As Penang's tourism industry bounces back from the Covid-19 pandemic, the focus is on enhancing the infrastructure to cater to the booming industry.
One plan is the expansion and upgrading of the Penang International Airport (PIA) by the Federal Government, which would allow the airport to accommodate more than 12 million passengers annually.
Penang tourism and creative economy committee chairman Wong Hon Wai said this during an interview at his office in Komtar, Penang recently.
WATCH MORE: https://thestartv.com/c/news
SUBSCRIBE: https://cutt.ly/TheStar
LIKE: https://fb.com/TheStarOnline
One plan is the expansion and upgrading of the Penang International Airport (PIA) by the Federal Government, which would allow the airport to accommodate more than 12 million passengers annually.
Penang tourism and creative economy committee chairman Wong Hon Wai said this during an interview at his office in Komtar, Penang recently.
WATCH MORE: https://thestartv.com/c/news
SUBSCRIBE: https://cutt.ly/TheStar
LIKE: https://fb.com/TheStarOnline
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00 As Penang's tourism industry bounces back from the COVID-19 pandemic, the focus is on
00:07 enhancing the infrastructure to cater to the booming industry.
00:11 One plan is the expansion and upgrading of the Penang International Airport by the federal
00:15 government, which would allow the airport to accommodate more than 12 million passengers
00:19 annually.
00:20 Penang's Tourism and Creative Economy Committee Chairman Wong Hon Wai said the project would
00:26 help to secure more direct flights to Penang.
00:28 We are recovering some of the pre-pandemic flights, some of them stopped, discontinued.
00:35 So I think next month there will be a Guilin China to Penang.
00:41 So there will be direct flights.
00:42 There are other international flights to be announced.
00:45 We are expecting the airline, we are working on it.
00:49 When it's right time, we will announce together with that particular airline.
00:54 It was reported that the RM1.2 billion airport expansion project was expected to begin next
00:59 year and will take between three and four years to complete.
01:03 Transport Minister Anthony Loke had earlier said that the entire cost of Penang International
01:08 Airport's expansion would be borne by Malaysia Airport's Holdings Berhad.
01:12 In a recent interview at his office in Komtar, Penang, Wong also said the state was also
01:17 working with the medical tourism industry to hold roadshows in ASEAN countries to bring
01:22 in more international patients.
01:24 So I received a report also from medical tourism.
01:26 I met them, the stakeholders, medical tourism players, updating me.
01:31 There are expansions of hospitals, pilot hospitals, whether it's in Plotikus area or whether it's
01:39 in Butterworth.
01:40 There are also new hospitals coming up in Sebrang Jaya, Sunbay Hospital coming in, Sebrang
01:45 Jaya, Bagan Hospital expanding, Highland is expanding.
01:49 So all these are expansions and we are working together with the medical tourism players.
01:54 We were working very closely.
01:56 We were having a roadshow in ASEAN countries.
02:00 He also said conference and convention tourism has also been bringing in plenty of tourists
02:04 to the state, adding that the tourism industry had experienced a quick recovery after a sharp
02:10 decline following the COVID-19 pandemic.
02:13 Results from the hotel list, because of the COVID pandemic time, we are going through
02:19 a V-shape, means that during good time and then it came down to the bottom and then now
02:24 it's picking up.
02:25 So it's a V-shape recovery and there are reports from the hotel industry, it's fully recovered.
02:32 The injection of capitals, new capitals, they have taken advantage of the COVID time and
02:38 the injection of new capitals, renovation being carried out and rebranding is going
02:43 to happen.
02:44 So you will see that there are more new hotels coming up than those closed down during the
02:49 pandemic.
02:50 Wong said he has been holding meetings with stakeholders in the tourism industry, especially
02:55 hotels, tourism agencies and medical institutions on how to further improve the tourism industry
03:00 in Penang.
03:01 I look forward to work hand in hand with the stakeholders.
03:09 I have met many of them, going for the following few weeks or months, I will continue to meet
03:14 many of them because they give us many proposals, many activities they have been buying.
03:19 So we will continue the effort.
03:21 It's all this small effort, programmes, activities, engagement.
03:27 So after two, three years of non-activities, the industry, for other countries also come
03:33 flying in to engage with us.
03:35 So we will see how we can tap into that.
03:40 Even the property sector, property sectors, MM2H, Malaysia-Made Second Home Play, they
03:46 are updating me there is a new interest from other countries, they are looking at how we
03:55 can make MM2H in Penang, linked with the property sectors, become more successful.
04:01 Wong said the state will be focusing more on the mainland as their approach has been
04:05 too island-centric for too long.
04:07 Thank you.
04:08 [END]