On 13 July 2010, the Minister of Tourism announced that licensed travel agencies were allowed to choose which travel trade associations that the agencies would like to be a member with rather than mandatory membership with MATTA, as currently stipulated in the Regulations 9A under the Tourism Industry Act 1992. The Minister of Tourism had explained that the Regulations 9A were included into the said Act in 2000 to strengthen the private sector enterprises in the industry then.
The Minister further explained that the industry has now matured and it is an opportune time to provide a choice to the private sector enterprises to decide which association that they would like to be a member of.
In response to this announcement by the Minister MATTA Secretary General, Joseph Xavier said that MATTA were not aware of the decision of the Minister of Tourism before the public announcement of the said decision. The principal members of the Executive Council of MATTA had met with the Minister and the Secretary General of the Ministry of Tourism to discuss the decision and the process of implementation of the decision.
MATTA recognized that it is the prerogative of the Ministry of Tourism in the matter, and believe that that the Ministry had analysed the current market situation and deliberated deeply before the reaching the decision. MATTA supports the decision in providing choices to travel agencies in the matter.
MATTA he added will continue with its programmes and activities, and providing services to our members as normal. MATTA will further strengthen and grow to ensure that we provide quality support and services to our members, and to show our value to travel agencies for them to continue to be a member of MATTA.
MATTA believe that with this decision of providing choices to travel agencies, it will attract quality members for the good of the Association and industry. MATTA has the structure and adequate resources in the whole country to bring the Association and its membership to greater heights as we move forward.
He said that to date MATTA have not received any written confirmation on the above matter and they were informed about it through the said meeting and media announcement by the Minister of Tourism. They were later informed that the decision can only be implemented when the changes to the said Regulations are gazetted by the relevant authorities.
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