GEORGE TOWN, Feb 13 — A town hall session on the Penang Tourism Master Plan (PGTMP) today drew heavy criticism from a former industry leader for its overall premise and lack of data.
Former Penang Global Tourism managing director Ooi Geok Ling pointed out the many weaknesses in the blueprint including plans to develop more sites ostensibly to attract more tourists into the state.
“You talk about revitalising alternative tourism and yet I see micro projects of building this or that structure when there is no proof that building more things will bring in more tourists,” she said after listening in to the two-hour presentation of the plan by YZD Planning and Consult chief consultant Prof Badaruddin Mohamed.
She pointed out that Batu Ferringhi already featured a surfeit of developments such as Escape Park and Entopia, yet still continued to lose visitors at an alarming rate.
No proper study has been done to determine why visitors were no longer interested in the area and why occupancy rates were falling, Ooi argued.
She argued that it was obvious building more structures would not translate to more tourists, yet the plan consisted primarily of more construction.
She also said the tourist arrival figures quoted in the presentation were contradictory.
“We seem to have more tourist arrivals and more direct flights to Penang but the number of tourists from Singapore has been dropping in the past three years, tourists from Australia are also dropping and tourists from the UK are also dropping, so how do you explain that?” she asked.
She said the state should look at the overall situation first and evaluate the premise of the entire master plan based on its four thrusts, namely, diversification of tourism products, positioning Penang as a premier destination, ensuring sustainable tourism and a smart tourism destination.
She said the state has been collecting tourism fees for years, and yet has not used this mechanism to extrapolate data of the tourists visiting Penang.
“Why don’t we have any data? Why don’t we know who are the tourists coming here? Do we really need to create an app for this?” she asked.
She said developing smart tourism did not necessarily mean creating a new portal or an application, just like developing tourism doesn’t mean building more structures.
“Going digital can mean putting the time of bus arrivals on Google map, it can be as simple as that, we don’t need another app because this means we have to market the app,” she said.
Earlier in his presentation, Badaruddin, who is from the consultancy firm appointed to develop the master plan, revealed that there will be 104 initiatives under the PGTMP that included physical projects and programmes.
The proposals include developing space for a Penang tourist night market selling local products, a wellness and aesthetics resort enclave, a theme park, a Penang Grand Bazaar, an Aqua Zoo, a six-star spa, a Penang arts and culture enclave, a Penang Legend Sports and Entertainment City, a Tanjung Performing Arts and Cultural Extravaganza and many more.
The proposed projects are scattered all over the state, ranging from Balik Pulau to George Town on the island and from Butterworth to Batu Kawan on the mainland.
In his speech, tourism exco Yeoh Soon Hin said work on putting together the master plan started in July last year and the plan was a result of consultation with various groups of stakeholders.
He said the master plan was a result of focus group discussions and a forum which culminated in the town hall session today.
“In today’s session, we want to gather more feedback to finalise the master plan,” he said.
Today is the only town hall session to be held for the PGTMP and all feedback will be compiled before the master plan is finalised.
