George Town World Heritage Site

This has resulted in significant investments by the government, private sectors, associations and local institutions into preserving the city's physical heritage and cultural assets, rehabilitating key public amenities, and managing year-round celebratory events.

In 2009,  Think City  pioneered the methodology for a population and land use census of the GTWHS, which was repeated in 2013 and 2019.

The census report represents an extensive, decade long endeavour to monitor and understand the changes to GTWHS in a robust manner.

More importantly, the findings can identify necessary policy and regulatory adjustments that can be incorporated into the site's Special Area Plan - set in place by PLANMalaysia in 2010.

This rich and comprehensive database which captured 6,713 entities in 5,403 buildings in 2019 has now been analysed to provide an account of the socio-cultural and economic changes in GTWHS since 2009.

These are key highlights of the George Town World Heritage Site Population and Land Use Census - an account of its economic and socio-cultural changes from 2009 to 2019.

This is contributed by push and pull factors including price hikes in rental and properties, disruptive technology, new transport hubs and more.

Increase in economic activity driven by new hospitality and tourism ventures.

After 10 years, the overall number of stalls / hawkers halved (▼48%, −413). Changes of note include:

• Relocation of the Lebuh Armenian Flea Market
• Emergence of tourist-oriented stalls along Lebuh Armenian
• Disappearance of vendors from Lebuh Pantai and Pengkalan Weld
• Decline in street activity around Chowrasta Market

In terms of the density in street vendor activity, the broad pattern remains, with high densities around Jalan Penang, Jalan Kimberley and Little India.

The doubling (▲97%, +55) in the number of entities in the Art, Culture and Craft industry over the last decade is mainly due to increases in handicraft, artefacts and souvenir outlets, private museums and art galleries.

The increase in Art, Culture and Craft establishments are concentrated in the Clan Jetties and parts of Jalan Masjid Kapitan Keling, with a growing cluster around Lebuh Armenian.

The decline in Finance, Legal and Banking institutions (▼12%, −35) has led to banks requiring a smaller physical footprint in the Central Business District along Lebuh Pantai, Lebuh Bishop, Lebuh King and Lebuh Union.

In August 2020, Think City conducted a  Business Community Pulse Check Survey  in the heritage areas of George Town, Kuala Lumpur and Johor Bahru to measure the community's business confidence due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The study found that intermittent relaxing of interstate travel restrictions have led to occasional boosts through domestic tourism, but continued uncertainty means business confidence remains low.

In GTWHS, almost a quarter (23%) of businesses were uncertain if they would still be open at the end of 2021, and a further 4% said that it was unlikely. Seventy four percent (74%) of businesses stated that they would likely be open, and interestingly, this was the highest level of confidence between the three cities surveyed.

Think City also found that 92% of businesses suffered a decrease in sales with 64% forced to close temporarily.

In the study, respondents also identified the following strategies to improve their business: increasing marketing or advertising (46%), planning for long-term survival (38%) and building or improving their online presence (37%).

In 2019, there were fewer young families, and the main household types are now retired elderly, lone-persons, and group of workers.

Household size remained relatively stable and slightly higher than Penang State's average with an average size of 4 in 2019  (Penang State: 3.6) .

Loss of residents was largely the result of out-migration of young working families and an ageing population, with limited in-migration.

Changes in the ethnic make-up are matched by shifts in the main language spoken at home.

While Hokkien remains the dominant language, it has declined proportionately and in absolute terms. The same trend applies to other dialects, with large declines in Cantonese, Teochew and Tamil speaking households.

Increases in English, Bahasa Malaysia and Mandarin, as well as some languages that may be associated with migrant workers were observed.

While the residential population has gone down, the actual number of people in the GTWHS both during the day and night had increased. Accounting for visitors, residents, workers and students, in 2019, there were an estimated 47,204 people in the heritage site during peak periods of the day (▲23.2%, +8,889) , and 18,471 people at night (▲14.6%, +2,365), up from 38,315 and 16,106 respectively in 2009.

The change is a consequence of more business activity, tourists and students. While this can be seen as positive, there is still a stark contrast between day and night, with the day-time population now 2.5 times that of the night-time population, up from 2.4 in 2009.

Vacancy rates across the three GTWHS censuses ranged between 17.3% and 21.7%. In comparison, the  vacancy rate in Penang State  which was 22.3% in 2009 decreased to 17.8% in 2019.

While the most common vacancy type is whole buildings or floors within a building, there was an increase in buildings under renovation and for sale. There were also fewer derelict buildings.

Understanding the drivers of change, both exogenous and endogenous, and the emergence of new vulnerabilities including those associated with the COVID-19 can help frame the policy interventions necessary to build additional resiliency in the GTWHS.

Moving forward, new types of economic activity need to be encouraged especially ones connected to the special qualities that the site, and more broadly Penang offers.

• Build an ecosystem of innovation-aligned firms and activities to create an intersection of culture, heritage and technology.
• A Creative and Digital District (CD2) that indicates a thriving creative and digital hubs and community that can be further enhanced.
• Investment in enabling mechanisms to incentivize private sector SME investment.
• Expanded higher-education activities and footprint.
• Focused effort on longer stay and higher-end tourism with post-pandemic tourists likely seeking immersive cultural experiences.

In preparation for a likely surge in post-pandemic tourism, it is an opportune time for institutions to invest in the upgrade and enhancement of visitor experiences.

• Investments need to be of high standard and authentic.
• An initial focus on education and domestic tourism is a possible strategy to be adopted, before pivoting to experiential and high-end tourism.
• Networks and collaborations should also be encouraged — including the possibility of shared branding, marketing, ticketing and promotions.
• Plans for the rehabilitation of waterfront assets should be accelerated to stimulate economic recovery.

To encourage both residents and visitors back into the GTWHS, efforts to improve the liveability and comfort levels need to continue.

• Ongoing investments in the public realm (e.g. pedestrian amenity and laneways) and enhanced mobility are required.
• Improvements to basic services such as sewerage and drainage management.
• Low carbon initiatives as well as smart city interventions should form part of the milieu of required programmes.
• The GTWHS is ideally suited to become a ‘15-minute city’ with jobs, amenities, education facilities and housing in close proximity, hence has the advantage of being human scale and in parts potentially pedestrian and cycle friendly.

Five core repopulation strategies are proposed for the GTWHS.

• Preventing the loss of remaining residents, focusing on the Clan Jetties, public housing and essential worker accommodation (police and fire brigade).
• Endeavours to enable a decoupling of shophouse living (e.g upstairs living from ground floor commercial activities).
• Opportunities for student accommodation and co-living arrangements ought to be considered and regulated accordingly.
• New residential developments (e.g. the East Seafront) and adaptive re-use of vacant offices and tourism accommodation could serve to attract new residents into the area.
• Opportunities for residential land use on the fringes or just outside the GTWHS with strong transport connections to adress some of the vulnerabilities highlighted, particularly in terms of patronage of markets and other household-oriented businesses.

However, this is not the role of government alone. It will only occur through the collective endeavors of the wider community, business owners, associations, investors, regulatory authorities and policy makers.

Data-driven policy formulation is key to long-term, resilient results that promote sustainable growth within the community, regardless of the external transmutations.

Awareness and open discussion on the issues and their causes, as well as the validity of different remedies is paramount. Data plays a huge role in these derivations and paints a picture that is specially directive which allow policymakers to develop responses that target at the most important issues.

It is hoped that the George Town World Heritage Site: Population and Land Use Census report and its recommendations will make a positive contribution in this regard.