Travel agents express concern over weaker ringgit - MATTA President

Malaysian Association of Tour & Travel Agents (MATTA) president Hamzah Rahmat said, those wanting to travel abroad are now taking their time to purchase an overseas package before finally deciding on a local tour package, instead.

“The fall of the ringgit have led travel agents to face problems. The demand for overseas tour packages have dropped.

“It affects the packages to countries whereby its currency values are higher than the ringgit. The situation was different when the ringgit was strong,” he told Astro AWANI.

Hamzah was commenting on the statement made by Tourism and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Aziz, who expressed satisfaction over the weakening of the ringgit value.

According to Nazri, travelers from countries -- where the currency is bigger like the United Kingdom and Europe -- will spend their money in Malaysia due to the high currency exchange.

Ringgit slid to a nine-year low against the dollar on Monday.

The ringgit was higher against the greenback at 3.7470/7500 from 3.7515/7545 at 5pm on Tuesday.

In the meantime, Hamzah said travel agents are now targeting domestic packages which is seen to be more 'affordable' to the public.

In spite of this, he said, the falling ringgit will open the possibility of increasing foreign tourists in the country.

"We will take aggressive action to increase promotion to boost local tourism. In the next MATTA fair, we will enlarge the space for more travel agents in the country that offers the best packages," he said.

Hamzah also revealed that online business is one of the major challenges faced by MATTA agents.

"There are a lot of online competitions but it’s a healthy competition," he said.

Hamzah said, MATTA Fair 2015 is expected to achieve sales of up to RM135 million and attract more than 85,000 visitors.