Soft Launch: 2nd Ipoh International Waiters’ Race

The Ipoh International Waiters’ Race is back for a second edition on May 25, to be held in conjunction with the 26th anniversary of Ipoh City Day. This time, participants will be going along Ipoh’s popular heritage trail in Old Town, starting and ending at the Tourist Information Centre.

The 1.3km route takes participants along Jalan Station, Jalan Club, Jalan Dewan and even passing by the clock tower. So far, about 80 people have registered but the organisers are targetting 250 entrants, from as far as Singapore, Brunei, Indonesia and Japan.

There are two race categories: Classic Tray and Sportive Tray, with a top cash prize of RM2000 and RM1000 respectively. Besides cash prizes for the top three winners per category, these winners will also be presented with medals and certificates. While Classic Tray category is only open to individual professionals working in hotels, Sportive Tray is open to quick service waiters in restaurants, pubs and bistros, students in hospitality colleges and the public.

Other side events planned for that Sunday would be ice carving demonstration, teh tarik competition and live band performances. Visitors will also get to enjoy food prepared by various participating hotels at most reasonable prices.

The soft launch ceremony at Tower Regency Hotel yesterday was to create awareness among tourism industry players to make this year’s race even more successful than its predecessor. The organising chairman of this year’s race, Vincent Ee, expressed hope that the race will eventually be recognised by the International Waiters Race community. But first, they are aiming for it to be included in Malaysia’s annual tourism calendar of events.

Director of Tourism Malaysia Perak, Tuan Hj. Ibrahim Seddiqi Talib, concurred that it’s crucial for the tourism sector to be supported by events. And to make this waiters’ race more friendly to out of state and international participants, he proposed that hotels offer special accommodation and dining rates to participants of the race.

Impiana Hotel Ipoh and Tower Regency Hotel sponsored RM6000 and RM2000 respectively to the Malaysian Association of Hotels (MAH) – Perak Chapter for the event. The function also saw the launching of the official website of Ipoh International Waiters’ Race at www.ipohwaitersrace.net and the Facebook page of the MAH Perak Chapter.

Event: Soft Launch: 2nd Ipoh International Waiters’ Race
Venue: Tower Regency Hotel, Ipoh
Date: 4th March, 2014
Time: 3pm

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