PETALING JAYA: The new Kuala Lumpur logo, unveiled on Monday to promote the city as a tourist destination will not be changed in any way, shape or form despite the negative feedback from the public.
In an article by Malay Mail Online, Tourism Bureau general manager Noraza Yusof was reported as saying there was a need to educate members of the public first about what the logo meant as it was launched only this week.
“We need to educate people and make them understand the brand first, the logo was only launched a few days ago,” she said, adding that the bureau welcomed any kind of criticism over the design as it was a sign KL-ites loved their city.”
In explaining the logo, she said the colour silver was used to communicate the city’s proud tin mining history and that the logo design was focused on portraying the city’s diverse cultures and juxtaposition of old and new.
In the logo, Kuala Lumpur is described as “Exciting. Surprising. Enticing.” The logo sits on a tagline that reads: “A City of Contrasts and Diversity.”
Mayor Mhd Amin Nordin Abd Aziz however, who launched the logo this week, said he was open to the idea of the logo evolving through time, pointing out that cities like Amsterdam and New York took years before their logos were refined.
“From time to time, we will improve on it. We are open to improvement. It can be discussed in the bureau’s quarterly meeting,” he said yesterday, adding that the logo was approved by Federal Territories Minister Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor as well as members of the bureau’s travel advisory board.
Apart from remarks that the logo looked amateurish and too simplistic from a design point of view, many also questioned the cost of creating it, after a magazine featured the logo and asked readers for their feedback.
“The budget this year is very tight … usually for this (branding), the cost could range between RM300,000 and RM1 million,” Noraza said, adding however that it only cost the bureau RM15,000 for the brand master guide, that included logo creation, tagline, description, rationale and strategy.
She also said the overall branding exercise was budgeted at RM2.6 million that would be used for roadshows, media junkets and other promotional activities.
With this investment, tourist arrivals is expected to increase to 12 million this year from 11.2 million last year, while revenue is expected to hit RM60 billion as compared to RM52 billion last year.