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Of late, there has been regular and subtle lobbying by certain tourism industry partners seeking the exemption of professional tourist guide services for domestic tourism programmes.

On April 27, the Malaysian Tourist Guides Council (MTGC) officially presented its objections to the Malaysian Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture (MOTAC) regarding this proposal and provided justifications for its stand. Up until now, it is still status quo, which means that tourist guide services remain an integral requirement for domestic tourism programmes.

Despite this situation, the lobbying for exemption of tourist guide services continues to surface, impacting more than 50 years of conducive and cordial cooperation between the various stakeholders in the Malaysian tourism industry that began in the early 1960s.

For the benefit of the public and especially the relevant stakeholders, the tourist guiding profession has evolved to be a vital component of the Malaysian tourism industry, after 1964 soon after the formation of Malaysia.

Whilst tourism promotion was under the Ministry of Trade and Industry then, far-sighted captains of this growing industry acknowledged the need for a parallel evolution of the tourist guiding profession to meet the needs of this new economic potential for Malaysia.

That year, the first tourist guides training certificate course was conducted under the guidance of Mr SS Virik from the local commercial aviation industry. Participation in this course continued to increase and it was these batches of pioneers that provided the vital link for inbound tourist arrivals that time.

Nevertheless, it was also necessary to ensure those who qualified after attending the training were formally licensed and from 1969, these skilled agents were issued tourist guide licenses by the Kuala Lumpur Tourist Association.

Tourist guides took their own initiative to upgrade their product and services knowledge of Malaysian tourism through regular training sessions, refresher courses and site visits.

In addition, they worked with relevant government agencies for updates on the growing tourism product in Malaysia. This commitment by the tourist guides was one of the factors that resulted in the government giving accreditation to their training programme and also taking over the issue of their licenses.

The 1992 National Tourism Policy by the federal government recommended guidelines for the planning, development and marketing of tourism which, among others, were to boost economic and social development, encourage rural enterprises, generate employment (including tourist guiding), and allow the participation of all ethnic communities in the tourism industry.

This was also the year the Tourism Industry Act (Act 482) was introduced and the integral role of tourist guides was formally incorporated through this Act. It also provided for tourist guides to subscribe to a code of ethics for exemplary work standards in the profession. Our tourist guides are very mindful of their obligations to abide by this code of ethics and strive to provide quality and timely tourism services, support all the government’s tourism activities and related programmes while also protecting the country’s reputation when promoting it as a premier tourist destination at domestic and international levels.

In addition, they share with tourists the many other aspects of Malaysian tourism aimed at encouraging repeat visits. More important, they are ever alert to overcome disruptions to tour itineraries arising from accidents, disasters, sudden natural calamities and delays.

These multi-tasking attributes of tourist guides not only benefit regular tourists but also those travelling in special interest and incentive groups. The government recognises the value of such multi-tasking abilities of tourist guides and has thus made it mandatory that their services are used for tourist groups movements in the country.


Nevertheless, the government has also allowed exemptions for this tourist guide requirement when group movements are point-to-point transfers for occasions like witnessing or participating in local sports events and family events. Exemption letters are issued by the government for such situations.

Likewise, where the group size is less than eight, the government also exempts the services of tourist guides for such tourism itineraries and hence tourist guide’s intrusion into such group’s privacy does not arise.

However, the risk involved for such exemptions is the lack of ability to manage disruptions in the domestic journeys for these groups. At MTGC, we prefer tourist guide services to cover such groups too, but we respect the government’s decision on this matter.

Having said that, MTGC is of the view that the lobbying for tourist guide service exemption for domestic tourism is not a wise move as it places domestic tourists at a disadvantage while foreign tourists are well covered by the services of tourist guides.

It is indeed ironic that foreigners visiting Malaysia get to enjoy our comprehensive tourist guiding services for a very low premium per person, while our industry partners who should also care for the comfort and safety of our own domestic travellers (by packaging this aspect in their products) are instead more focused in denying this vital link to our fellow citizens.

We hope that the relevant industry partners understand MTGC’s position in this matter.


The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.

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