| forumline: |
Tunku
Iskandar, a warm welcome to Point
of View. You recently gave a very insightful
speech at the Low-Cost Airline (LCA) Symposium in Singapore.
How do you see the genesis of LCAs to benefit the ASEAN region? |
Tunku Iskandar: |
When
we were hit by the Iraq war, SARS and other negative happenings,
we saw domestic tourism having a huge boost, but we also
saw that arrivals from ASEAN countries were holding up better
than other markets. So we need to further enhance intra-ASEAN
travel, and I am convinced that LCAs and no-frills airlines,
alongside other regional airlines will be able to play an
even stronger role in enabling us to achieve this objective.
|
| forumline: |
Of
course, it is possible that the LCAs could by-pass travel
agents altogether (and hence remove their commission source),
and prefer to go direct to the public. How and why do you
think travel agents can play a role within the LCA process? |
Tunku Iskandar: |
One
of the challenges that face LCAs is to have a strong distribution
network to reach their public. Travel agents have a crucial
role to play but they have to understand that they provide
a service and cannot anymore just act as commission agents.
They have to value-add, otherwise they have no reason to
be involved. In Singapore, many travel agents have made
that transition because Singapore Airlines forced the issue.
But in the other Asian countries, many have not seen the
need to do this yet.
In order
to have this paradigm shift, travel agents need to understand
and match the objectives of the LCAs and other regional
carriers. They have to understand that the lowering of costs
is uppermost in the strategy, linked to having a high-volume
tactic. |
| forumline: |
Whilst
Malaysia was not directly affected, countries whose economies
suffered due to SARS and Bali surrounded Malaysia. Did Malaysian
tourism arrivals benefit from this situation at all? |
Tunku Iskandar: |
Malaysia
was also negatively affected because whatever even though
there was no contagion or no terrorism in Malaysia, the
whole region was tainted by the same image.
|
| forumline: |
Did
MATTA work with the national carrier Malaysia Airline and
local hotels during this period to promote any special programmes? |
Tunku Iskandar: |
MATTA’s
members worked with hotels and airlines to produce tour package
that were designed to stimulate travel. |
| forumline: |
How
successful were these initiative, and what were the lessons
learnt for the future? |
Tunku Iskandar: |
Certainly
these were useful strategies and I would say that doing that
helped to buffer the downside and in the end Malaysia suffered
a shortfall (compared to 2002) of only about 20% in arrivals,
as compared to drops of about 50-60% experienced in April
to June 2003. |
| forumline: |
How
did MATTA as an organisation assist its members – the
travel agents and the tour operators – during the tourism
downturn? |
Tunku Iskandar: |
The
role that MATTA played was to provide a steady stream of information
to members and to the public so that the correct situation
is portrayed. |
| forumline: |
How
did MATTA members’ financial performance fare during
the past 12 months? |
Tunku Iskandar: |
Cash
flow was precarious, to say the least although there were
no big collapses. The SARS stimulus funds provided through
the government did help ease cash flow difficulties for
those in dire need.
|
| forumline: |
What
type of relationship does MATTA have with other national tourism
bodies such as Malaysian Tourism Promotion Board (MTPB)? |
Tunku Iskandar: |
MATTA
does have strong co-operative relationships with the Ministry
of Culture, Arts and Tourism as we as with Tourism Malaysia,
state government bodies and other private-sector tourism-related
associations. |
| forumline: |
How
does MATTA work with the Malaysian government to improve the
performance of your members? Is there anything the government
can do to make business more profitable for MATTA members? |
Tunku Iskandar: |
MATTA
has constant dialogues with the relevant government bodies
to discuss issues related to members needs and in doing
so helps to enhance the competitive situation of members’
businesses.
|
| forumline: |
The
Malaysian government announced a grant of USD56million to
Tourism Malaysia for promotional activities, with a focus
on regional markets, especially China, Taiwan, Hong Kong,
India, and ASEAN countries. What role will MATTA have in this
project? |
Tunku Iskandar: |
Most
of the spending is on media advertising and PR efforts.
MATTA will be involved in aspects such as the MegaFam tours
to Malaysia by foreign media and travel agents, in its promotion
efforts such as the MITF
– MATTA International Travel Fair, the recent
OIC Tourism Exchange and the TBEVs – Tourism Business
Exchange Visits organised by MATTA.
|
| forumline: |
Where
do you see MATTA can do more to spread its name and increase
its awareness both domestically and abroad? |
Tunku Iskandar: |
Over
the past five years, MATTA has proactively established bilateral
and multilateral ties with counterpart travel-related associations
in the ASEAN region and also is actively involved in regional
and international travel agents associations. |
| forumline: |
How
have the MATTA Travel Fairs around the country performed?
Are the consumers responding to these events? |
Tunku Iskandar: |
Since
two years ago, MATTA’s MITF number five in all, two
in Kuala Lumpur (KL), and one each in Penang, Johor Baharu
and Seremban. The consumers look forward to these fairs and
the ones in KL continue to break records in terms of numbers
of booths, visitors and sales during the fair. |
| forumline: |
With
the emergence of B2C on-line airline and hotel travel portals,
the traditional travel agency and tour operator models are
also very much under risk. How are MATTA members responding
to the on-line threat to stay competitive? |
Tunku Iskandar: |
Travel
agents in Malaysia need to increase the pace at which they
will use online channels and ICT (Information & Communication
Technology) tools to avert being sidelined by those who do. |
| forumline: |
In
terms of the “Internet Revolution”, when do you
feel that Malaysia’s travel agents will embrace e-commerce? |
Tunku Iskandar: |
At
the moment, not even 50% of our members have registered their
email addresses with us and that is most worrying as it indicates
the low level of usage of the Internet and, of course, of
e-commerce. |
| forumline: |
How
do you plan to address this issue? |
Tunku Iskandar: |
Through
our Research & Technology sub-committee, MATTA is exploring
ways to elicit the help of companies, such as forumline,
and governmental and semi-governmental organisations in Malaysia
that can help bring the IT age to members that will have a
practical and commercially-oriented application. If members
see a Ringgit-and-Sen benefit by using ICT tools and the Internet
then travel agents will use it. |
| forumline: |
You
are now in your last term as MATTA President. What are the
main areas that you will be focusing on during this term for
your 1,700+ members? |
Tunku Iskandar: |
I
will continue to beat the Internet drum as I had done since
5 years ago. This is a major issue for members to address
as it will affect their rice bowl. I will also wish to see
that the government rules and regulations will help travel
agents do their business and the commercial arrangements with
airlines do not unduly disadvantage the travel agents. |
| forumline: |
What
do you think will be the role of MATTA is in the foreseeable
future? |
Tunku Iskandar: |
MATTA
should stay on the same path but there may be additional aspects
or opportunities that MATTA could explore such as providing
assistance to members and other tourism related bodies to
run conferences and fairs. Another area might be facilitating
members with reliable and suitable e-commerce platforms for
members’ use. |
| forumline: |
Finally,
what do you think are main personal management traits one
must have to succeed in an increasingly competitive environment? |
Tunku Iskandar: |
Get
wired, stay connected, be hands-on, manage time - and uphold
commitments! |
| forumline: |
Tunku
Iskandar, thank you very much for sharing your views on the
Malaysian and ASEAN tourism industries. It has been an honour
to host you on Point of View,
which will be very much appreciated by the forumline
Community. |
Welcome
to forumline’s Point
of View discussion, which focuses on the performance
of the Malaysian tourism sector over the past year.