Errant international online travel agencies imposing difficulty on tourism ministry to take legal action

Monday, March 28, 2022

Recently, Datuk Seri Nancy Shukri said that it’s not easy for the Tourism, Arts and Culture Ministry to control online international travel agencies. The Tourism Minister also explained that several international online travel agencies are internationally-owned companies that are based abroad.

Even though their business activity is covered by the Tourism Industry Act 1992 (Act 482), their nature of business that only operates online without having any physical office in Malaysia made situation tricky for the ministry to take legal action against them, she said.

In spite of this, Nancy explained that the ministry was more interested to adopt a sympathetic approach that would encourage the sector to grow.

“The ministry has conducted several engagement sessions with a few international online travel agencies that offer packages or travel services in this country to comply with Act 482 and to register their operations by obtaining the Tour Operating Business and Travel Agency Business (TOBTAB) licence.”

“As a result, there are foreign online travel agencies companies that have opened branches here and have ministry licences such as Klook Travel Technology Sdn Bhd, Traveloka Sdn Bhd, and BEX Travel Malaysia Sdn Bhd,” she told Larry Sng (PBM – Julau) in Dewan Rakyat on Thursday.

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