Langkawi tourism players say LTA misrepresenting them

LANGKAWI: Tourism industry players here have distanced themselves from the Langkawi Tourism Association (LTA) and are now mulling the idea of forming a federation to group all the tourism-related associations in the island.
Among them was Langkawi Business Association (LBA) Deputy President, Datuk Alexander Isaac who said public statements issued by LTA particularly during the 14th general election period did not reflect the opinions and views of all tourism industry players in Langkawi.
"(LTA is) misrepresenting the (Langkawi tourism) industry because we have remained quiet all this while. Seriously it is damaging to us. The wrong message had been sent out," he told Bernama recently.
His remarks came following recent statements from LTA which had been inclined towards supporting certain political leaders while ridiculing the others.
He said tourism players should learn from what had happened before and after the 14th General Election to take a stand of supporting the government of the day rather than to continue having a partisan attitude.
"We must remember that this election had shown us one thing … that the rakyat are the winners. The government of the day's job is to ensure that we have a good base and we should do the rest rather than to be over dependent on them," he said.
Alexander, who is also the Malaysian Travel and Tours Association (MATTA) Kedah/Perlis Chapter agreed with the idea for a federation to unite all the tourism-related bodies under an umbrella entity but at the same time would not restrict the operation of the individual associations within it.
"Seriously this is the thing and the perfect time for us to be together and not to be misrepresented anymore. The federation should be led by somebody who had vast experience and respected by all players in the tourism industry," he added.
Langkawi Bumiputera Entrepreneurs Association (Usahabumi Langkawi) secretary, Ahmad Phisol Ishak concurred with Alexander that associations should not be used towards pursuing personal agenda.
Sharing his experience of being a founder member of LTA about two decades back, he said the direction of the association now was different from the time when he was still active in it.
"As far as I know before, LTA was a well-structured association that not only involved the tourism industry players but also representatives from the relevant government agencies as ex-officios. Now, I don't even know who are really their members," he said.
Ahmad Phisol said it was timely for the island's tourism players to re-organise themselves as Langkawi would be hosting the Pacific-Asia Travel Association (PATA) Travel Mart this September, which would be an opportunity for them to market their products.
"We should get ourselves organised properly and get a team that really works as a team … only then can we show our colours to the rest of the world," he added.
He said tourism players would have to identify what should be improved now rather than to wait for the event to take place to find out on their weaknesses.
Meanwhile, LTA chief executive officer Zainudin Kadir when contacted said he was aware that some people were not satisfied with the stand taken by the association during the last general election and he would continue to respect their differences.
"If they felt offended by the public statements that I have made, especially during the general election, I apologised but I have to stress here that whatever I have said were something that had to be said for the sake of tourism development," he said, denying that his statements were political in nature.
According to him, LTA was not an exclusive association but was merely trying to represent everyone involved in the tourism industry in Langkawi to promote their enterprises.
"As the CEO who is paid to do his job for the association, I am open to all criticism but it would only be the members of the association who could relieve me of my job, not anybody else," he added. — Bernama