Planning a trip to Langkawi soon? There will be a levy charged for each night you spend in the duty free island from 1st July!
For someone bitten by the wanderlust bug like me, this is something to take note. To summarize, the more luxury your hotel is, the more levy you pay per night.
What I did in Langkawi, the Duty free Island!
According to a Bernama report, beginning July 1, the Langkawi Municipal Council City of Tourism is
to impose a levy of between RM1 and RM9 on tourists for every day of stay on
the resort island.
It was understood that the quantum of the Langkawi Tourism Promotion Levy would depend on the class of accommodation.
The Kedah Tourism Committee chairman Datuk Mohd Rawi Abdul Hamid explained the breakdown as below in the news report:
- Tourists staying in one-star or two-star hotels would be charged RM1 per room per night
- Three-star or four-star accommodation, RM3 per room per night
- Five-star accommodation, RM5 per room per night
- Six-star accommodation, RM7 per room per night
- Seven-star accommodation, RM9 per room per night
He also informed that the levy was not something new because similar
charges had been imposed in Melaka, Penang and Kuala Lumpur to promote the
tourism industry, adding that the
amount of levy was minimal and the tourists coming to Langkawi could afford it.
Rawi said the levy was imposed as Kedah depended a great deal on federal government allocations to promote tourism, therefore the levy would help ease the financial dependence a little and a satisfactory amount of levy, will help the implementation of more tourism-related programs for the benefit of the tourists
Anyways, the next time you plan to visit other tourist spots in Kedah, there may also be a levy imposed as it will be soon extended to other places in the state!
On another note, I will be heading there this weekend and will update you on the views of those there.
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