Monday, June 7, 2010

MATTA MEMBERSHIP - IT IS ABOUT TIME


FIVE national tourism bodies last week submitted to Minister Datuk Dr Ng Yen Yen a memorandum to scrap the mandatory membership of MATTA to all tourism companies as a prerequisite to be issued or renewed a licence.

This compulsory membership was introduced some ten years ago by the then Minister Datuk Kadir Sheikh Fadzil and has created a great deal of unhappiness among the many tourism players. No one since then, not even NTCM ( who themselves were sidelined by the Minister ) stood up to protest.

MITA, MITTA, CRAM, MCTA and Bumitra during their many AGMs and EGMs has resolved to ask the sitting Minister to look into this matter. But it was only in August last year that they submitted a memorandum to ask the newly appointed Minister to do something about it.

Unfortunately, the Minister has no time for this as she has to be abroad most of the time to promote tourism arrival ( which is the function of Tourism Malaysia and not the Minstry per se )which is already reaching its peak and Malaysia's levy contribution to UNWTO is relatively high by any standard.

Meanwhile MATTA is comfortably enjoying the perk of compulsory membership and has forgotten to address the multitude of problems face by members at large. Instead they are fully engaged in organising travel fairs, fam trips and dinner parties. They have become arrogant, clannish and no longer the champion of the industry.

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