Penang’s a draw for holiday crowd

Hotels in Penang are enjoying high-occupancy rates as tourists are taking advantage of the two-week school holidays to visit Penang and enjoy the food and beaches. A number of beach and city hotels have revealed that they are fully booked over the weekend due to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong’s birthday which falls on this Saturday.

Hard Rock Hotel Penang marketing and communications manager Elisa Saw said the hotel was seeing 100% occupancy rate for its 250 rooms on Saturday. “Our market is mainly local tourists. We have about 80% occupancy rate on weekdays during the school holidays.” Parkroyal Penang Resort marketing communications manager Saw Wei Wei said the 309-room resort was also fully booked on Saturday, adding that the management was expecting bookings for next weekend to pick up as well.

Bayview Hotel Georgetown marketing communications manager Lim Hui Hui said a full occupancy rate had been recorded for Saturday, and 80% for Friday and Sunday. E&O Hotel general manager Marco G. Battistotti said the hotel in Farquhar Street as well as the Lone Pine Hotel in Batu Ferringhi were seeing high occupancy rates of over 75% for the school holiday period. Battistotti, who is also Malaysian Associations of Hotel (Penang chapter) chairman, said the 42 hotels on the island were expect- ing a 65% and above occupancy rate in June compared to only 50% in May.

“May is normally the slowest month of the year as there are no festivals or holiday periods. “Many tourists also pick hotels or service apartments near a marina such as the one in Straits Quay,” he said, adding that it would be good to have a hotel built near the marina in the future.

-thestar online.