PETALING JAYA: Renaming the Songkran Water Festival just because of pressure from PAS could hurt local tourism, social media users.
Organiser Sahom Valley Resort decided to change the name of its Songkran Water Festival programme to Sahom Water Festival, following criticism from PAS.
User Kaen Rion said it is pointless to simply alter the name to Sahom Water Festival when it is basically the same celebration, and such a change might hurt local tourism.
"Considering that we are a country that promotes diversity and tourism, diversity is more than just a poster or an advertisement," he said in a comment posted on The Star Online Facebook page Thursday (Aug 17).
Wes Chan said calling it by another name made no difference.
"Songkran or (otherwise), it is still the same thing," he said.
Angela Wong urged all parties to focus on other issues instead of picking on small matters.
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Francis Yip Cheng said Songkran is just a festival like any other.
"It is just a Thai festival," he said.
Calvin Chui said that despite the changing of name, it is the same event.
"Same activities, but different name," added Chui.
Sahom Valley Resort managing director Shariff Ali Jabad Ali said on Wednesday (Aug 16) the decision to rebrand the programme, scheduled for Aug 26 and 27, was made to avoid controversy and to ward off the stigma of some parties towards the holding of the event.
“The first programme organised in May was welcomed by almost 500 visitors and we hoped that the use of the word ‘Songkran’ this time would be able to attract more visitors. but it has become the subject of criticism by several quarters.
“So in order to ease the community’s perception and respect all parties, the programme is rebranded as Sahom Water Festival because Songkran is a sensitive issue even though it was just a perception and we apologise for the confusion over the matter,” he said.
