Thousands of Ipohites filled Dataran Bandaraya Ipoh for the New Year countdown celebration by Tourism Perak which also saw the launch of the official logo for Visit Perak Year 2017.
Running on the theme, “World of Wonders”, the flower-like logo drew its inspiration from ‘labu sayong’ (Sayong pottery) and features the colour orange representing “heritage”, green representing “nature”, blue representing “food and shopping” and dark blue representing “sports and leisure”.
Present at the joyous occasion were Dato’ Saarani Mohamad, Executive Councillor for Rural Development, Agriculture, Plantation, Information and Human Capital Development, Dato’ Nolee Ashilin Mohammed Radzi, Executive Councillor for Tourism, Arts, Culture, Multimedia and Communications, Dato’ Shahrul Zaman Yahya, Executive Councillor for Human Resources, Youth and Sports, Dato’ Rusnah Kassim, Executive Councillor for Women, Family, Community Welfare Development, Housing and Local Government and Mayor Dato’ Zamri bin Man.
“The effort in internationalising Perak includes the organisation of Pangkor International Development Dialogue (PIDD) and the PULARA (Poetry and Folk Songs) Festival. It had received positive response as during that time, more than 90 per cent of hotels in Ipoh and Pangkor registered high occupancy rate,” said Dato’ Saarani Mohamad, who represented Menteri Besar, Dato’ Seri DiRaja Dr Zambry Abd Kadir.
He remarked that Perak recorded the highest number of domestic tourists in Malaysia for 2012 (5.6 million), 2013 (6.01 million) and 2014 (7 million), consecutively.
The New Year was ushered in with the powerful vocals of Gegar Vaganza winner Siti Nordiana and fireworks display in the night sky. The Ipoh City Council building, lit with a “Happy New Year 2016” moving LED display, was simply riveting.
Mei Kuan
