LUMUT: The hotel occupancy rates in Pangkor Island showed an increase of up to 78 per cent since interstate travel was allowed on Oct 11.
Perak Housing, Local Government and Tourism Committee chairman, Datuk Nolee Ashilin Mohammed Radzi said since then, 9,888 tourists had entered Pangkor Island.
“Since the reopening of domestic tourism last month, 6,430 tourist arrivals were recorded in Pangkor in August while last month, there were 12,879 tourist arrivals.
“This is a good sign and we are confident that the tourism industry in Pangkor Island which has begun to receive more tourists will see a revival,” she said when met by reporters after viewing the standard operating procedure adherence at the Lumut Passenger Jetty today.
Meanwhile, Nolee Ashilin said they were constantly monitoring the needs of the ferry service and was prepared to offer additional trips, but that would depend on factors like readiness of the operators on the duty-free island to receive many more tourists.
She said some facilities were also provided to tourists including creational activities which were allowed until midnight and tourists could now buy duty-free goods after being on the island for more than 24 hours compared to 48 hours previously.
“To date, 25 out of the 47 hotels on Pangkor Island are operating while the rest will open for business in stages,” she said.
Nolee Ashilin also said that based on information received from Perak Tourism through the hoteliers association, a 50 per cent increase in the occupancy rate was recorded in areas like Ipoh and the outskirts from Oct 10 until now.
“Based on data from the Malaysia Association of Hoteliers (MAH), the occupancy rate in Ipoh is 50 per cent while data from the Taiping Municipal Council (MPT) show that hotels operating in the municipality have an occupancy rate of 56 per cent.
“Meanwhile, figures from the Malaysia Budget Hotels Association (Mybha) show that other areas like Tanjung Malim, Tapah, Manjung, Kuala Kangsar and Taiping have registered a 46.1 per cent hotel occupancy rate,” she added.-Bernama
