BALIK PULAU: Fourteen tourist hotspots in Penang recorded an overwhelming number of visitors, at 27,059 people, between Oct 11 and Oct 19.
State Tourism and Creative Economy Committee chairman Yeoh Soon Hin said the data was obtained from a survey conducted by the Association of Tourism Attractions Penang (ATAP) after the interstate travel ban was lifted.
"Among the 14 tourist attractions involved in the data collection were Audi Dream Farm, Tropical Spice Garden, The Top Penang, Penang Bird Park and others.
"All these 14 tourist attractions recorded an encouraging number of visitors, at 27,059 people, from the time the inter-estate travel ban was lifted on Oct 11 until Tuesday (Oct 19)," he said when launching the responsible tourism guidelines for resumption of tourism in Penang at the Angsana Hotel here today.
Present were Penang deputy police chief Datuk Fisol Salleh, Malaysian Association of Hotels (MAH) Penang chairman K. Raj Kumar and tourism players.
According to Yeoh, MAH Penang also shared data on the average hotel occupancy rate in Penang, at between 45 per cent and 75 per cent, from Oct 15 to Oct 19.
"During this period, the occupancy rate at beach hotels reached 75 per cent, hotels in the Unesco World Heritage Site (70 per cent) and hotels in Seberang Prai (65 per cent).
"Besides that, hotels in Bayan Lepas recorded an occupancy rate of around 50 per cent while in downtown George Town (45 per cent)," he added.
Meanwhile, Yeoh said Penang was the first state to implement the responsible tourism guidelines for the resumption of tourism for industry players and tourists to prevent the spread of Covid-19.
"If you look at the guidelines in detail, we require operators to carefully check visitors' digital vaccine certificates and provide updates on Covid-19 risk status on a daily basis.
"These measures are implemented to complement other standard operating procedures (SOP) such as check-in and check-out through the MySejahtera app, temperature checks, regular cleaning of public spaces and others," he said.
Yeoh said, for tourists, apart from the existing health protocols determined by the authorities, they were also encouraged to conduct a Covid-19 self-test before visiting Penang and wear double face masks when in public places such as tourist attractions and hotel premises.