Year 2015 will be Malaysia’s year of festivals to keep up the momentum in promoting the country to the world, following a successful Visit Malaysia Year 2014 campaign.
Themed “Endless Celebrations”, MyFEST 2015 will continue to boost the tourism sector and keep the country on track to receive 36 million tourists with RM168 billion in tourism receipts in the year 2020, as targeted in the Tourism Transformation Plan.
While the proboscis monkey remains as the mascot for MyFEST 2015, its logo is based on the Rebana Ubi, a traditional Malay musical instrument. Drums are used widely by the various races in Malaysia and so, it can be associated with Malaysia’s multicultural society. Therefore, the logo reflects an important part of the country’s heritage, culture and tradition.
As a run-up to its grand launch at Dataran Merdeka on January 10, 2015, officials from the Ministry of Tourism and Culture went on a nationwide roadshow to brief tourism industry players on the vision, targets and branding guidelines for the campaign. It was also a platform to share ideas and to receive feedback from the ground.
For Perak, where the programme was held at Casuarina@Meru in Ipoh on Wednesday, December 3. The session comprised of briefings by Deputy Secretary General (Administration) Ministry of Tourism and Culture Malaysia Dr Junaida Lee Abdullah and Deputy Director General (Planning) of Tourism Malaysia, Madam Chong Yoke Har.
Perak, on its part, has lined up some 50 events on arts and culture to contribute to the national calendar of Malaysia Year of Festivals 2015. These were unveiled following the official launch of Perak state-level of MyFEST 2015 by the Executive Councillor for Tourism and Culture, Dato’ Nolee Ashilin Dato’ Mohammed Radzi.
A premier event will be the Perak Food Fest scheduled for March 2015. It will feature the delicious diversity of Perak’s traditional food, especially in Lenggong and will be a teaser for the Lenggong UNESCO Heritage Site Festival, expected to be held on June 30, 2015.
Other complementary events on the cards are Festival Rebana Perak, Festival Homestay Perak and Festival Puisi dan Lagu Rakyat.
Thanking tourism industry players for their total commitment in a successful 2014 campaign, Nolee said, “Tourism is one of the key economic contributors to the state. Let’s make MyFEST 2015 an even bigger success for Perak than VMY2014 was, and make the state the number one tourist destination in Malaysia.”
Emily Lowe
