Half baked EXCO with half cook plan

CM Lim Guan Eng's head must have grown overnight when certain 'facts' that were printed both in an Economics magazine as well as Bloomberg made him out to be some economic wonder. Penang has been hailed THE growth state of Penang!

Heck, there are BIG plans out there, and one of them is this. I am not sure about you, but I have certainly had my share of putting up in airport hotels. So when Public Works, Utilities and Transportation Committee chairman Lim Hock Seng for Penang announced that plans are afoot for a PEanng Airport hotel, it kind of tells you what kind of dungus you have up north.


Here is why.


Penang has an International Airport, no doubt, but being a destination in itself, tourist and travellers alike terminates there. In fact there are only a handful of flights transiting in Penang. Oh wait! There USED to be flights transiting in Penang but not anymore.


Malaysia Airlines brilliant move to cut destinations caused Penang to suffer a blip when it terminated flights from London, and Manchester. Even so, most of these flights terminate there. Which will make any airport hotel a 'white elephant'.


Wanna know why? If one was to stay short term in Penang, it would very likely be a downtown hotel. And that for obvious reasons. Transit hotels will do exceptionally well only if you have many flights TRANSITING the airport, hence the name Transit Hotel. Which are the high volume tourist arriving in Penang today?
China ranks high, but how many flights from China TRANSITS in Penang? NONE! Peanng is ultimately a destination in itself, and because of strategic airports within the region, it is unlikely that Penang can become an International hub big enough to handle volumes of travelers wanting to stay in the airport.


Having said that Air Asia is trying to do something there, but being a budget airline, it does not offer hotel accommodation to travelers stranded on transit. For this alone, airports in Sepang gets spillover business from Pan Pacific KLIA whenever flights terminating in KLIA are delayed beyond 'reasonable' time.


But take a look at these fuighres from the Penang State Tourism, perhaps these figures convinced the State to commission this project. Penang tourism quoted hotel guest of 'Malaysia tourist' (whatever that means) at 68.8 million for 2008 (titled 'Boost in Penang Tourist Arrivals') whereas official figures frm Tourism Malaysia cited this number. I could not locate statistics that point to a particular state claiming as top destination in Malaysia, nor did I get figures that segregated local from foreign tourist. Either way, my bet is that Airport hotels are only USEFUL for those with transit flights to catch, with limited time to spare exploring the city.


In any case, to me, with my years involved in the industry, Airport or Transit hotel in Penang is clearly not well thought out.