GEORGE TOWN: Penang has strongly refuted findings from a recent Statistics Malaysia Department report that the state trailed Perak in attracting domestic tourists in 2024, citing official hotel stay data that paints a far different picture.
State tourism committee chairman Wong Hon Wai said that the “Domestic Tourism Survey 2024” released by the department was a sample-based study and not a reflection of actual tourism figures.
“The survey is based on sampling and questionnaire feedback, not actual hotel records,” Wong said in a statement.
“While this method is widely used in research, its accuracy hinges on the sample size and how well it represents the population”, he said.
According to Wong, only 204 Enumeration Blocks were sampled in Penang out of 2,819 nationwide — a figure he said was too small to draw meaningful conclusions about the state’s tourism performance.
“Such a limited sample cannot reflect the true strength of Penang’s tourism sector,” he said.
Wong instead cited Tourism Malaysia’s official hotel statistics that showed Penang recorded 5.2 million domestic tourists and three million international tourists in 2024, totalling over 8.2 million hotel guests. In contrast, he said, Perak only recorded about 4.18 million domestic hotel stays.
He also questioned the survey’s methodology, adding that respondents were household members asked to recall trips over the past year — a process he described as “retrospective and highly subjective.”
“The survey was not conducted at airports, hotels, or tourist attractions but through household interviews, which is unsuitable for high-impact destinations like Penang,” Wong said.
He further criticised the inclusion of day-trippers—who made up 66.8% of respondents—as skewing the data. Many, he noted, were likely returning to their hometowns during festive seasons like Hari Raya, which does not constitute tourism in the economic sense.
“These visitors typically don’t stay overnight, spend less, and have limited direct economic impact,” he said.
“This distorts the picture, especially for states with more premium tourism offerings.”
While acknowledging that Statistics Malaysia Department’s survey may offer some insight into travel trends, Wong said it should not be used to assess tourism performance, particularly in states with strong hotel and hospitality industries.
“The data we should trust is the actual records of hotel stays and tourism receipts, which clearly show Penang’s continued strength as one of Malaysia’s top travel destinations,” he added.
