Transport accessibility is often focused on physical aspects as they tend to be the most obvious. Other components of accessibility include wayfinding, access to information (maps, apps), and access to convenient ticket options.
Recently some tourists were overheard asking at the MRT station ticket counter:
"please can we buy a day pass"
The answer came back bluntly:
"we don't do a day pass".
The rest of the conversation was not heard but it sounded like the tourists were confused and had some follow-up questions.
On the train, day passes and 3-day passes are advertised. There is a small hash-tag mentioning domestic tourism, but it's in Malay and not particularly clear.
It turns out the 1-day and 3-day passes are only for Malaysians. There is no equivalent option for tourists.
So, what does the tourism ministry think of this? Does it agree with the policy of no equivalent passes for non-Malaysians, or does it think the convenience it might bring to tourists is worth pushing for?
Clearly someone thinks it's a worthy idea, as there appears to have been a ticket like this introduced in 2019 as shown on this page: https://www.klia2.info/promotions/mycity-pass/
At the link, the then-Chief Operating Officer of Prasarana is quoted as saying:
“Our regular customers have the privilege of unlimited travel with the use of the My100 pass for 30-day unlimited travels on our rail and BRT networks. On the other hand, these new passes provide immense convenience to non-Malaysians and non-regular users to travel unlimitedly within a short period of time.
This initiative is also part of our contribution to Malaysia’s tourism industry as traveling on our integrated rail and BRT network will allow you to extensively cover Klang Valley and Selangor, which is blessed with plenty of places of interests, food paradise and shopping outlets”
So, someone gets it. And clearly, tourists are interested in a ticket like this. It wouldn't be difficult to survey tourists in KL to further gauge the appetite for it.
This issue was highlighted in Twitter, which generated plenty of comments.
Some commenters didn't seem to understand that there could be a different price for tourists and locals, if needed.
Other commenters felt the need to say that the Malaysian day pass was "subsidised" but none of them managed to explain why they thought this was important or even relevant.
Public transport in Malaysia is typically subsidised, as is travel on the road. There are various questions for policymakers and planning professionals to think about, including:
- what mode share do we want for tourist transport?
- do we want to encourage tourists to come to Malaysia, and what part can transport play in that?
In terms of attracting tourists, convenient, efficient transport has its part to play - this shouldn't be underestimated. Arguably the biggest factor is convenience. While still important, price is usually secondary. The price just needs to be affordable. Certainty in price is also important, and a day pass will give this.
This Blog is not the place for an in-depth analysis of these opinions, but it is hard not to think that this near-obsession with "subsidised" prices and special prices for Malaysians is mainly coming from a place of ignorance and mean-spiritedness, in the absence of any clear logical explanation of the sentiment.
The point of helping the country prosper by making it attractive to tourists seems to get missed by many. There are even some commenters talking about exchange rates and the relative weakness of the Ringgit, totally missing the irony that what they want will probably make it worse!
To be fair, there were also various sensible comments on the Twitter post - let's hope these attitudes can pervade Malaysian transport to make it a better place for everyone.
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