Kedah govt’s rivalry with Penang may hinder tourism recovery

GEORGE TOWN – Penang State Executive Councillor for Tourism and Creative Economy (Petace) Yeoh Soon Hin has agreed to work with the states in the northern corridor – particularly Perlis, Kedah and Perak – to beef up tourism competitiveness in the post-pandemic era based on recommendations from Tourism Malaysia.

He revealed to reporters today that there was a two-day seminar and workshop with northern industry entrepreneurs in Ipoh organised by Tourism Malaysia on Monday and Tuesday this week.

During the event, Tourism Malaysia (Planning) Deputy Director-General Iskandar Mirza said the inaugural initiative sought to merge attractions from the different states and repackage them as a new product to develop new and competitive packages.

However, that message may have fallen on deaf ears as Kedah Tourism Exco Mohd Firdaus Ahmad and his team did not attend the programme.

Cooperation may be difficult, seeing that Firdaus was heard saying in the state assembly at the beginning of the week that visitors can only visit Pulau Songsong – an inhabited island off the coast of Yan known for pristine waters and snorkelling activities – through Kedah and not Penang.

However, Yeoh is optimistic that even if Kedah decides to ignore the Northern Peninsular Malaysia Travel Corridor, Penang is willing to work with whomever wants to cooperate with the state.

“We always believe that in order to help the economy recover, we must put aside political background and differences because, at the end of the day, it is to help the rakyat.

“My mission is to make Penang a world-class destination in the region, so we are not competing with other states in terms of tourism. Instead, we should be competing with other countries like Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia. They are much more aggressive than we are when it comes to tourism.

“We need to work together to entice international tourists to come and stay longer in Malaysia,” he said.

Despite Firdaus’ absence from the workshop and seminar organised by Tourism Malaysia, Yeoh said the other tourism excos from Perlis and Perak are also in agreement with the suggestion proposed by Tourism Malaysia.

Earlier, Yeoh suggested that tourism operators can repackage existing Northern Peninsular Malaysia ecotourism packages by combining the recently inscribed Penang Hill Biosphere Reserve (Penang), Kilim Geoforest Park (Kedah), Gua Kelam Recreational Park (Perlis) and Lenggong Geopark (Perak) into one ecotourism route. – The Vibes, November 18, 2021.