TS,Wednesday 2 May 2012
The report “Offer tour packages, cabbies told” (The Star,
April 29) has sparked a furore among leading travel industry players.
Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ng Yen Yen was reported to have
called upon cabbies to offer tour packages and doubled up as tour guides.
If this is allowed, they will encroach into the business of
tour operators and the livelihood of tourist guides. The quality of our tour
services will also plummet.
The Tourism Industry Act 1992 has legislated that only
companies licensed by the Tourism Ministry may offer tour packages, and only
individuals with valid authorisation cards may act as tourist guides.
In order not to run fowl of the law, many small tourism
industry players such as chalet, boat, bus and taxi operators register
themselves under TOBTAB (Tour Operating Business and Travel Agency Business).
As such, the quality of services can vary greatly among the
3,399 licensed companies, as also with the 9,607 tourist guides currently
registered with Tourism Ministry.
There are many ambiguous terms in the tourism industry. For example,
the academics are fond of describing their programmes as Hospitality &
Tourism and many people could not make out the distinction between hospitality
industry and being hospitable.
The former being an industry includes accommodation and F&B (Food
& Beverage). Together, they constitute more than fifty percent of the
tourism receipts in this country. Tourism encompasses many sectors and overlaps
into many non-tourism industries.
Hence, the name Ministry of Tourism is correct and Ministry of Tourism
& Hospitality is not. The academics also interchange the word travel with
tourism.
In the travel industry, there are four major business sectors:
travel agencies, tour operators (outbound/inbound/domestic), tour vehicle
operators (tour buses, vans and self-drive vehicles) and MICE (Meetings
Incentives Conventions Exhibitions) organisers.
Any of these companies may be labeled as a travel agent, a
generic term often used by the media.
When asked, many travel industry players would not be able to
describe clearly the business that they do.
When giving career talks or conducting training, I usually ask
the participants to tell me what is the basic job of a tourist guide.
After 20 years and thousands of answers, I have yet to meet
someone who can give the correct reply.
These participants can range from those undergoing a tourist guide
training course to the highest echelon in the travel industry. However, when
asked what the basic job of a postman is, the first answer from a group is
always spot-on.
Perhaps, there should be a distinction between tourist guide
and tour guide. Unless exempted, it is mandatory to have a licensed tourist
guide on board a tour bus with passengers.
As bus tours need a guide, it will be more appropriate to call
licensed tourist guides tour guides.
On the other hand, there are many people who are already
guiding tourists pro bono or as part of their value-added services, such as
taxi and van drivers, museum and factory guides, and those conducting walking
tours.
It would not be practical to legislate such services as it
would be difficult to enforce, and unfair to the tourists by forcing them to
pay a minimum of RM150 for half-day use of a licensed tourist guide.
However, when tourists have paid for a guided tour, the best
tourist guides available should be engaged and they deserve to be paid much
more than the minimum RM220 per day.
We have many superb tourist guides in Malaysia and
also those who are paid just to sit in a bus and do nothing else.
When licensing of tourist guides was introduced in 1975, I was
among the pioneer batch. I could not renew my licence from 1982 as I was no
longer active. I have been in management in the travel industry for over 30
years.
During my stint as a taxi driver for several years, I offered
sightseeing tours to my passengers and called my itinerary KL See See.
Perhaps, the minister should have called upon cabbies to offer
sightseeing tours to their passengers as such value-added services will benefit
all parties.
Offering tour packages usually include other arrangements such
as accommodation, and will run counter to the Tourism Industry Act.
For cabbies to charge a fixed fee, the taxi regulations may
have to be amended.
Charges for metered taxis are to be based on the meter, and
hired cars are taxis that ply between cities and towns similar to express
buses.
The Tourism Minister recently launched a series of
community-based tourism programmes such as taxi tourism service programme and
bike tourism. They make better sense than turning 4,000 cabbies in the Klang Valley
Tourists may associate the people they meet in the country as
Malaysians, but to sanction them officially as ambassadors is likely to do more
harm than good. It is similar to declaring that Mat Rempits to be one of the nation’s
“biggest asset”.
A minimum of six days’ training is needed for both the taxi
tourism services and tourism taxi ambassador programmes, not one day. The training
methodology should also be changed, as briefing or lecturing taxi drivers will
be like water off a duck’s back.
I should know as I have attended a course for taxi drivers in 2006 organised
by Tourism Ministry. Any notes to be displayed during the course should
be given to the participants in advance.
Training is more effective when the cabbies themselves step
forward and declare what is right or wrong with a facilitator, who can guide
and explain convincingly.
The tipping point can only be reached when there is also better
enforcement, closer monitoring and safety net in place for the cabbies.
YS Chan
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