KUALA LUMPUR: Beginning January 2011, travel agencies all over Malaysia will begin charging a consultation fee for producing the best personalised service for their clients. The Malaysian Association of Tour and Travel Agents (MATTA) announced this at Wisma MATTA in Desa Perdana to reporters. According to MATTA president Datuk Mohd Khalid Harun, the fee had been successfully implemented in other countries that had increased the level of service and quality. “Over the years, airline commissions have declined, hotel’s internet booking have increased but we are still rendering free services to those who ask for quotations or tour packages even before they confirm their purchase with us,” he said.
Deputy president, John Tan, added that a lot of work was involved in compiling the quotation and the work could not be done for free anymore. “Some corporate clients ask several companies for quotations because it is free and, at the end, only one receives the deal. This is not fair to us. So with this fee they will think twice before doing this. We are educating them,” he added. Tan said all clients should decide on the destination, do a little groundwork and decide on their budget so a win-win situation could be found for both parties.
Khalid added that travel agents were now consultants with their expertise and strengths. This fee structure has been configured by their Outbound committee. The fee suggested by MATTA is merely a guideline and travel agents are free to change the price according to their service. For frequent individual travelers, the charge is RM300 per quotation for both domestic and international travel, while corporate consultation fees are priced at RM200 per quotation for the first three quotations and RM500 per quotation for the fourth quotation onwards for both domestic and international travels.
“The fee will be absorbed as part of the payment if the client decides to purchase from the agency and one free revision will be given on the same quotation,” added Jeffri Sulaiman, vice president of MATTA Outbound. Jeffri also said they would begin road shows around the country to disseminate the information to all their 2700 registered members. Khalid added that if customers felt that they were unhappy with the services or the charges they were welcome to lodge complaints with MATTA. For more information log on to www.matta.org.my or call 03-92876881.
-thestar online.
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