Friday, October 28, 2011

HERITAGE CHARGE FOR MELAKA

The state government is appealing to all hotel operators in the state to comply with the gazetting of the five per cent heritage charge on tourists spending the night in the historical state effective from Sept 1.

Chief Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Ali Rustam said the charge imposed would be borne by the tourists and not the hotel operators.

"I appeal to them to give an opportunity to the state government by imposing the charge because I know there are some hotels that are not doing so."

He said this when asked to comment on the report that three hotel associations in the state would not impose the heritage charge because it gave a negative impact as a whole to the state tourism sector, besides being burdensome.

The three associations -- Malaysian Association of Hotels, Malaysian Budget Hotels Association and the Malaysian Association of Hotel Owners -- claimed that the implementation of the charge was unreasonable.

"A charge of RM5 out of RM100 for each room is not a big burden because we know that tourists spend RM40 each to enjoy barbecued fish and RM10 at the Taming Sari Tower. They have no problem paying for those items."

The Chief Minister however said no action would be taken against hotels refusing to impose the charge at the moment and local authorities would hold negotiations with them on the matter. This is a kind gesture on the part of the CM and the industry association should consider allowing only hotels with daily room charge of over RM 100 impose this levy.

As we all know heritage charges are imposed in most part of the world designated as a heritage centre such as in China and Cambodia. Airport tax in Cambodia is the highest so far and most of it goes to pay for all the conseration work that are being carried out in Siem Reap and other places there.

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