Penang tourism performance undervalued in ‘flawed' DOSM survey, says exco

Malay Mail

03-07-2025

GEORGE TOWN, July 3 — Penang state executive councillor for tourism and creative economy Wong Hon Wai has criticised the domestic tourism figures released by the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM), calling them inaccurate.
He said the DOSM's 2024 domestic tourism survey placed Perak ahead of Penang in terms of domestic tourist numbers.
'It is based on a limited sample size using a flawed methodology,' he said in a statement today, responding to a query by Penang Muda chairman Andika Putera.
Wong said the DOSM report was based on a sample survey rather than actual records of hotel room stays.
'The data was collected through household questionnaires and not from actual tourist sites, which makes the findings subjective and retrospective,' he said.
He noted that 2,819 enumeration blocks (Blok Penghitungan) were selected across 13 states and three Federal Territories, but only 204 blocks in Penang were sampled.
'Although this method may provide a preliminary overview, drawing broad conclusions from such a limited sample size can easily lead to confusion,' he said.
'This small sample size does not reflect the true performance of the state's tourism sector,' he added, saying that actual hotel data was a more reliable benchmark.
Citing Tourism Malaysia's official 2024 statistics, Wong said Penang recorded 5.2 million domestic hotel guests and over three million international visitors — a total of 8.2 million tourists.
'In comparison, Perak, which topped the DOSM survey, recorded only 4.18 million domestic hotel stays,' he said.
Wong also questioned the suitability of the survey respondents.
He said the DOSM survey targeted general households rather than active travellers, with data based on recollections of trips made over the past year.
'It's not a survey conducted at airports, hotels or tourism sites,' he said.
'For high-impact tourism states like Penang, this method carries a high risk of underreporting actual visitor numbers,' he added.
He also criticised the broad definition of 'domestic tourists' used in the report.
'DOSM classified all residents who travel beyond their usual area, including those who do not stay overnight, as domestic tourists,' he said.
This included day-trippers and even people returning to their hometowns for family events such as Hari Raya.
'In essence, these are not tourists in the real sense but Malaysians going home,' he said, adding that such groups typically do not contribute to the tourism economy as they don't stay in hotels.
The report revealed that 66.8 per cent of domestic visitors were day-trippers.
Wong said this group contributes little to the economy and is hard to track systematically.
'The large numbers in certain states might look impressive, but the economic impact of day visitors is limited,' he said.
As a result, he said, quality tourism in states like Penang was not properly reflected in the report.
Wong concluded that the DOSM survey could be used to spot general trends, but not as a reliable measure of tourism performance.
'In Penang, tourism is tied to rich culture, heritage and world-class arts events, so a household survey cannot capture the full picture,' he said.