Penang sees low tourist turnout despite school holidays

GEORGE TOWN – The three-week term three school holidays have started but Penang is not seeing an increase in the number of domestic tourists.

Usually abuzz with holidaymakers, both hotels and tourist sites are seeing fewer visitors than expected when compared to the other times when school was closed for the term after the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.

According to the owner and managing director of Tropical Spice Garden, Katherine Chua, the response by domestic tourists has been pretty flat.

“If the end-of-year holidays are anything to go by, then yes, there was greater anticipation of arrivals, but it has not manifested as such,” she told The Vibes.

Hotel occupancy at both city and beach hotels is not as high as expected.

According to Malaysia Association of Hotels Penang Chapter chairman Raj Kumar, beach hotels are recording an average of 70% occupancy on weekends and 40% on weekdays. For hotels in the city, they only record an average of 50% occupancy on weekends and 30% on weekdays.

“When compared to November and December of 2021 and January of 2022, the occupancy rates have dropped significantly.

“Even though hotels have dropped their rates, it is still not luring people to holiday,” he said.

Raj believes that there are a few reasons why many are choosing not to travel domestically during this time. One of them is the high number of Covid-19 cases.

He said that he had already predicted that there will be a drop in occupancy rates after Chinese New Year, as people start to service their loans and most of them would have used up their annual leave during the festivities.

He told The Vibes that spending power, especially when it comes to experiences, is low, as many people are still affected by the onslaught of Covid-19, and not all industries have recovered.

To remedy the slowdown, Raj wants to see the government make a clear decision to open international borders so it can stabilise the industry.

“Personally, I believe that the international borders need to open because we will never learn how to handle tourists from abroad during the pandemic if we are not given the chance to learn how to handle it.

“Look at Langkawi. They had some time to adjust and learn through trial and error, and I can say that we are ready to learn.

“Just look how the SOPs for Covid-19 is updated from time to time. We need to update how we manage international tourists. It has been more than two years – enough is enough,” he said. – The Vibes, February 28, 2022