KUCHING: Regional and international tour operators have stopped selling Sarawak packages because of continuing uncertainties over rural air services.
Sarawak Tourism Board chief executive officer Gracie Geikie said tour operators in Singapore, China, and countries in Europe and elsewhere had suspended Sarawak packages, especially those with Mulu National Park as one of the destinations.
“We have received e-mails from tour operators in Germany, the Netherlands, Britain, Italy and the big inbound tour operators in Kuala Lumpur informing us that they are considering taking Mulu off their marketing brochures.
“They are not selling the tour until all the travel-related issues are resolved,” she told The Star yesterday.
About 60% of the 30,000 visitors to Mulu every year are foreigners. Mulu is listed as a Unesco heritage site.
Geikie said some 820 European and Australian tourists bound for Kuching-Miri-Mulu in August and September had cancelled their bookings because of uncertainties surrounding the new airline – Fly Asian Xpress (FAX) – in handling the rural air services from next month.
“Their cancellations were because the local tour operators could not give an assurance about refund policies on flight cancellation or delays,” she said.
Geikie said foreign tourists normally made their travel plans months ahead, and that most of their bookings were multi-destination roundtrips of between 14 and 21 days.
She said Malaysia Airlines had removed rural air services from its global distribution system since it announced in May that it would stop offering them next month.
“This has caused grave concern for overseas tour operators as they were unable to issue tickets from MAS. And, AirAsia, which will take over, has not given information on alternative purchase procedures.”
Geikie said unlike MAS, AirAsia and FAX were not members of the International Air Transport Association.
“Until today, we don’t really know who FAX is. The airline has not given any formal explanation to the tourism industry on how it would operate the rural air services,” she added
She said MAS should be allowed to continue operating the rural air services until FAX was prepared to offer seamless bookings.
Geikie said the board had submitted a paper to the state cabinet on matters related to MAS' domestic rationalisation plan and its impact on tourism.
Sarawak Tourism Board chief executive officer Gracie Geikie said tour operators in Singapore, China, and countries in Europe and elsewhere had suspended Sarawak packages, especially those with Mulu National Park as one of the destinations.
“We have received e-mails from tour operators in Germany, the Netherlands, Britain, Italy and the big inbound tour operators in Kuala Lumpur informing us that they are considering taking Mulu off their marketing brochures.
“They are not selling the tour until all the travel-related issues are resolved,” she told The Star yesterday.
About 60% of the 30,000 visitors to Mulu every year are foreigners. Mulu is listed as a Unesco heritage site.
Geikie said some 820 European and Australian tourists bound for Kuching-Miri-Mulu in August and September had cancelled their bookings because of uncertainties surrounding the new airline – Fly Asian Xpress (FAX) – in handling the rural air services from next month.
“Their cancellations were because the local tour operators could not give an assurance about refund policies on flight cancellation or delays,” she said.
Geikie said foreign tourists normally made their travel plans months ahead, and that most of their bookings were multi-destination roundtrips of between 14 and 21 days.
She said Malaysia Airlines had removed rural air services from its global distribution system since it announced in May that it would stop offering them next month.
“This has caused grave concern for overseas tour operators as they were unable to issue tickets from MAS. And, AirAsia, which will take over, has not given information on alternative purchase procedures.”
Geikie said unlike MAS, AirAsia and FAX were not members of the International Air Transport Association.
“Until today, we don’t really know who FAX is. The airline has not given any formal explanation to the tourism industry on how it would operate the rural air services,” she added
She said MAS should be allowed to continue operating the rural air services until FAX was prepared to offer seamless bookings.
Geikie said the board had submitted a paper to the state cabinet on matters related to MAS' domestic rationalisation plan and its impact on tourism.
Source: The Star
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