Ipoh, 24 March 2010 - The state government of Perak today signed a five-year strategic collaboration with Firefly, winner of the Best Value Airline of the Year at the recent 2010 Frost & Sullivan Asia Pacific Aerospace & Defense Awards, to promote tourism and foreign investment in the state.
The signing ceremony, witnessed by the Menteri Besar of Perak, Y.A.B. Dato' Seri Dr. Zambry Abd. Kadir, was conducted at Bangunan Perak Darul Ridzuan. The state government of Perak was represented by the State Secretary of Perak, YB Dato' Dr. Abdul Rahman bin Hashim whereas signing on behalf of Firefly was its Managing Director, Dato' Eddy Leong.
Dr. Zambry, who has been instrumental in making this strategic collaboration a reality, was full of praise for this joint effort, as Firefly's foray in connecting Singapore and Ipoh has indeed been a beneficial move for Perak. The tourism industry is flourishing with the increased number of inbound tourists, and the business interest from Singapore has improved tremendously. Despite last year''s H1N1 flu outbreak, the state stopped just shy of their three million tourists'target.
The strategic collaboration is focused on achieving the following key result areas:
* To enable international air connection between Lapangan Terbang Sultan
* Azlan Shah (LTSAS) in Ipoh and Changi International Airport in Singapore To promote Perak as a destination for mass and premium tourism
* To encourage new investment and business developments which will spur economic development of Perak State
Dr. Abdul Rahman said that in this joint exercise, the Perak state government for its part, will spend RM2.4 million for Firefly to jointly market and promote tourism in the state for the first year, whereas another RM1.8 million will be spent in the second year.
"To induce and attract tourists and investment into the state, advertising and media campaigns in Singapore, Malaysia and other countries need to be done, and this spending is crucial to cover such costs. Apart from that, the costs will also be mainly for material and creative production fees; events and road shows; familiarization trips for media, travel agents and business counterparts; international marketing via international trade fairs; and other activities related to marketing, advertising and promotions of tourism for the state of Perak," added Dr. Abdul Rahman.
"Firefly's scheduled Singapore-Ipoh operation began on 12 July 2009 with 4-weekly flights on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Within 2 months, Firefly increased its frequency to daily flights to meet high demand from both Singaporeans and Malaysians. We even mounted extra flights during the recent Chinese New Year to meet the demand of those going home to celebrate this festivity with their families. Presently we are looking at increasing the frequency to 2 x daily flights as soon as we procure additional aircraft." said Eddy.
Eddy also added that Firefly has been marketing Perak state aggressively via the code-share arrangement with Malaysia Airlines in the international market. During the recent international trade fare at ITB Berlin, Firefly received many sales inquiries regarding the Singapore - Ipoh route. Its travel agency arm, Firefly Holiday, offers online bookings at www.fireflyholiday.com which offers immediate holiday confirmation for customers around the world.
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