KUALA LUMPUR, May 13 — Malaysia could set up a Tourism Court to deal with legal cases involving foreign visitors, Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz said today.
The tourism and culture minister said such a platform would allow quick decisions for cases such as snatch thefts in which victims are tourists, as tourists might otherwise be discouraged from returning just to face the hassle of going through the court process.
“I think we do have (tourist police), but if the police force said we should have a tourist police, I’m all for it.
“Not only that, even for a Tourism Court, because if something happens to a tourist, we must immediately take them to court and make fast decisions,” he told reporters here.
Nazri was responding to a recent suggestion at the Global Tourism Cities Conference for a tourist police force to be set up.
He also said his ministry has directors in every state who will set up crisis committees to deal with matters concerning tourists when they arise.
On Tuesday, crisis management expert Bert van Walbeek suggested that Malaysia implement a hotline for tourists, a tourism crisis committee, a tourism emergency manual, a social media team to monitor crises, and a tourism police team.
Speaking at the Global Tourism Cities Conference 2016, van Walbeek had also said that Malaysia must tackle perceptions online that its tourism destinations are dangerous and that alcohol cannot be consumed here.
Van Walbeek had said that several websites carry such claims, including worldatlas.com that lists four cities in Malaysia as allegedly being among the most dangerous cities in Asia ― Kuala Lumpur (second), Petaling Jaya (third), Klang (fifth), and Johor Baru (10th).
Nazri today said that it would be pointless to refute such negative perceptions, but instead invited tourists to visit Malaysia and make their own judgments about safety here.
