Kuching – AirAsia received regional recognition at the 27th ASEANTA Awards for Excellence 2013 with two accolades- Best Asean Tourism Photo by AirAsia’s photojournalist Adam Lee and Best Asean Marketing & Promotional Campaign by the airline’s marketing team.

The ASEANTA (Asean Tourism Association) Awards for Excellence is created to recognize individuals or organizations from all sectors who have contributed significantly towards the growth and development of Asean tourism with a total of nine awards being contested for the 27th ASEANTA Awards for Excellence 2013.

The award ceremony was held at the Borneo Convention Centre Kuching (BCCK), Sarawak in conjunction with the ASEAN Tourism Forum 2014. YB Dato’ Seri Mohamed Nazri Tan Sri Abdul Aziz, Minister of Tourism & Culture, Malaysia presented ‘Best Asean Tourism Photo’ Award to Adam Lee and ‘Best Asean Marketing & Promotional Campaign’ Award to Aireen Omar, Chief Executive Officer of AirAsia Berhad.

The Best Asean Tourism Photo awards the submission which has depicted the best Asean attraction as a melting pot of cultures, and photos submitted are judged on four criteria: effectiveness, originality, presentation and quality.

The photo which won over the ASEANTA judges’ hearts is a depiction of Melaka, shot by AirAsia’s photojournalist Adam Lee. Adam Lee, 33, has been the airline’s resident photojournalist for the past four years, making tremendous contributions, especially to its in-flight magazine, Travel3Sixty. His work can be viewed online at www.airasia.com/travel3sixty.

Meanwhile, AirAsia’s ‘Celebrating 2 million Facebook Fans with Free Seats’ campaign which was conducted throughout 4th – 13th October 2013 after hitting 2 million Facebook fans proved to be the most effective, creative and innovative campaign among the submissions received by the ASEANTA Awards for Excellence’s judging panel.

The marketing campaign included nine countries – Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, Brunei, Singapore and Vietnam and ran across platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, AirAsia’s website, newspaper ads, radio ads, as well as banner ads.  The successful campaign resulted in an increment of 26% in revenue and 58% more seats sold as compared to other campaigns.

The Best Asean Marketing & Promotional Campaign awards individual or combined marketing efforts of different tourism organizations, promoting one or more Asean countries as travel destinations and submissions are judged based on effectiveness, creativity, innovation and results.