Fan Bingbing makes waves online as Melaka tourism ambassador

Appearances at heritage sites send searches for Melaka’ spiking on Chinese social media

- Hazlin Hassan

Since debuting as Melaka state's new tourism ambassador in June, Chinese celebrity Fan Bingbing has created a stir, both online and in the Malaysian state capital's historic streets.

The popular actress' recent appearances at Melaka's tourism and heritage sites, including strolling in Jonker Walk in the city's Chinatown and sampling local fare, attracted hordes of starstruck fans and sparked a frenzy that sent searches for "Melaka" spiking on Chinese social media.

Melaka is banking on Fan's star power, Chinese consumers' love for durians and Malaysia's visa-free policy to attract more Chinese holidaymakers to the south-western state. One million Chinese tourists is the goal for Visit Melaka 2024, said state executive councillor for Tourism, Heritage, Arts and Culture Abdul Razak Abdul Rahman in May.

In 2023, Malaysia welcomed about 20 million tourists, with almost 1.5 million of them from China. Of the 8.63 million visitors who flocked to Melaka in 2023, only 204,818 were from China, and most of them were day trippers.

Fan is a household name in China, with 63 million followers on microblogging platform Weibo. She is known for her roles in the Chinese TV epic The Empress Of China and the movie X-Men: Days of Future Past.

The actress was included as the highest-paid celebrity in Forbes China Celebrity 100 list from 2013 to 2017, and appeared on Time magazine's list of the 100 most influential people in 2017.