Hotel association debunks dubious award-giver's claim of Asean nations' official backing
KUALA LUMPUR, May 18 ― The legitimacy of awards handed out to tourism industry players in the region by the group known as the Asia Pacific Travel and Tourism Federation appears to be more dubious than thought.
“At that time we were one of the very first ones whom had raised doubts over APTTF as it was the first time we hear of it. However we did not raise any alarms assuming that it would have been endorsed by MOTAC if the minister is attending,” he told“After the event, which was attended by many of our members, we were told of irregularities and the fact that the Minister did not show up. From there we did quick checks and could not find any solid data on APTTF and its awards,” he added.
“From there we alerted MOTAC, Tourism Malaysia, Malaysia Airlines as well as Visa, all of which logos were featured on the award certificates,” he added.checks of APTTF's website shows it listed 14 countries under the heading of “Tourism Ministries ― Associate Partners”, with the purported partners mainly of Asean members.
He accused APTTF of fraud for falsely portraying his alleged planned attendance when he did not even receive invitations to do so, while Tourism Malaysia reportedly said it has no links with APTTF which it pointed out was not registered with the Registrar of Societies or the Companies Commission of Malaysia.
Malaysian Inbound Tourism Associationsecretary-general Adam Kamal Ahmad Kamil said the association had “never heard of APTTF before this” and that “they’ve never contacted us”. “I think they are a private company giving out awards, they do not represent any particular body or associations. They are definitely not industry players and they are definitely a business venture giving out awards to those in the industry,” he added.
“We have not heard of them. But what we know is they are unrecognised. The hotel and tourism industry have no knowledge of this body,” he said, adding that the tourism ministry did not know of APTTF. He said he was uncertain if such dubious awards were common in the hospitality industry, saying: “This is the only one we have found out so far. There could be other bodies giving out awards but are unrecognised by the official authorities.”MAH's Yap said the 900-member-strong association knows “the recognised industry awards with proven track records and we are often invited to either support, participate or promote the awards”.
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