By Shikin Louis
KUCHING, Oct 9: Malaysian Minister for Tourism, Arts and Culture Dato Sri Tiong King Sing today explained that the Global Travel Meet (GTM) 2025 gala dinner, which became the subject of public criticism over alcohol being served, was never part of any official government programme but a private industry event.
Responding to Wan Hassan Mohd Ramli (Perikatan Nasional–Dungun) in the Dewan Rakyat, who asked about ministry guidelines to ensure events comply with the Public Service Circular 3/2003 which prohibits alcohol at official government functions, Tiong said the rule applies only to events funded by the federal government.
He then laid out a detailed timeline of how the confusion arose.
“Initially, we discussed with tourism industry players to co-organise the event, but they lacked confidence as GTM 2025 was being held for the first time in Malaysia.
“We wanted it to be an international business-to-business (B2B) platform, not just a local showcase. So we decided to start it ourselves,” he told the Dewan Rakyat.
He further said Tourism Malaysia issued letters in late July or early August confirming its involvement in the GTM exhibition at the World Trade Centre (WTC) Kuala Lumpur, but later withdrew from the gala dinner segment to save costs.
“We informed them we would only handle the exhibition, not the dinner. But the industry wanted to continue with the gala dinner, so we kept talking,” he said.
As the event date drew closer, with the exhibition scheduled for Oct 1 to 3, Tiong said Tourism Malaysia issued a letter on Sept 24 to invite guests to the gala dinner as part of the coordination process.
“When the programme started on Oct 1, even we were surprised by the turnout—over 600 international industry players. During the first afternoon alone, they recorded RM100 million in sales, and by the end of the three days, total transactions reached RM420 million,” he said.
Following the success, Tiong said industry players decided to fully take over the gala dinner, making it a private event.
“They told us, ‘We’ve already made RM100 million, we’ll take over the dinner.’ That’s when it became a private function,” he said.
Tiong admitted his only mistake was not publicly announcing that the gala dinner was no longer an official government event.
“My only slip-up was not announcing that night that it was no longer an official dinner.
“The backdrop didn’t say it was organised by Tourism Malaysia. Only our logo appeared because it was used on Facebook and TikTok for Visit Malaysia 2026 branding. That’s all,” he asserted.
He stressed that since it was privately funded, the Public Service Circular 3/2003 does not apply.
“The dinner was not official. It was a private function. Therefore, the circular does not apply, and the alcohol issue should not even arise,” Tiong said.
He expressed regret over any misunderstanding that caused discomfort among the public but maintained that no rules were broken.
“The Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture (MOTAC) remains fully committed to complying with all government circulars for official events. What matters is that the GTM achieved its goal of boosting Malaysia’s tourism industry,” he emphasised. – DayakDaily
