AirAsia & Manchester United
Thursday, May 10, 2007
AirAsia & Manchester United extend partnership with new sponsor, Tourism Malaysia
MANCHESTER , 8 September 2006 – AirAsia, Asia’s leading and largest low fare airline and Manchester United extend their partnership and brought in Tourism Malaysia as a new sponsor at The Trafford Training Centre today. This marks the beginning of a second year of partnership with the airline and a new year-long collaboration between both red giants and the tourism arm of Malaysia.
The signing signifies a continuing partnership between AirAsia and Manchester United, and this year, Tourism Malaysia has been invited by AirAsia to collaborate in this sponsorship to promote Visit Malaysia Year 2007. The signing ceremony was witnessed by AirAsia’s Group Chief Executive Officer, Dato’ Tony Fernandes, Manchester United’s Chief Executive Officer, David Gill and Minister of Tourism, YB Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor.
Dato’ Tony Fernandes, Group Chief Executive Officer of AirAsia, said, “The partnership with Manchester United has certainly opened up possibilities of bringing fans together from all over the world when they fly with AirAsia when visiting the ASEAN region. This is a single platform for cross border unity in the name of sports and passion for the game. With Manchester United as one of the most celebrated football club in the world, the partnership presents vast branding opportunities not only for us in Malaysia but also to drive enthusiasm amongst fans especially in Thailand and Indonesia as well as other countries that we fly to, where football also shares an equally strong foothold. The synergy between us and Manchester United is undeniable as both brands epitomize the same energy, passion and enthusiasm for life.”
“We have a series of successful collaborations with Tourism Malaysia and we’d like to take it further this time and work very closely with the Ministry to promote Visit Malaysia Year 2007 through our partnership with the Club. We will be honoring a Visit Malaysia Year 2007 aircraft livery as our commitment towards promoting our country and we would like to extend our appreciation for Tourism Malaysia for recognizing the branding opportunity with Manchester United,” added Dato’ Tony.
Sir Alex Ferguson, Manager of Manchester United, said, “I am delighted to welcome Tourism Malaysia to the successful Manchester United and Air Asia partnership, it highlights the universal appeal Manchester United has. We have toured Malaysia many times and each time I am blown away by the fans. We are made to feel so welcome and the fans are some of the most fanatical in the world. This continuing partnership with Air Asia and now Tourism Malaysia will bring the fans even closer enabling them to get a taste of Old Trafford and to experience being a part of Manchester United.”
David Gill, Chief Executive Officer of Manchester United, added
“We are pleased to be renewing our relationship with Air Asia. In the last twelve months, they have been an innovative and energetic partner, even branding one of their planes with the Club’s name and images. We are particularly pleased they have chosen to broaden the deal to include Tourism Malaysia. The Club has an estimated 40m fans in the Far East and with next year marking the 50 th anniversary of Malaysian independence, it is a great opportunity to engage the Manchester United family in the celebrations. We hope that the partnership will be an enduring one.”
Minister of Tourism, YB Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor. was quoted as saying
“This is a very exciting opportunity for Tourism Malaysia and Air Asia to partner with the biggest football club in the world . We hope this effort between Malaysia’s private sector and a government agency will set a new trend whereby Malaysians should work together to promote its nation. It is not only in the hands of the government agency alone but Malaysians of all walks of life should understand the tourism industry, they must think tourism and act tourism. We hope this joint effort will spur others to contribute and promote our country in the future, especially as next year is Visit Malaysia 2007.”
Posted by gjoe 2:09 AM