Singapore resort will benefit us, says Matta
KUALA LUMPUR: Instead of having a negative impact, the Malaysian Association of Tour and Travel Agents (Matta) believes that the Malaysian tourism industry might benefit from an integrated resort in Singapore.
Its president Tunku Datuk Seri Iskandar Tunku Abdullah said tourists visited integrated resorts for reasons apart from the casino and that the casino was one component of a larger package.
“Many foreign tourists come with families for conventions, theme parks or sightseeing, and Malaysia still offers room, meals and shopping at better value than Singapore,” he said at a press conference following the Matta Fair 2005 prize presentation ceremony yesterday.
He said an integrated resort in Singapore might even enhance Malaysian tourism.
“The cake is big and what we often see in Asean is that whatever increases volume in one country is positive for the neighbours as there is always spillover traffic,” he said.
However, Tunku Iskandar warned that the country might lose much of the Singapore market if airfares between Singapore and Malaysia remained unrealistically high and low-cost carriers (LCCs) were still prevented from travelling between the two countries.
He said preventing LCCs to fly from Singapore to Malaysian domestic destinations, and forcing Singaporeans to travel to Johor to enjoy LCC services did not help Malaysian tourism.
“Singaporeans find it cheaper and more convenient to fly from Changi (airport in Singapore) to Medan, Phuket, Bangkok and even the Philippines than to Malaysian destinations,” he said.
He added that incoming tourism was expected to increase this year to 16.5 million people from 16 million, while the International Air Transport Association was predicting a seven to eight percent overall growth for travel.
Matta Fair 2005 organising committee chairman Ngiam Foon said the fair had been successful even though sales had dropped from RM85mil in March last year to RM80mil this year and visitor numbers had dropped from 76,000 to 72,000.
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