He said the group of protesting guesthouse operators must find a compromise with the local authorities — in this case the Penang Island City Council — for the sake of the safety of their guests.
“Other commercial places (such as hotels) have complied with the requirements. So, it is imperative that you do so, too.
“Please remember you are taking in guests to stay and the security of guests should be of utmost importance.
“In this regard, my advice to them is to please comply with the local regulations.
“It is very important,” Nazri said at a press conference at the World Tourism Conference 2016 held at the Eastern and Oriental Hotel here today.
Over the weekend, a group of 70 guesthouse operators held a press conference pleading with the city council to remove new legal requirements that require them to pay high fees, submit a building plan and to satisfy fire safety requirements, among others.
They said they risked closing shop if the city council continued with its plans to ask for higher fees in the future.
Chiming in, United Nations World Tourism Organisation Secretary-General Dr Taleb Rifai related his experience when in Paris, where a woman told him the local authorities there had levied high taxes for the apartments she was renting.
Rifai said the woman was later discovered to have had more than 30 apartments on online short-term home-for-rent site Airbnb.
Hence, he said, all sorts of short-term lodgings should be treated the same and be equally taxed as well.
“They must do their bit or else the hotel industry might be wiped out.
“We cannot escape regulations when it comes to any types of hotels,” Rifai said.
The guesthouse operators held a peaceful protest outside the hotel where the conference was going on, holding placards asking the city council to go easy on them.
The 20 protesters, led by Jack Ong, said the 200 guesthouses were in a limbo as it would make or break George Town.
“Without us, we will be GT — not George Town but Ghost Town,” Ong said.
Earlier, Ong and 20 others handed a memorandum to the tourism and culture ministry on their qualms to ministry corporate communications chief Amerjit Singh.
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