ISC had always been a regular agency handling the Tourism Malaysia account. At one time or the other they handled various sectors, from North America, Europe, and also MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions).



Their withdrawal from the current ongoing pitch, especially after it has made its submission for the coming three-year contract is raising eyebrows across the industry. The agency conceived and produced the multi-award winning ‘Malaysia: Truly Asia’ brand campaign that has run with great accolades for the past 12 years. They have serviced the account since 1999, over four different three-year contract periods, three prime ministers and five different tourism ministers. One of the reasons for withdrawing are the agency’s concerns over the ambiguity of the tender process.

A spokesperson for the ISC Group said, “We regret having to make this painful decision, especially as the government has set such ambitious tourism targets between now and Vision 2020. Two key factors led us to reach this decision. One, the ambiguity over the tender process raises questions to the seriousness of the task at hand. We submitted our Tender document on August 16, 2010, and to date, have not received any communication as to tender process timelines. As the Tender document states, the contract is supposed to commence January 1, 2011 and we have had our team on standby now for over five months.  As we near the end of the Tender’s 180-day validity period, February 12, 2011, we are not sure if there will even be time to make the industry accepted practice of presenting and clarifying our proposal to the Tender selection committee. Two, due to ISC’s new business wins and increased workload this year, the agency cannot realistically accommodate priority Tourism Malaysia services as committed to in the Tender submission nearly six months ago."