By Mei Kuan
Malaysia Inbound Chinese Association (MICA), in collaboration with Tourism Perak and The Haven, unveiled its Foliday campaign complete with COVID-19 travel insurance and attractive stay packages in the presence of Dato’ Nolee Ashilin binti Dato’ Mohammed Radzi, Executive Councillor for Housing, Local Government and Tourism as guest of honour. The lively launch cum business-to-business (B2B) networking session was held at The Haven on Friday, July 3.
Running from July 1 till Jan 31 next year, the letter F in the concept of Foliday denotes travel with friends, family, fun and freebie.
“I must thank all for being so passionate about restarting and rebooting our industry to ensure that tourism in Perak and Malaysia will be able to recover at a greater pace. Alone we can be fast but together we can be far. I believe Perak is the first state to launch our very own good practice guide which is standard operating procedure (SOP) compliance to provide a sense of security to our domestic tourists,” Dato’ Nolee Ashilin highlighted.
With the aim to promote Perak as one of the domestic tourism destinations in conjunction with the Cuti-Cuti Malaysia campaign, there are a total of ten participating consortium agents encompassing Advance System Holiday, Ait Holidays, D’ Tour Holiday, Four Sea Tours & Travel, Git Tours & Travels, Golden Century Tour & Travel, Honey Holidays (M), JR Vacation, Merry World Holidays & Limousine and PTS Travel & Tours.
According to Dato’ Dr Angie Ng Wai Sam, President of MICA, the strategies to promote Perak include live streaming and broadcasts to Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou via Weibo, an online networking platform in China.
“This is MICA’s second event in Perak, after the first in 2019 with Shenzhen Airlines targeting inbound tourists. For the Foliday campaign, we are looking at a minimum of 2000 nights of room occupancy for Perak throughout the six-month campaign. All the while, we concentrated on China inbound. Due to the pandemic, we diversify and focus on new product development and domestic tourism. Thus we look into green states like Perak,” Angie explained to Ipoh Echo.
The Foliday campaign concentrates on high-yield packages in The Haven, Lost World of Tambun and Banjaran with the following promotional rates:
- The Haven @ RM388 per room per night
- Banjaran @ RM950 per room per night + theme park
- Lost World of Tambun @ RM199 per room per night + theme park
“Our common effort is to promote Perak as a Green State and The Haven Ipoh as an outstanding family retreat. Malaysians do not need to travel overseas, Perak has it all – history, nature, food, education, medical and other facilities. The Haven is one of its kind in the world where you can live next to a primary forest and in the city at the same time. Unknown to most, The Haven site is more than 200 million years old. Plus, we have developed a 5-star premium restaurant (Cuisines Restaurant). Thus, The Haven provides a divine getaway especially after the lockdown,” Peter Chan, CEO of The Haven Group, enthused.
Also present were Nurmalis binti Musa, CEO of Tourism Perak, Asrul bin Zakaria, Director of Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture Perak, Datin Roselyn, Chairman of Perak Tourist Guides Association, Dato’ Hew Choy Khoun, Vice Chairman of Paloh Temple and MICA members hailing from Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Johor, Kedah, Malacca as well as Negeri Sembilan.
Established in 2016 in Kuala Lumpur, MICA is a non-profit NGO which provides members a platform for exchanging information pertaining to the inbound tourism industry with a view to foster mutual business cooperation. With the mission to foster a prosperous, harmonious and progessive society besides promoting a healthy business culture, it has a total of 250 members to date from various corporations and firms.
Meanwhile, The Haven Resort Hotel, Ipoh – All Suites is set in nature on the edge of a virgin forest and amidst the flora and fauna of a prehistoric site. It has won 58 prestigious brand awards, amongst them the Global Winner for Luxury Family All-Inclusive Hotel in the world. The family retreat has been thoughtfully planned to cater to the young and old, for all generations, complete with comprehensive facilities for the disabled.
