KUCHING, Feb 7 (Bernama) — The issue of travel agencies wholesaling flight tickets in bulk does not happen in Sarawak, according to the Sarawak chapter of Malaysian Association of Tour and Travel Agents (MATTA).
Its chairman Oscar Choo said the association had not received any complaints about the matter so far.
“It does not happen in Sarawak. According to media reports, it is an issue at the national level,” he told a news conference on the 17th Sarawak MATTA Travel Exhibition 2023 here today.
Sarawak’s biggest travel exhibition will involve 55 stalls and be held simultaneously at the Boulevard Shopping Mall in Kuching and Permaisuri Imperial City Mall in Miri on March 4 and 5.
Oscar said Sarawak MATTA, which has 157 members, was prepared to cooperate with the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture (MOTAC) to tackle the issue of wholesaling of tickets.
“That is why we always encourage the people to conduct their travel activities through licensed agents to help combat this problem,” he added.
On Feb 1, Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing said the ministry would take firm action by revoking the licences of travel agencies found to have breached regulations.
He said the ministry was investigating allegations that several local travel agencies were involved in the wholesale of flight tickets in bulk.
Local media reports claimed that there were several local umrah companies that ‘wholesale’ flight tickets to the Holy Land and allegedly also sell them to umrah agencies in Indonesia at prices of up to RM6,000 to reap huge profits.
Source: BERNAMA News Agency