Illegal hotels making a comeback

Illegal partition: Penang Island City Council enforcement officers knocking down a room at an unlicensed hotel in George Town during a recent operation.

GEORGE TOWN: Billed by Unesco as “a living testimony to the multi-cultural heritage of Asia and Europe”, the popular George Town World Heritage Site is unfortunately seeing a resurgence of illegal hotels with questionable fire safety.

“Yes, we know that new ones are emerging again,” city mayor Datuk Yew Tung Seang said.