Penang needs to practise sustainable tourism to regain confidence of tourists

GEORGE TOWN: Penang needs to rope in all stakeholders if it wants to promote sustainable tourism effectively, following a spell of natural disasters which have affected tourism here in the past two months.
The stakeholders should be the state's civil society, community leaders, associations and the business communities, besides the manufacturers, according to the Malaysian Association of Hotels (MAH)'s chief executive officer Yap Lip Seng.
For Yap, Penang has suffered from a misperception issue, due to the claims that the state had ignored public pleas on protecting the environment, following a spate of incidents involving floods, landslides and erosion.
Yap said that one of the few pointers that an international forum on urban tourism had extolled, was that sustainable tourism must first be practised on the local residents before it can be marketed as a product to foreign tourists.
"If we do not care for the environment and take pride in it, how can we convince the foreigners that we are adopting eco-friendly policies. We must have the local populace practise it first soundly."
Sustainable tourism was not just about mother nature, but also concerned perservation and conservation policies, as well as effective engagement with the majority of the stakeholders in the public and private sectors, Yap said in an interview.
While the state authorities should be praised for taking a fast approach towards making the state a tourist destination again after the devastating floods of Nov 4 and 5, Yap said that it is more important to conceive programmes which can prevent a recurrence.
"MAH like many other interest groups are concerned about prevention, rather than curing of natural disasters, as it can stand to ruin tourism if it happens often."
He said that there is a need to re-look on how sustainable tourism was practised in Penang, especially with concerns that development at sensitive ecological areas, such as the hillslopes and beachfront can erode the environment.
In another development, the Malaysian Association of Tours and Travel Agents (Matta) Penang chapter chairperson Dexter Chuah, said that he was confident that Penang was on track to record a high number of tourists despite the recent flooding.
Last year, Penang recorded an estimated over six million arrivals, while for this year Chuah said the figure can be exceeded.
It is because the authorities have managed to recover fast and in Penang, the waters also receded fast, especially if it was during low tide conditions, according to Chuah.
His view was echoed by Penang Tourism and Culture committee chairperson Danny Law Heng Kiang, who underlined that tourism was not drastically affected, although there may be gaps in the arrivals of tourists because some may have differed their trips due to the calamities.
"We have recovered to serve our year-end influx of tourists. Our hotels have also rebounded after the floods. We should be faring well."