Date: 21st March 2011
Venue: Penang Swettenham Pier
Time: 8am to 5pm

One of the three Cunard Queens, The Queen Elizabeth or known as QE will be docking Penang Swettenham Pier International Cruise Terminal on the 21st March 2011, from 8am to 5pm. The arrival of cruise brings revenues as the passengers visit local tourism destinations, eat in Penang, and shop in Penang. Over 2,000 passengers are expected to land on Penang shore and enjoy their day tour here in the George Town Heritage City.

Penang is proud to be one of the destinations of the QE Maiden World Voyage. The Penang State government welcomes the cruise visit with a warm reception by lion dance and traditional cultural dance. The rich heritage and cultures offered by George Town, the UNESCO world heritage site surely amaze the visitors.

Queen Mary 2 being the lead ship, followed by Queen Victoria, Queen Elizabeth or known as QE is the newest pride of the fleet. Being a sister ship to Queen Victoria, Queen Elizabeth has a capacity of 2,090 guests, with 12 passenger decks, specialty restaurants and bars, Wi-Fi, pools, casino, fitness classes & gym, spa, library and more. QE has up to 1000 crews to provide impeccable service to over 2000 guests on the cruise.

Penang during the year-end holiday season is always packed with visitors here for the excitement and its activities. As proven that many outstation and overseas tourists come to visit Penang during this time, most of the hotels are fully booked for the holiday season which in turn is a tremendous encouragement for tourism in Penang.

In addition, Penang has included Star Cruises as a new attraction and product to tourism in Penang. This 31st December 2010, SuperStar Libra would make Penang her home port at Swettenham Pier, Penang. For her 2011 cruise season in Penang, Superstar Libra will be offering daily one night cruise to the Straits of Malacca beginning 20th February, and will be offering holiday makers a 4D3N alternative mode of exploring Phuket and Krabi which in turn we hope that more tourists will come into Penang for this luxurious mode of multi-destination travel.

Since George Town has been ignited as the UNESCO World Heritage City, Penang has become increasingly famous as a travel destination. As lately, many television stations and television programmes have been keen to film their movies in Penang and also to produce travel documentaries of Penang.

PENANG should be able to maintain the 6.3 million tourist arrivals it recorded last year for 2009, according to Malaysian Association of Hotels (MAH) Penang chapter president Marco Battistotti.

He said the arrivals should mainly be from other Malaysian states, countries in the region and the Middle East.

“Although there is a slight drop in arrivals from the Middle East due to the coming Ramadan, we expect this to pick up in September after the fasting month,” Battistotti said.

“The period after Ramadan is still considered a holiday season in the Middle East. We believe many will take leave to travel.

“Thus, tourist arrivals to Pe-nang will be supported by the Middle East market in the third quarter.”

He said there was a slight drop of 3.5% in Penang’s hotel occupancy rate in the first six months of the year compared to the corresponding period last year.

He, however, said the occupancy rate for hotels in the Tanjung Bungah and the Batu Ferringhi belt was 3% higher than last year for the six-month period while there was about a 5% decline in the occupancy rate for hotels in George Town.

In 2007, Penang recorded 5.2 million tourist arrivals according to statistics from the Tourism Ministry.

Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said the state government had established the Penang Global Tourism Sdn Bhd as the state’s vehicle to drive tourism.

“It aims at securing commitments from the Federal Government in tourism projects for Penang and working with local tourism players to improve the basic infrastructure,” he said in a statement.

“The expected commencement of the upgrading of the Penang Hill funicular train in the next few months by the Federal Government with an expanded budget from RM40mil to RM60mil is a positive sign of how the federal and state governments can work together for the benefit of the people.”