking to be popular with an emotional populace. Instead of production and innovation needed for progress, we have actually regressed in some areas.
Today, many tourist guides may have university qualifications but I dare say that back in 1975 when I was among the pioneer batch of licensed tourist guides, my English was better although I studied only up to Form 5.
Matta should also set a detailed policy on education and training and use it as the reference to engage with tertiary institutions to produce graduates who are more suited to industry requirements.
Our education system has successfully churned out large number of graduates but lacking in quality. A truly educated person displays courtesy, confidence, communication skills and critical thinking but all these are lacking in many graduates.
The value of knowledge acquired through rote learning may be worth less than the price of a USB flash drive. It is also easier to retrieve and transmit data from this cheap storage device.
The overwhelming majority of travel industry personnel are not formally trained. Sadly, the need for training does not equate to demand. Therefore, intervention by the authorities is necessary.
However, the introduction of the 2-day briefing for entry players to the travel industry and 1-day refresher for existing practitioners by Tourism Ministry has yet to take off.
The only exception is tourist guides and training courses for them have been conducted for close to half a century. It remained the only licensed profession in the travel industry.
At the same time, as many tourists are now travelling in tour vans, cars and taxis, there is an urgent need to train these drivers and upgrade them to driver-guides.
The travel industry will truly come of age when a sizeable number of Matta members strive towards quality management system such as the ISO 9001. As green tourism will be among the topics discussed in the 2012 UFTAA Congress, initiatives that would impress the delegates should be introduced.
Will they be riding on buses running on natural gas or clean diesel? Will they be driving electric or hybrid cars? Will they be handed tons of printed brochures in plastic bags or will they be given space to plant a small forest?
However, all these efforts can be negated when they learn that taxis return empty after sending passengers to the airport. Depleting non-renewal resource and adding to the carbon footprint for nothing can be hard for them to swallow.
Travel industry players who have achieved success in their own companies are convinced that they know best. There is no shortage of ideas but as long as they remain floating on thin air, the industry is going nowhere.
The first step in transforming the industry is to harness and compile all these ideas into a central list. The next step is to set detailed policies on various issues and proposed actions. All these should be done in an open, transparent and inclusive manner.
We will achieve a quantum leap when the various authorities follow suit. Our aim to become a high-income nation will then become a reality.
The industry has nothing much to show after 40 years. For the love of our nation, let us do something concrete and meaningful now which can also leave a legacy for our future generations.
YS Chan
Kuala Lumpur
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