By Nur Ashikin Louis
KUCHING, Feb 22: The 25th Miss Tourism International (MTI) 2022 World Final will be held in Sarawak from Nov 13 to 27 this year.
There will be 18 days of continuous events which include beauty pageants involving promotional tours to capture the sights and sound of Sarawak, charity visits and sponsorship activities.
The Coronation Night will be held on Nov 25 in Kuching, followed by farewell gatherings over the next two days.
Sarawak Tourism, Creative Industry and Performing Arts Minister Dato Sri Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah said that the State will play host to the participating beauties from 60 countries.
“The last two years have been a sad thing for us due to the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdowns. Thus, we would love to see an event like this take place to cheer up everyone,” he said.
He said this at the official launching ceremony of 25th MTI World Final held at YAST Group building in Kuching today.
Making an appearance at the programme were three Miss Malaysia Tourism, namely Emelia Rosnaida (Miss Malaysia Tourism 1994), Xandria Ban (Miss Malaysia Tourism 2015) and How Zo Ee (Miss Malaysia Tourism 2021).
The programme also saw the signing of memoranda of understandings (MoUs) between YAST Group and MTI as well as YAST Group and Quantum Metal Sdn Bhd on their joint collaboration to organise the international event.
YAST Group was represented by its founder and chairlady Esther Law while MTI was represented by its president Tan Sri Datuk Danny Ooi and Quantum Metal Sdn Bhd by founder and executive chairman Dato Lim Khong Soon.
There will be seven reigning queens from Malaysia participating in the MTI World Final.
It is noted that this year’s MTI will introduce non-fungible tokens (NFTs) in the form of the collectable portraits of the beauties to be made available to the world.
Law said the introduction of NFTs is not focused on money-making but to demonstrate the leverage on technology and promote sustainability on the value of pageant history.
Apart from that, the coming event will also witness the set up of MTI Pageants Foundation with the aim to help many women from around the world in their career advancement and empowerment of women.
Other notable dignitaries present were Kuching North City Commission (DBKU) mayor Datu Junaidi Reduan, Kuching South City Council (MBKS) mayor Dato Wee Hong Seng and the ministry’s permanent secretary Hii Chang Kee. — DayakDaily
