Penang must arrest this
Penang is unique among the local tourist destinations. It has everything and more – culture, heritage, beach, hills and above all, fabulous food. For this reason, our family has visited Penang numerous times over the last decade and thoroughly enjoyed our experience each time.
However, our latest trip during the recent school holidays proved to be a bitter and a thoroughly forgettable experience. Much to our shock and sadness, we found Penang to have deteriorated so much that it made us to swear not to visit the ‘Pearl of the Orient’ ever again.
The first unpleasant surprise greeted us when we stepped off the aerobridge and into the Penang International Airport. An overwhelming presence of the new Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng greeted the visitors. Images of Guan Eng were everywhere; on welcoming boards, huge billboards, tourism promotional videos and brochures, posters, etc.
This made one wonder what the chief minster is trying to accomplish as this can be easily misconstrued as an attempt to build a cult of personality. Which what one of our fellow visitors, a Caucasian, was heard remarking rather sarcastically by comparing him to North Korean dictator Kim Il Sung and Tamil Nadu politicians.
Further ordeals awaited us. The trip from the airport to our hotel took us two hours instead of the usual 30 minutes as we were caught in a massive traffic jam. We later found that this snarl was caused by the closure of several key roads. There was no notification or any instructions on alternative roads to use.
Only when we finally checked in at our hotel that did we realise that the cause – a motor GP that was being held on several busy public roads. It was really irresponsible for the state authorities to conduct such events during the busy holiday season and on a Saturday morning at that. More irresponsibly, the authorities failed to provide the necessary traffic diversion arrangements thus creating massive traffic congestion and chaos.
Further unpleasant surprises awaited us. Our rental car was issued a ticket for not paying parking fees even though it was Saturday evening. Upon checking, we were told by the hotel staff that the state had quietly extended hours for traffic fees collection since the beginning of the year, from morning right up till midnight even during weekends.
All along the Batu Ferringhi area, we discovered monstrously ugly structures being built seemingly at a breakneck pace and with scant regard to Mother Nature or public safety. The famed beaches were dirty and badly maintained with the cleaners, who used to be efficient during our previous visits, nowhere to be found.
Downtown, we were dismayed to find frenzied construction work going on at various historical and heritage buildings. Some of the most valuable buildings were being turned into pubs, individual homes, show rooms, galleries, restaurants or for other business purposes.
Traffic order to seems to have broken down with illegal double and triple parking seeming to be the norm rather than an exception. In popular commercial areas such as Pulau Tikus, Weld Quay, Little India and many others, irresponsible parking and illegal businesses have made the traffic come to a standstill and driving hazardous.
At Little India, our initial joy in seeing road signs in Tamil turned to disappointment with the poor translation of the road names. The twin phenomenon of unchecked development and poor enforcement was again evident at Little India too.
What is so surprising and sad is the rapid rate of decline of Penang within the short space of two years since our last visit in December 2007. We are unsure what really caused such alarming deterioration but the Penangites we spoke to pointed their anger and fingers squarely at the new state government.
We are not familiar with the state politics to make an assessment or judgment but if the state government does not act quickly to arrest this decline, Penang and Penangites will be the biggest losers. Tourists like us will give the state a wide berth if nothing is done
Hotel occupancies in Penang
GEORGE TOWN: Most resort and city hotels on Penang island enjoyed about 65% occupancy rate last month compared with 55% in the same period in 2009, said Malaysian Association of Hotels (MAH), Penang Chapter president Marco Battistotti.
“In the final quarter of 2009, the occupancy rate at most of the 37 hotels in Penang, which are MAH members, stood at about 70%, an increase of 2% from the previous corresponding period,” he told StarBiz.
“For resort hotels, about 55% of the guests last month were from overseas while the remainder were locals,” he said. “For city hotels, about 55% of the guests were domestic travellers while the remainder were from abroad.”
Battistotti said the recently launched direct flight to Chennai, India, by AirAsia helped to secure a lot of bookings for March and April for both resort and city hotels.
“MAH will continue to work with airlines, airport authorities, and both the state and federal governments to ensure that there would be more direct flights to Penang in the future,” he said.
Battistotti said MAH was confident that occupancy rate for Penang hotels this year would hit 65% compared with about 59% in 2009.
“In Penang, there is still a need for some 3,000 more hotel rooms over the next five years. At present, there are just under 10,000 hotel rooms here,” he said.
Hard Rock Hotel Penang achieved 70% to 80% occupancy rate for December and January.
However, Golden Sands and Rasa Sayang Resorts projected a slightly different outlook for the first quarter.
“Due to slower bookings, we expect the occupancy rates at both resorts in the first quarter to fall behind the corresponding period of 2009,” said director of communications Suleiman Tunku Abdul Rahman.
“But we hope there will be a last-minute pickup in bookings, as Golden Sands has just been renovated,” he said.
Cititel Penang sales and marketing director Vincent Ng said the hotel was expecting about five-percentage point increase in the occupancy rate for the first quarter from 52% achieved in the previous corresponding quarter.
He said its first-quarter projection was based on its occupancy rate for last month, which stood at 56.9% against 50.1% in January 2009.
“The occupancy rate for the New Year holidays (Dec 31-Jan 2) closed higher at 73.8% against 56.5% recorded in the same period a year earlier.
“The occupancy rate for Chinese New Year 2010 (from the eve till the third day) is expected to pick up and we expect to close at about 80% against 70.7% in 2009,” Ng said.
Meanwhile, Hard Rock Hotel director of sales Betty Lim said the hotel had achieved 70% to 80% occupancy rate for December and January due to visitors from Finland and Australia.
“For February, we are looking at about 60% occupancy rate as we have substantial bookings from domestic visitors.
“Overall, for the first quarter, we expect to achieve a 65% occupancy rate, which is within our target,” she said.
G Hotel director of sales Kevin Cheah said the hotel expected to enjoy an occupancy rate of about 80% this month and next because of the Chinese New Year and bookings from tour groups from Chennai, India.
Free Parking for Disabled
GEORGE TOWN (Jan 14, 2010): All registered physically disabled persons in Penang will be allowed free public parking throughout the island in a new ruling, the first of its kind in the country, by the Penang Island Municipal Council (MPPP).
The MPPP has decided to issue special purple car-stickers, to be renewed after two years, for disabled individuals who can drive and for guardians of those who cannot.
The ruling, which does not cover the deaf and the blind, took effect today.
Councillor Tan Hun Wooi said those who have already registered with the Social Welfare Department qualify to apply immediately. Those who have not registered yet are encouraged to do so to be eligible.
“We encourage the disabled to apply for these special stickers for their convenience,” he said. The first batch of stickers will be issued by the end of this month, he added.
Tan said this at a press conference at the Caring Society Complex here today.
The MPPP has been receiving calls to increase the number of bays for the disabled, and decided to tackle the problem by going one step further in giving out stickers for free public parking throughout the island.
Of the 11,000-odd parking bays under the MPPP, only 15 are currently reserved for the disabled.
In the meantime, the MPPP will still go ahead with plans to increase the number of disabled bays, so as to give the disabled greater convenience in finding available parking.
Tan also warned the general public not to park their vehicles in places reserved for the disabled.
Society of Disabled Persons Penang president, Teh Lay Kuan, said she was grateful to the local authorities for initiating the new purple-sticker ruling.
According to the Welfare department, there were 15,611 registered disabled people in the state.
“We often find people who are inconsiderate when they park at parking lots meant for the disabled, causing us inconvenience,” she added.
Applications for the stickers can be made at the MPPP’s office on the 15th floor of Komtar here. For details, call 04-2592130.
Penang Hill Exotic Flowers
last-ditch battle to stop Tesco from operating
Traders in Seberang Perai Tengah, Penang, are in a last-ditch battle to stop British-owned hypermarket Tesco from operating in their neighbourhood.
They are not alone in their protest against the opening of a hypermart – a similar refrain is being heard worldwide.
In his book ‘The Wal-Mart Effect’, Charles Fishman noted that retail giants “reshape the economic life of the towns and cities where it opens stores; it also reshapes the economic life… steadily, silently (and) purposefully moves… (the) economy”.
Fishman claimed that Wal-Mart and possibly others like it have become the most powerful and influential companies in the world.
The LA Times business section ran a series of articles in 2003 illustrating the dangers of ‘The Wal-Mart Effect’, describing the effect that retail giants have in marginalising small businesses and local economies as well as suppliers across the globe with their pricing policies.
Penang Govt To Reward Senior Citizens RM100 Each From Next Year
PENANG, Aug 12 (Bernama) — The Penang government will reward each registered senior citizen in the state RM100 a month under the Senior Citizens Appreciation Programme by March 8, next year.
Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said the state executive council (exco) meeting Wednesday decided to reward registered senior citizens aged 60 and above for their contribution to the state’s development.
“We are expecting about 100,000 to receive the aid from the state government as we are now collecting details on the senior citizens,” he told reporters after chairing the exco meeting here today.
He said if the state’s financial situation was sound, the government hoped to give the reward every year to the senior citizens.
However, Lim said the state government would also reward Penangites who took care of their aged parents.
“Those deserving will be given RM1,000 under the programme if they are named as beneficiaries upon the death of their parents,” he said.
He said the state government wanted to reward children who took care of their elderly parents as “we want to build a caring society”.
Meanwhile, he said the state government also managed to save up on its administrative and development costs for last year.
“We only spent RM435 million out of RM481 million allocated as the current state government has been spending wisely on the people’s money,” he said.
BERNAMA