Penang Port Sdn Bhd CEO Sasedharan Vasudevan said its Swettenham Pier Cruise Terminal (SPCT) has recorded one million cruise passengers yearly for the past five years and is expected to hit this mark again this year.
On Dec 1, The Star front-paged a story claiming Penang’s cruise market was in a steep decline.
Quoting sources, it reported that the number of cruise ships calling at the SPCT had dropped to 866 this year, compared with 1,985 calls before.
Sasedharan said according to audited figures, the SPCT recorded 1,756 calls by cruise liners between January and October this year, and has had 868,060 passengers in the same period.
In the same 10-month period in 2017, he said 985,739 passenger arrivals were recorded.
A total of 1,985 cruise ships called at the SPCT during this period and by the end of this month, it is expected to hit beyond 2,100 calls, he said.
“Three ships berthed at our pier on the day the news report came out. We cannot reconcile the published figures with our audited numbers,” he said at a press conference in Komtar today.
Sasedharan said there are currently 15 to 20 different cruise liners making calls at the SPCT, ranging from top names such as the Royal Carribean, Princess, Star Cruises and Costa.
He said each ship typically carries 3,500 to 4,000 passengers and the numbers are expected to go higher with larger ships entering SPCT by the fourth quarter of 2019.
Meanwhile, state Tourism and Heritage Committee chairman Yeoh Soon Hin said the state was very unhappy with such inaccurate news reports.
He said the Cruise Lines International Association had picked Penang as the number one cruise destination in terms of port calls in Malaysia in its “Asia Cruise Trends” report in 2017, with the nation ranking fifth in Asia.
“I do not know where this 500,000 passengers number came from,” he said.
Yeoh said the cruise industry in Penang had boosted the economy of downtown George Town, where SPCT is located. He said each passenger spent at least US$100 (RM420) when here and this augurs well for business.
Ooi Chok Yan, CEO of the state tourism bureau, Penang Global Tourism, said on a typical day, George Town sees at least four ships making calls at the SPCT.