KUCHING: The Harley Owners Group (HOG) Malaysia Chapter will be gathering its members for the second Southeast Asia HOG Rally (SEAHOG Rally) in Sarawak from November 15 to November 23 this year.
BOOSTING TOURISM: Photo shows Sarawak Economic Development Corporation chairman, Datuk Talib Zulpilip (front, centre) gesturing on a map of Sarawak for the SEAHOG Rally during a meeting with the HOG members. Also pictured are HOG Malaysia Chapter vice president Nik Adelin (left) and president Choo (second left).
During an interview with The Borneo Post, HOG Malaysia president, Choo Kai Mun noted that, this will be the first time we will be holding the rally in Sarawak and we hope to take this opportunity to promote tourism in Borneo.
At this juncture, he revealed that there were about 30 confirmed participants. As the rally was newly launched, it was still in its early stage of planning, as such the HOG remained confident that an upcoming launching would serve to further attract participants from all across Southeast Asia.
Choo went on to urge Harley Owners in Sarawak to participate in the rally, noting that there should be around 100 units of Harley Davidson motorcycles in the state.
The director of sales and marketing of the rally’s official logistic partner Borneo Tours Sdn Bhd, Kho Sze Min said that, the objective of the rally, held biannually, is to group the Harley owners from the five countries of Thailand, Singapore, Brunei, Indonesia and Malaysia to experience Sarawak together.
The group president also noted that Harley owners in the country were very fresh in terms of the Harley culture, attributable to the high rate of tax the country imposed on the vehicles, at 110 per cent.
The rate was noted to be the highest in the world, followed by Indonesia and Thailand.
As such, the ownership of Harley here is more about prestige. We are trying to change that by inculcating a more family-oriented value into the group. This is also what the atmosphere of the rally will be like, said HOG Malaysia Chapter secretary, Mohd Nawawi Hanif.
Mohd Nawawi highlighted that the nine-day-eight-night event was aimed at bringing together all the Harley Owners and their families, as well as informing the public that the HOG consisted of down-to-earth people who were focused on doing charity.
He added that this time around, HOG targeted to raise RM80,000 to RM100,000 to distribute to various charity houses. The previous HOG rally in Sabah had managed to accumulate up to RM150,000 for charity.
We are trying to leverage the iconic brand name of Harley Davidson to work with the local government and the community to join hands and raise funds from interested parties, said vice president, Nik Adelin Dato’ Nik Ismail.
Nawawi went on to note that the Harley Davidson brand had been in the market for over 100 years, though many were aware of the brand, they did not have the opportunity to see its products very often.
As such, the rally also serves to bring many customised units from different countries for the local citizens to view.
When asked of the challenges faced when organising the rally, Choo confided that the process was very time consuming and and there were some monetary problems as well, considering the fact that the HOG was a non-profit organisation.
However, the HOG members acknowledged that they received plenty of support from local governments that had eased the red tape for the motorcycles to enter the borders for the purpose of the rally.
Harley Davidson also has big happenings in store for next year as it celebrates its 110 years anniversary. As such the HOG president stated that he hoped to be able to bring the Asia Pacfic leg of the celebration to Malaysia.