Property owners who are rapidly making quick bucks out of tourists are also losing many old family businesses who have lived in George Town for half a century, potentially losing the original living cultural heritage of the city. – The Malaysian Insider pic, January 23, 2015. There is a growing concern that Penang's heritage city of George Town is becoming a tourist town lacking the charms of its original living cultural heritage.With property owners moving towards making quick bucks from tourists, tenants running old family business are gradually being forced to move out."If this trend is not stopped, in 10 years or less, you will find in the city boutique hotels and cafes for tourists, the rich and the famous."George Town is in danger of becoming a tourist town similar to Chinatown in Singapore," said Mark Lay, a New Zealander who lives in Penang.He pointed out serious concerns that the outstanding universal values that had given George Town its cultural heritage, charm and soul would be lost if nothing is being done.George Town, a Unesco World Heritage city, is seeing this happening. At a row of shophouses on Lebuh Chulia, tenants had been ordered to move out to make way for a hotel project by April 1.The owner of the shophouses had submitted a planning application to the Penang Municipal Council (MPPP) to convert the properties into a hotel.Because the existing laws do not cover intangible heritage, and the affected tenants who have had their businesses there for decades have no case to challenge the eviction.Lay appealed to property owners to also practise corporate and social responsibility when they make plans to redevelop.Speaking to reporters at one of the shops affected by the eviction, he said 'responsible tourism' should be practised by property owners, instead of just sending eviction notices to tenants."Responsible tourism may be new here, but George Town can take the lead with policies supporting this. It is not too late now to curtail the trend," he said.Lay said in some countries, property owners redeveloping their premises do not evict their tenants and the old businesses, but have them incorporated into the new projects.Lay also said tourists were also getting more educated and those coming to visit George Town had good knowledge of the city."Not every tourist is here for the sun and surf. There are many who are after the old stories of the city and its people. They come into town, talk to locals and learn about their way of life and the history that makes George Town what it is."They are not coming here to see something like Singapore's Chinatown," he said.Cultural heritage specialist guide Joann Khaw also warned that tourists have high awareness and sense of responsibility when they booked their hotel rooms."They ask ahead whether the development of the hotel had caused people to be evicted and displaced. Some chose not to support such businesses."They want to support responsible tourism. More tourists are becoming like that and George Town should be part of this trend instead," she said, speaking of the exchanges she had with tourists in Penang.State local government exco Chow Kon Yeow confirmed recently that the MPPP had received the application from the owner of the Lebuh Chulia shophouses, who is planning to add an addition floor to the present double-storey shophouses for the proposed hotel among others, but nothing had been approved yet.He said the tenants – who run a recycling centre, an antique shop; a chemical supplier; a company that repairs and supplies machines, spare parts and hardware; the old Sky Hotel, and the coffee shop that features a famous roast pork stall - were not refusing to move but were asking for more time.When interviewed by The Malaysian Insider earlier this month, several of the tenants expressed their disappointment and sadness of having to leave the shops they had rented for about half a century. – January 23, 2015.
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