Dato’ Mohd Khalid Harun, President Persatuan Agensi Pelancongan Malaysia (MATA)
MATA urge this is the time for all stakeholders in the travel industry to work together to uphold the industry, as we are now experiencing the biggest crisis in tourism history.
KUALA LUMPUR – Persatuan Agensi Pelancongan Malaysia (MATA) urge the International Air Transport Association (IATA) to waive all fees to our members. Since the World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared COVID-19 a pandemic, travel restrictions have been imposed throughout the world. Major events have been cancelled and thousands of business are at halt.
2. The financial impact to our members from the COVID-19 can be cushioned by waiving the following:
2.1. IATA to waive 2021 membership fees
2.2. IATA to waive 2020 monthly fees (January – December 2020)
2.3 To extend 2019 audited account submission to December 2020
3. This move will help our members that has bestow their strong support towards IATA in previous years. Since IATA has forecasted that 50% of all airline business will disappear this year throughout the world, we believe that IATA can do something to help our members from closing their doors. As this is an exceptional situation we hope IATA would also take an exceptional move to waive the above fees.
4. MATA urge this is the time for all stakeholders in the travel industry to work together to uphold the industry, as we are now experiencing the biggest crisis in tourism history. Failing which, IATA may lost more business as we will advise our members not to renew their IATA membership.
MATA – Persatuan Agensi Pelancongan Malaysia represents some 3,116 members includes travel agencies, hotels, homestays, airlines, theme parks, tourist guides, insurance companies and SME related to tourism industry.
Vicky is the co-founder of TravelDailyNews Media Network where she is the Editor-in Chief. She is also responsible for the daily operation and the financial policy. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Tourism Business Administration from the Technical University of Athens and a Master in Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Wales.
She has many years of both academic and industrial experience within the travel industry. She has written/edited numerous articles in various tourism magazines.
