Kota Kinabalu: Travel agencies in Sabah have been urged to exercise caution when dealing with foreign operators offering outbound tour packages to avoid falling victim to unscrupulous deals.
Sabah Association of Tour and Travel Agents (Satta) chairman, Dato’ Seri Winston Liaw, said a group of foreign operators had recently been actively promoting tours in the city at attractive prices.
“They have approached travel agencies to attend their talks and presentations over the past two months, after starting similar promotions in Sarawak,” he said.
window.googletag = window.googletag || {cmd: []};googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.defineSlot('/22826383987/dailyexpress_inline', [1, 1], 'gpt-passback').addService(googletag.pubads());googletag.enableServices();googletag.display('gpt-passback');});Liaw said the approach as a new business model that could potentially generate high income for local agencies.
“But the mode of payment is a bit suspicious. They want travel agencies to pay in full 45 days before departure, which is not our normal practice,” he said.
According to the foreign operators, the advance payment is to enable them to issue tickets and make tour arrangements.
Liaw said he wanted to highlight this doubtful marketing strategy to make agencies aware of the high risk involved.
“Under our normal practice, we collect tour fees from clients 30 days or three weeks before departure, and payment is only remitted to foreign counterparts upon arrival,” he explained.
He urged agencies not to be blinded by the lure of profit, warning that if anything went wrong, it would be the local operators not their foreign counterparts who would bear the consequences.
“We have to consider the risks, as any fraud could damage years of business and hard-earned reputation,” he said.
Liaw added there was little recourse if foreign operators failed to honour agreements, as the tours were sold by local agencies.
He recalled a past incident in which a local agency organised a tour to the Xi’an Silk Road, only for travellers to arrive and discover the tour did not exist.
Liaw urged Satta members to refrain from dealing with foreign operators offering unusually low-priced tour packages.
“The consequence is that the foreign operators are holding our cash flow, leaving us with nothing to roll over,” he said.
He added that these operators were promoting next year’s programmes, and urged agencies to thoroughly study their mechanisms before committing.
“The foreign operators must provide a bank guarantee as assurance that, if anything goes wrong, clients will get their bookings refunded,” Liaw said.