He said should there be any such cases, they will be handled internally by the association.

“We hope Sarawakians who want to travel will always book their travels with licensed agencies. All the agencies who are members of our chapter are licensed tour and travel agents,” he said during a press conference today after announcing the 17th Sarawak Matta Travel Fair.

He said this when prompted for comments on Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture Dato Sri Tiong King Sing’s statement on Feb 1, saying that stern action, including the cancellation of licences, will be taken against travel agencies found buying flight tickets wholesale.

Choo said on those speculating why flight tickets, especially for umrah, are expensive, there are many contributing factors but not just because they are being bought wholesale by tour agencies.

“One of the factors is airlines having fewer aircrafts and not enough staff, thus the price of air tickets actually depends on the issue of supply and demand.

“After the Covid-19 pandemic, we are beginning to see many people starting to travel again. Of course, those who want to travel will want to see flight prices return to how they were pre-pandemic,” he said.

A news daily had recently reported that some umrah travel agencies allegedly bought flight tickets wholesale from local airlines to Mecca, which was one of the reasons for the sudden hike in airfare.