I AM from a tour agency and would like to highlight the presence of conmen at the KLIA arrival hall who fleece unsuspecting tourists. Their tactics not only upset our visitors, they also bring shame to the country and hurt the Government's efforts in trying to portray KLIA as a world-class airport.
Our clients - a German associate and his wife - fell victims to a scam recently. They were approached by a conman as soon as they stepped out of the hall. The conman called his name as they saw our driver's placard with his name before our guests could spot us.
The man introduced himself as a hotel representative and our guests were made to believe that our guide failed to show up. He was, in fact, waiting at a designated greeting area for tour operators at the arrival hall.
The conmen assured our associates that he was there to arrange for their hotel accommodation and demanded RM380 (S$157). They were assured of a refund soon enough.
Since we did not break our contract with the clients and were at the airport, we cannot commit to the refund. In any case the amount is outrageous. Fortunately, our clients understood but they were unhappy and promised to highlight the case to the media in their country about how unsafe and unfriendly KLIA airport is.
We wonder why Malaysia Airports Berhad (MAB) can't get simple things right. Tour operators are designated to the left side of the entrance but passengers are allowed to walk out of the right side and from the front.
It makes it easy for unscrupulous people to conveniently pick a name from the placards held by the tour operators and then distract the unsuspecting tourists who walk out of the entrance.
What is shocking is that the police claim that since the area is part of KLIA Airport, they have no jurisdiction to make an arrest. Since MAB is not able to solve this age-old problem, we need to get the higher authorities to step in to do something about it while our treasured tourists get fleeced daily.
The longer we wait, most foreigners are going to read about how "third-world" mentality our first-world airport is and shun us
