Miss World Malaysia 2021 Dr Lavanya Sivaji
KOTA KINABALU (Nov 14): Sabah Association of Tour and Travel Agents (SATTA) is getting the help of beauty queens to promote Sabah as a travel destination.
SATTA is hosting an interactive media conference virtually to celebrate the launch of the highly anticipated Sabah Virtual Travel Fair 2021 (SVTF2021) on November 16. Held in a most unique digital format which permits all registered visitors to SVTF2021 to participate in the media conference, this media event will be one of its kind and is expected to draw a virtual audience of 5,000 people.
With free access to SVTF2021, the public can now watch and experience how a formal media conference is conducted in real-time and has the exclusive opportunity to get up close to interact with the invited guests.
The esteemed panelists include Minister of Tourism Culture and Environment, Datuk Jafry Arrifin, Chairman of Sabah Tourism Board, Datuk Joniston Bangkuai, Chief Executive Officer of Sabah Tourism Board, Noredah Othman, President of Federation of Chinese Association Malaysia, Tan Sri Datuk Seri Panglima Dr Goh Tian Chuan, President of Sabah United Chinese Association, Datuk Susan Wong, President of Sabah-China Business Chamber, Datuk Frankie Liew, President of Malaysia China Business Council Sabah, Datuk Philip Yong, President of Sabah Institution of Arts, Dato Wilson Yong, President of International Education Consultancy, Datuk Adeline Leong, President of SHAREDA, Datuk Chua Soon Ping, SATTA’s Chairman Datuk Seri Winston Liaw, Eric Goh and Dr Sean Wong of the Miss World Malaysia Organization, Miss World Malaysia 2021 Dr Lavanya Sivaji, Miss World Malaysia 2021 first runner-up Princess Anya Kimberly and Miss World Malaysia 2019 Alexis SueAnn.
“The collaboration with the Miss World Malaysia Organization will make this virtual media conference a very unique and meaningful one. Dr Lavanya Sivaji who has been named Miss World Malaysia 2021 recently will be representing Malaysia in the prestigious Miss World Grand Final held in Puerto Rico this December. By allowing all our visitors to participate in this virtual press conference, we welcome her fans and supporters from all around the world to join us to celebrate her victory as we officially launch our Sabah Virtual Travel Fair 2021,” said Liaw.
“It is also an incredible opportunity for us to leverage on the massive supporters of the Miss World global events to promote Sabah as a travel destination. We are also delighted to have Miss World Malaysia 2021 first runner-up Anya Kimberly, who was born in Sabah, to be our event host to showcase Sabah’s rich culture while introducing special travel deals offered by our SVTF2021 exhibitors. These beauty queens have dedicated themselves to their social mission to serve the community selflessly, helping those in need.
We share these same values and hope to work together to help one another through these difficult pandemic times,” he added.
Dr Lavanya, a 25-year-old medical graduate from Universiti Pertahanan Nasional Malaysia, will be representing Malaysia in the 70th edition of Miss World Festival held in Puerto Rico this December after she won the coveted title of Miss World Malaysia 2021 during the coronation night held virtually on HyperLive Entertainment’s online television platform HyperLive.tv on 16 October 2021.
She will be arriving in Puerto Rico on 21 November and will be participating in several unique special events leading up to the Grand Final on 16 December.
The Miss World Festival is watched by over one billion viewers annually. Fans and supporters who wish to greet and send words of encouragement to the beauty queen may do so during the live media conference.
Malaysians may take advantage of the SATTA Fair to get highly-discounted tourism-related flash deals as they can now plan for holidays and dream vacations with the Malaysia government recently announcing plans to lift national and international travel restrictions in the coming months. These special one-time promotions are expected to be a big hit during the fair.
By pivoting into digitalisation, SATTA aims to provide visitors with a digital edition of a travel fair to bring together signature players around the world to prepare for a revitalisation of the tourism industry.
Established travel agencies, hoteliers and major airlines will be the attractions of SVTF2021.
With the slogan of “Dream now, book first and visit later,” SVTF2021 has over 50 booths with more than 1,000 travel packages being offered during the two-week duration of the fair. Visitors can enjoy a new experience in immersive 360 virtual reality platform, engage with exhibitors and subject matter experts via the live chat function and connect with travel-related vendors specialising in travel and tours, airlines, education tourism, food tourism, property tourism, hotel and resorts.
The Sabah travel industry has been adversely impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic but industry players are now hopeful for a recovery in Sabah’s tourism and other related sectors.
With a recent surge of demand for flights within Malaysia, consumers seem to be confident to travel.
Expecting an influx of visitors to Sabah, tourism-related businesses are adjusting to the new normal, making preparations to receive travellers.
The SVTF2021 is supported by Tourism Malaysia, Sabah Tourism Board, Taiwan Tourism Board, Sabah International Convention Centre (SICC), Kadazandusun Cultural Association Sabah (KDCA), Tan Sri Datuk Seri Panglima Dr Goh Tian Chuan and Datuk Susan Wong Siew Guen and is in partnership with iSmart Support Pte Ltd, Qlic Solution Sdn Bhd and Fantastic Golden Sdn Bhd.
The virtual media conference is scheduled to be held on 16 November at 2pm. Only registered visitors of the SVTF2021 will have free access to the live media event. For every registered visitor at the media conference, the Miss World Malaysia Organization pledges a sponsorship of Ringgit Malaysia 1.00 to support the social mission of Miss World Malaysia 2022 contestants.
To register for the media conference, please click on the following link: https://sabahtravel2021.gotovirtualfair.com/live