Penang to have 10 new hotels, investments exceed RM1b

GEORGE TOWN: Penang will have 10 new three to five-star hotels which are expected to be built between 2010 and 2014 and the total investment is expected to be more than RM1 billion.

Malaysian Association of Hotels (MAH), Penang chapter chairman Marco G Battistotti said on Sept 18 the new hotels would expand the rooms, in the three to four star hotel category, by 50% from the 9,000 now to 13,000 rooms in 2014.

"Out of the 10 (new hotels), three of them will be completed in 16 weeks, another two hotels will be built next year and five more hotels will be built between 2011 and 2014.

"At least five of them are hotels belong to national or international chains, some of which are already in Penang," Battistotti said at the launch of MAH Penang's website www.discoverpenang.com.my by Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng.

Over the next 16 weeks, the three hotels which would open their doors are the Hard Rock Hotel (opens on Saturday) in Batu Ferringhi, Flamingo Hotel (the former Crown Prince hotel) in Tanjung Bungah and Eastin Hotel in Bayan Bay.

As for the website, it is linked to over 40 MAH Penang members and also 45 Penang related websites. Tourists could book their rooms on online.

"Since Penang wants to attract 10 million tourists in 2014, the additional 50% increase in rooms will be able to accommodate the increase in tourist arrivals, which was 6.3 million last year," he added.

Battistotti said despite the global economic downturn, Penang's beach hotels recorded higher occupancy rate this year compared to 2008 while the city hotels saw a 2% to 3% drop.

Lim said there were also investors who were building boutique hotels in the heritage enclave area which augured well for Penang's tourism efforts.

"Even though they can only build hotels with the maximum five-storey height, they are still coming in to invest and this reflects the dynamism of the tourism industry in Penang," Lim said.

To promote Penang as a brand, there was a need to ensure only quality and reliability was associated with the name "Penang".

"We have the legal moral and moral responsibility to protect our brand name as it belongs to the people of Penang and as the custodian of the people, the state government has every right to protect the branding of Penang.

"We are promoting Penang aggressively and in order to project our image internationally, we have to ensure that it is not misused by some people, who would spoil Penang's image.

"This is why I have been emphasising that we need to control the use of the "Penang" label as there have been instances of some tourism related projects, which had failed and it reflects badly for the tourism industry," he added.

By The EDGE Malaysia (by Regina William)