Fan Bingbing expected to lure 1 million Chinese tourists to Malaysia's Melaka

Fan who has 63 million followers on Weibo, China's largest social media platform, last week toured the historic city of Melaka located in the state of the same name with her mother Zhang Chuanmei as part of the Visit Melaka Year 2024 program.

She attracted the crowd by wearing a pink embroidered Nyonya kebaya, traditional women's costume in Malaysia, paired with a teal batik skirt, explored luxury hotels as well as enjoyed local cuisine.

Fan could help create an impact for Melaka tourism thanks to her social media influence, Melaka Chief Minister Datuk Seri Ab Rauf Yusoh said as quoted by The Straits Times.

"Fan Bingbing is influential and her fans will follow her, placing Melaka at an advantage," he added.

Fan said that Melaka is a unique tourist destination, unlike most famous tourist spots, MalayMail reported.

"For me, it is truly an honor to be appointed as the Melaka Friendship Tourism Ambassador 2024. After the pandemic, my mind was very unsettled, and I had not traveled abroad.

"However, post-pandemic tourism has become lively again, and people will surely choose places they have never visited before," she told reporters through a Mandarin interpreter.

Melaka attracted 8.63 million tourists last year, marking a 42.77% increase compared to 2022 when there were 204,000 Chinese tourists.

Over 116,000 Chinese people visited the state between January to April this year, according to authorities.

From 2013 to 2017, Fan was named the highest-paid celebrity in the Forbes China Celebrity list.

In 2014, she joined the Barbie global celebrity Hall of Fame and became China's First Barbie Doll while she also appeared on Vanity Fair's 'Best Dressed' list in 2015 and 2016.

In 2017, Fan was listed by Time Magazine as one of the world's 100 most influential individuals, though she has kept a lower profile from 2018 when she was fined over $100 million by the Chinese authorities for tax evasion.