Fan Bingbing’s Appointment as Malacca Tourism Ambassador Costs RM500k, State Gov’t Covers Part of it

In case you’re wondering how much it costs to appoint international star, Fan Bingbing as the Malacca Tourism Ambassador, the figure reached nearly RM500,000.

In a written statement today (July 9), the State Tourism, Heritage, Art and Culture Exco, Datuk Abdul Razak Abdul Rahman said that he has revealed in the State Legislative Assembly Conference (DUN) Melaka that the state government DID NOT bear 100% of the cost.

“We only covered 16% of the total cost, while the rest was borne by several other private companies. We spent only RM77,850 out of the total cost, which was RM498,347.”

He added that the cost of RM77,850 only includes the cost of promoting and organizing the program in Melaka while RM420,497 is sponsored by several private companies which includes flights, accommodation, transportation, professional service costs, and projector mapping at Encore Melaka.

In terms of the returns, Abdul Razak said one of the indirect returns is in terms of searches through her social media, where she has a whopping 26 million followers.

“Almost 1.2 billion searches on Fan Bingbing during the three days he was in Malacca and searches for Malacca alone reached 445 million. This is a high return to the state government at a low cost.

He was responding to the question of Dr Mohd Aleef Yusof (PN-Sungai Udang) who wanted to know the cost incurred by the state government in appointing Fan Bingbing as Melaka Tourism Ambassador.

In 2017, Fan graced the cover of Time magazine and he was also named among the 100 Most Influential People. Fan has also appeared in a Hollywood film – X-Men: Days of Future Past.

What do you think of Fan Bingbing’s appointment as the tourism ambassador of Malacca?

Also read: “It’s a little ugly” – M’sians aren’t Big Fans of Fan Bingbing’s Empress Wu Mural on Malacca Wall