Opt for responsible tourism

LAST year, hoteliers protested the Tourism Ministry’s plans to impose room tax on guests.

And recently, the media reported on the arguments between Air Asia and the Malaysian Aviation Commission (Mavcom), ostensibly about what would best serve air travellers.

In these ongoing exchanges, neither the government nor industry seemed to have the interests of ordinary Malaysians in their calculations.

Public money maintains the Tourism Ministry and its agencies. In addition, the ministry spends hundreds of millions of ringgit annually to generate revenue for private industry including airlines, hotels and tour agents.

Yet these beneficiaries of the people’s money seemingly have no clue about the damage that tourism inflicts on Malaysia and its people who are left with the mess and expenses in terms of over-strained public services, higher consumer prices and polluted air.

Consider the environmental impact of each additional flight into and out of the country. Now everybody may fly, but they fly in fossil fuel-powered jet planes. Their numbers have spiked in the past decade and the powers that be only talk of building more and bigger airports.

When you put, say, a thousand tourist buses on the road, they obviously pollute, and how much more pollution is generated when scores of these monster buses stand around much of the day with engines and air-conditioners running at highly populated city spots like Kuala Lumpur’s Dataran Merdeka?

Why are tourist buses permitted to park where it is illegal for ordinary Malaysians to park ( pic)? Why are they allowed to park at public bus stops, severely inconveniencing ordinary commuters and city bus drivers?

When foreigners numbering 25 million – almost equal to Malaysian citizens – use the public infrastructure built for the locals, the infrastructure is strained to breaking point. That is apart from foreigners pushing up prices of food and clothing.

They visit crowded public hospitals and clinics where even the higher charge they now pay compared to Malaysians is still a subsidised amount.

Publicly-funded security services like the police and fire brigade are made available free of charge to visitors whose spending goes entirely to the tourism players.

And why should tourists use free-of-charge toilets built with public money?

Kuala Lumpur City Hall was until recently even paying private tour guides to conduct “heritage tours” and the like. This practice has reportedly stopped.

The industry is subsidised with public money, yet it does not pay even for the maintenance of public service infrastructure. The public does.

To add insult to injury, industry players whine about paying even small amounts, all of which raise this question: why have a Tourism Ministry spending public money to generate private revenue?

The industry has been enjoying free lunches for too long. Things must be put right. Enlightened governments have realised the downside of unbridled tourism. New Zealand recently announced plans to impose a tax of NZ$25-30 per international visitor from next year. Malaysia would make a good start by imposing a tax of RM25-RM30 per international visitor.

We need responsible tourism. The Government must focus on regulating rather than promoting the business.

The Tourism Ministry should be dissolved and its regulatory powers transferred to other ministries.

Business entities must become responsible corporate citizens and forego public subsidy.

Responsible tourists will understand the need to pay their way wherever they go. We do not need any other kind. GEORGE THOMAS Kuala Lumpur