Only day trips allowed to Pulau Bidong

SETIU: Terengganu will ban large tourism projects on Pulau Bidong and its surrounding islands and only allow day trippers, in a bid to to protect the corals and preserve it as a marine heritage island.

State Tourism, Culture, Arts and Heritage Committee chairman Datuk Abdul Rahin Mohd Said said the Pulau Bidong group of islands, comprising a main island and five smaller ones, must be protected as they were the last uninhabited islands in Terengganu.

He said the state government did not want the islands to be turned into other resort islands such as Perhentian and Redang to minimise environmental damage to marine life.

"We want to promote the islands of Pulau Bidong in a such a way that will still protect its environment hence the idea of opening it only to day trippers. Visitors can still come and enjoy the beauty of the corals and marine life but they must leave by end of the day.

"We will need to build the amenities for day-trippers, but it will be on a much smaller scale compared with large-scale construction for resorts," he said after taking part in an underwater signing ceremony of a pledge to safeguard the islands' marine heritage yesterday.

Sixty divers took part and it was certified by the Malaysia Book of Records as the first in Malaysia.

The event was organised by the Malaysia Coral Reef Conservation Society (Coral Malaysia) with the cooperation of Universiti Malaysia Terengganu (UMT) and the Terengganu government.

UMT vice chancellor Prof Datuk Aziz Deraman, who welcomed the move to protect the islands, said the university would make Pulau Bidong its research island.

"Currently, we have a research facility with four laboratories on the island and we will conduct more research on the Pulau Bidong archipelago."

He said research to harness the power of tidal currents, solar and wind would also be conducted on the island, beside marine biology studies.

"We will build a windmill at our research centre on the island to supply electricity and at the same time be a subject of green energy research

"UMT has conducted research into ways to restore dying corals but what is more important is to preserve what we still have."

Coral Malaysia president Jamhariah Jaafar said artificial reefs, known as the Underwater Gallery, around Pulau Bidong had become healthy grounds for coral growth.

"The waters around Pulau Bidong have many fascinating diving sites which can be promoted to create public awareness about our marine heritage."

Book early, rooms in Penang are going fast

Prospects for the year are looking rosy with 2011 expected to close at a 67 per cent occupancy and a record high hotel room rate of RM240.

Penang: Hotels in Penang are projecting a record year in 2011 as more rooms are filled and more money is made each night. And the outlook for 2012 is expected to be even better.

In the first seven months of this year, occupancy hit 65.7 per cent with an average room rate (ARR) of RM231. This compares to the first seven months of 2010 when average occupancy was at 59.3 per cent and an ARR at RM229.

"July 2011 posted the highest ever single month occupancy in the past five years, at 82 per cent," president for the Malaysian Association of Hotel (MAH) Penang Chapter Marco G. Battistotti said.

Accordingly, prospects for the year are looking rosy with 2011 expected to close at a 67 per cent occupancy and a record high room rate of RM240. This is despite additional room inventory this year.

As at end of last year, MAH member hotels had a total of 7,706 rooms, while up to July 2011, the rooms available touched 7,803.

These, Battistotti said, are the best numbers since the association started tabulating the statistics.

While occupancy is in fact similar to that achieved in 2006, ARR at that time was only at RM178.

MAH members in Penang represent 80 per cent of the available hotels in the state.

"This positive trend could continue in 2012," Battistotti told Business Times.

Battistotti, who said hotels on the mainland tend to have better rates as there are fewer players, divides Penang island into two sectors.

Hotels located within Gurney Drive to Bayan Lepas are considered city hotels and those located within the Tanjung Bunga and Burau Bay as beach hotels.

City hotels tend to generally have 65 per cent corporate crowd and 35 per cent leisure, while beach hotels tend to have the opposite composition.

The city hotel enjoying the highest ARR is E&O Hotel at around RM540, while the highest rate garnered by a beach hotel is Shangri-La Rasa Sayang Resort & Spa.

The better performance, especially by city hotels, is attributed to support from multinational corporations and manufacturing facilities located within the Free Industrial Zone. Some 70 companies here provided 100,000 room nights last year.

The Arab market has also improved this year. They provided 89,000 room nights in the first seven months compared with 81,000 last year.

Apart from a strong corporate market and a leisure market, Penang also gets a good number of arrivals for medical tourism.

George Town's status as a Unesco World Heritage City has spurred arrivals as it has helped increase Penang's popularity.

"For the European market, heritage is a strong selling point," Battistotti said.

Indonesians and Singaporeans remain Penang's largest foreign arrivals.

A good mix of leisure, backpackers, corporate and meeting, incentive, convention and exhibition is expected to augur well for the island over the next three to four years, Battistotti said.

TOURISM PROMOTION TO SHOWCASE RAMADAN IN M'SIA

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 3 (Bernama) -- The Tourism Ministry will intensify

promotion to showcase Ramadan in Malaysia in efforts attract more tourists,

especially from West Asia.

Its minister, Datuk Seri Dr Ng Yen Yen said the third Ramadan Bazaar in

Kampung Baru jointly hosted with the Jamek Mosque would enable foreign tourists

to experience the atmosphere of Ramadan in the country.

"As of last January, Malaysia received 16,329 tourists from Saudi Arabia,

United Arab Emirates and Iran compared to 15,008 in the corresponding period

last year," she said after launching the Ramadan Bazaar at the Jamek Mosque,

Kampung Baru here today.

Dr Ng said the iconic "bubur lambuk" (porridge) of Kampung Baru would be

popularised in other places such as Raub, Pahang on Aug 16.

She said 66 Ramadan Bazaars catered to the delight of customers and tourists

in the city, including three in Kampung Baru, namely in Jalan Raja Alang, Jalan

Raja Muda Musa and Jalan Raja Uda.

At the ceremony, the Tourism Ministry contributed 100 pots of bubur lambuk

and distributed about 23,000 sachets of the porridge in Kampung Baru, the

Malaysia Tourism Centre in Jalan Ampang, Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman, Bukit

Bintang and the Art Market.

-- BERNAMA

Pekan to get its first tropical four-star resort

PEKAN: The construction of a RM80 million four-star resort here will complement the development of the royal town as an integrated hub for automobile, education and maritime industries, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said.

To be built by UDA Holdings Berhad, the "modern tropical" resort on the river bank of Sungai Pahang which is expected to be ready by 2013.

Najib, who is also the Pekan member of parliament, said the resort was an important component in the transformation plan for the town that had been prepared by the government.

"We have decided that Pekan will be developed as an automotive hub with an international automotive college which had opened last year," he said at the ground-breaking for the seven-storey resort yesterday.

Present were Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Adnan Yaakob and UDA Holdings chairman Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed.

Najib said Pekan was also an education hub where various institutions for higher learning had been built, including Universiti Malaysia Pahang's permanent campus in Kuala Pahang.

At the same time, he said the on-going construction of the RM3 billion Tanjong Agas oil and gas and logistics industrial park near here had also spurred development in the surrounding areas..

He also said the completion of a four-lane dual-carriageway from Kuantan to Pekan had also made it easier for the people to commute between the two main towns.

Under the East Coast Economic Region (ECER) initiative, Najib said various allocations had been approved, including the upgrading of the Sultan Abu Bakar museum and Pekan riverfront landscape beautification project.

All the projects, he said, would draw more visitors to Pekan, also known for its various attractions, including the Tun Razak memorial hall, which is the rebuilt home of the late Tun Abdul Razak.

Nur Jazlan, is his speech, said that the resort, which was the first four-star facility to be built here, would have 133 rooms, five seminar rooms and a main function hall that could accommodate 450 people.

He said the hotel would also act as the main venue for meetings, conferences and exhibitions for Pekan and the surrounding areas.

"Apart from improving the tourism sector and changing its landscape, the resort will also provide job opportunities and other benefits for the people here," he said.

The curious case of Carcosa

COME August, boutique hotel Carcosa, a building that Malaysia had "struggled" to get back from the British, turns 113.

It was returned to Malaysia in 1987 and started operating as a hotel.

In late 2009, plans for its rejuvenation, as well as for neighbour Seri Negara and its surroundings, were announced. The plans were aborted shortly thereafter. Nineteen months have gone by since the announcement, but its future seems to be shrouded in secrecy.

Carcosa was once home to Frank Swettenham, the highest ranked British representative to the Malay States. The first prime minister of Malaya Tunku Abdul Rahman gifted "Carcosa" to the British government as a token of goodwill.

"Inevitably, that such a prominent and resonant property should remain in British hands sparked resentment, and the 'Carcosa issue' was taken up by young radical politicians, in particular one Anwar Ibrahim," according to the British High Commission Kuala Lumpur's website said.

In fact, Malaysia's Department of National Heritage states that Carcosa and Seri Negara are the most prestigious properties in the country's national history as the site where the properties are located was prominent in the struggle to get back Malaysia's assets from the British government.

In 1987, in return for giving up "Carcosa", the British government was given a plot of land near the corner of Jalan Tun Razak and Jalan Ampang, where the British High Commission building now sits. Interestingly, the High Commission plans to sell this land and it may fetch close to RM200 million.

While business seems to be as usual at the hotel, it is only at Seri Negara. A drive up to the hotel will reveal that the road leading to Carcosa, and Carcosa itself, have been closed since December 31 2009.

Now, I am no conservation or restoration expert, but somehow it feels that more should be done to maintain the century-old building.

The Property and Land Management Division of the Prime Minister's Department, which made a request for proposal (RFP) and later called it off, has not returned any calls.

Although a new RFP was to come, to date, no new RFP has been heard of. A RFP, which is issued at an early stage in a procurement process, is an invitation for providers of a product or service to bid on the right to supply that product or service to the entity that has issued the RFP.

Peremba Sejagat Sdn Bhd, a unit of Saujana Hotels and Resorts, was told to manage the property for six months until July 2010, pending a decision on the winner of the bid. Calls to the hotel revealed that it is taking bookings for at least another year.

Is it not time for some indication on the status of the redevelopment? After all, some nine bidders had to toil and hurriedly put in a proposal as the tender's closing date was set within two weeks, which fortunately later extended by another two weeks.

Although designated as a heritage site by the Department of National Heritage, there has been no responses to questions posed to the Heritage Commissioner and deputy director-general on the status of Carcosa.

Numerous calls to the secretary general of the Ministry of Information, Communications and Culture Datuk Kamaruddin Siaraf were unanswered.

After all the fights to get back the property, one would think that it would only be right to take care of it.

For a start, it would be good to know what the status of the building is, or at the very least, if someone could say which ministry is actually responsible for the building.

Issues in Islamic tourism

KUALA LUMPUR: The hosting of World Islamic Tourism Forum here this week has evoked questions on the definition of "Islamic Tourism".

Does it relate to gender segregation in the use of facilities? Is it halal food? Is the focus on ornate Islamic architecture or beautiful mosques? When the New Straits Times asked around, many seemed to associate the term with religious visits to Islam's holy places and historical sites and also visits and tours to Muslim-majority countries.

A civil servant, Fatima Zahra, 28, responded to NST's query on Facebook about the topic by asking a reporter if the term meant that the tour would be syariah compliant such as providing halal meals and observing the time for prayers or did it just simply mean visiting historical Islamic places.

While many regard this as symbolic of Islam, there are many other aspects that make up Islamic tourism. This was the subject dwelt upon and discussed at length by participants of the World Islamic Tourism Forum this year for two days at the Seri Pacific Hotel here.

Themed "Enhancing the Spirit of Global Understanding Through Islamic Tourism", the forum also discussed and addressed issues surrounding the misconception of Islam and the Muslim community worldwide due to the negative publicity given by the Western media.

Organised by the Global Islamic Tourism Organisation Malaysia and the International Institute of Advanced Islamic Studies and also supported by Tourism Malaysia, about 200 people attended the forum where issues ranging from Islamic tourism, the halal industry and Islamic hospitality were discussed.

In his opening address at the forum on Tuesday, former prime minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi acknowledged that Islamic tourism was still in its initial stage.

"Islamic tourism is a new brand in the contemporary world of tourism. It is a brand that will have to deal with the same issues of any conventional tourist agency. However, in the case of Islamic tourism, there are additional requirements that have to be fulfilled in accordance with the teachings of Islam.

"For example, observance of the halal requirement would be a major part of being syariah compliant. Muslims generally can only accept tourism as Islamic if this fundamental requirement is observed. Therefore, non-Muslims who want to participate in Islamic tourism would need to have sufficient understanding of the halal requirement," he said.

It was learnt that many tour operators who operate Muslim tour packages or Islamic tour packages still do not fully comprehend or understand the halal requirement.

On a trip to Singapore recently, 28-year-old technology writer Afiq Hanif was asked by the organisers whether he would mind if the restaurant they were going to had no halal certification by the authorities but did not serve pork or alcohol.

"This is a classic example of how the term halal is not really understood. Halal is not about an establishment just not serving pork or alcohol, it is about how the food is prepared. The meat needs to be slaughtered or prepared in the manner that is prescribed by Islamic law," he said.

In a discussion about the proper definition of the term, Insaniah University College Rector Prof Datuk Dr Jamil Othman said cross-case studies and academic exchanges of views among Islamic and non-Muslim hospitality practitioners were needed to enrich the knowledge base and to set guidelines for Islamic hospitality and travel.

"Terminology like Islamic hospitality, Islamic tourism, Muslim hospitality, syariah compliant hotels, Islamic hotels and halal friendly hotels have created much confusion as to which is to be used.

"Sometimes because of the lack of understanding it scares foreign visitors. This may be one of the factors that explains why major hotels are reluctant to attach the term to their brand".

By Liyana Mokhtar
news@nst.com.my
2011/07/16

Importance of heritage

Importance of heritage