A former president of the Sabah Tourist Guides Association (STGA) is among the 24 ordered by Motac to explain why their licences should not be revoked or suspended for contravening the rules by staging the protest.
Sabah Motac had earlier issued a show cause letter to the 24 tour guides, asking them to respond within a week.
“We have received their responses and sent them with our recommendations for the next course of action to headquarters,” Sabah Motac director Ahmad Zaki Abu Bakar told FMT.
“We are now waiting for the decision from headquarters.”
The show cause letter was issued after the guides staged a protest at the Kota Kinabalu International Airport against alleged unlicensed tour guides, causing dozens of arriving Chinese tourists to be stranded for several hours on July 15.
The licensed tour guides claimed the presence of unauthorised guides had put sand in their rice bowl.
However, Sabah Motac said the group of Chinese tourists that arrived during the protest were handled by licensed tour guides, contrary to the protesters’ claims.
The show cause letter, which FMT has sighted, said the ministry had conducted its investigation and found the guides had taken part in the protest and that this had caused fear among the tourists.
“You were found to have held up protest placards, taken videos and photos of the tourists, stopped and questioned them, causing the tourists to be in fear and stranded for two hours at the Kota Kinabalu International Airport.
“You were also found to have obstructed tour guides from their duty to handle the group of tourists,” the letter said.
“You have gone against the licensed tour guide ethics through your improper conduct that marred the professional image of the tourism industry and that of the country.
“The ministry is looking at the incident seriously and therefore you’re believed to have committed an offence under sub-section 27(3) of the Tourism Industry Act 1992, which says:
“‘A licensed tour guide must abide by the standard ethics as stipulated and can be taken action against under subsection 28(1)(e) of the same Act, which says: ‘If any licensed tour guide breaks any conditions of his licence as provided under subsection 24(1) or ethics as mentioned by subsection 27(3), then the commissioner may suspend the licence given under Section 24 and withdraw their card of authority for a period of time as determined or revoke the licence and remove the name of the licensed tour guide from the register, or if the licence has expired, not renew it.”
The airport protest had drawn the ire of Motac and state Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Masidi Manjun.
Masidi had said the tour guides were being “short-sighted” in using the airport as the venue to express any dissatisfaction they had.
The STGA said it would compile a list of all its members’ needs and problems for submission to the state tourism ministry.
However, a tour guide, speaking on condition of anonymity, had admitted to FMT that unlicensed tour guides and operators did exist.
He also exposed illegal practices such as dining trips to feast on the meat of protected animals and illegal foreign currency exchange services provided for foreign tourists.
The Sabah Wildlife Department warned it would act against tourist operators arranging for foreigners to have dinners to serve the meat of protected animals.
It told FMT one person had been arrested and would be charged in court for possessing meat from two pangolins, served to a group of 10 Chinese tourists.
Bank Negara Malaysia had also informed in a statement that those found involved in money-changing services without a licence faced heavy punishment. It warned that offenders could be fined up to RM5 million and a maximum 10 years’ jail.
Recently, it was reported that Sabah Motac had cancelled permits of some 23 businesses after carrying out inspections on some 200 licensed tour operators.
Zaki was quoted as saying that the licences were revoked for operating without premises.
Some of them were suspected to be “foreign-run” despite holding a local business licence, Zaki said.
24 Sabah tour guides may lose licences over KK airport protest