TOURISM industry players are calling on Putrajaya to outline a clear standard operating procedure (SOP) for arriving tourists following minister Tiong King Sing’s disclosure of corruption and abuse of power involving Immigration personnel at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA).

They said they have also received numerous complaints from travellers and stakeholders on the alleged abuses at the arrival hall.

Yesterday Tiong, who is tourism, arts and culture minister, said his recent visit to KLIA exposed a “culture of corruption by a few officials and the chronic abuse of power”.

He claimed Immigration officers were asking for as much as RM3,000 to release travellers who had been detained, with an additional RM3,000 to be paid if the traveller wanted to return to his home country immediately.

Malaysian Association of Tour and Travel Agents (Matta) secretary-general Nigel Wong said it was about time that authorities improved its SOP by providing transparent guidelines as well as reliable translators to help travellers coming into the country.

He said there have been long-standing unresolved issues with the immigration department, and called for immediate improvement.

“We have received reports from various parties that there is no clear SOP, tourists were turned back without valid or strong reasons.

“We feel that there should be a transparent SOP and assistance, especially in terms of language interpretation,” said Wong.

He added that more needs to be done to eliminate elements of corruption in order to boost tourists’ confidence.

“If we can lower the index of corruption, surely confidence will come. As for now our index is low. With these sort of incidents, I don’t think it will lift our index as more needs to be done,” he said.

Tiong had been in the news recently for allegedly barging into an arrival hall without a pass to help a Chinese national who was being detained.

He however clarified by saying his presence at the KLIA arrival hall uncovered a culture of corruption by a few officials and chronic abuse of power.

He added that he would be providing the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) with details.

MACC chief commissioner Azam Baki said the commission will investigate the complaint.

Raising Malaysia’s image

Matta president Tan Kok Liang called for an independent inquiry into the incident involving Tiong and the authorities.

Tan said reports of corruption and victimisation of tourists by Malaysian Immigration officers were not new. 

“These incidents involve tourists from many nationalities and not just the Chinese. Matta has on several occasions raised concerns about this as it impedes tourism stakeholders’ marketing efforts,” said Tan.

“The crux of the issue is whether there was any corruption, abuse of power or mistreatment of tourists, and not whether Tiong broke protocol. That is secondary,” he added.

He said a review of the current procedures on the handling of travellers with NTL (not to land) status is also crucial to prevent abuses as Malaysia gears up to receive more international tourists.

“It is imperative that the government does all it can to raise the image of Malaysia as a safe and attractive tourism destination by eliminating corruption at all levels, more so at KLIA, which is the main gateway.

“Moving forward it is time for the MACC to reassess the situation in light of current developments at key entry points in Malaysia,” he said.

Malaysian Inbound Tourism Malaysia president Uzaidi Udanis said such incidents could have been avoided if there was cooperation among authorities, industry players and the ministry.

“Our neighbouring countries, for example, have a very good relationship between each other. We don’t have that here. We need to have that.

“We also need a minister like Tiong, a fighter who would listen to complaints and look into these for himself. Many negative comments have been made and this will reduce the number of tourists coming in.

“If we can improve, this will increase confidence and we thank the minister for taking swift action,” he said.

In 2019, Malaysia received three million Chinese tourists. 

It was reported that the pandemic, Chinese visitors spent more than US$250 billion (RM1.17 trillion) a year. – July 2, 2023.