Sunday, February 09, 2003

Only 10,000 tickets sold but SIC not perturbed

JOHOR BARU: The organisers of the Malaysian F1 race, Sepang International Circuit (SIC), have only 10,000 confirmed sales so far. But they are confident of hitting their target of 100,000 for next month's Petronas Malaysian Grand Prix.

SIC advertising and promotions manager Azlan Akil said the 10,000 figure was much higher compared to this time last year.

“I must say that ticket sales took a dive during the Chinese New Year period but we expect it to pick up from now,” said Azlan after the launching of the F1 Fest at the City Square here yesterday by Johor Tourism general manager Datuk Abdul Karim Hassan.

Johor Baru is the first stop as SIC hit the road in their roadshow. Their next stop is Malacca followed by Penang, Ipoh, Kuantan, Alor Star, Seremban and Kuala Lumpur.

The launch in Johor Baru came in the wake of the soft launch of ticket sales of the “World's Hottest Race” in Singapore on Friday.

At the launching of the F1 Fest in Johor Baru, SIC also set up a ticket booth at the City Square for locals and Singaporeans. The booth will remain open until March 20.

Azlan admitted that sales of tickets in Europe were not very encouraging.

“Due to the political situation in the west, SIC have been focusing on the Middle East, Asian and South East Asian countries. The response has been very good.”

Bombay is SIC's prime target in India. Indian beauty queen Celina Jaitley, who hails from Bombay and won fourth place in the Miss Universe 2001 pageant, was commissioned to promote the Malaysian GP in her country. SIC's ticketing agent Kuoni India, a renowned sports travel agency, has registered some good sales since then.

According to Azlan, another country that has shown good response is Indonesia. SIC also went on aggressive promotions of the Malaysian GP in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and the Middle East nations.

News

Only 10,000 tickets sold but SIC not perturbed