The Melaka state government covered only a small portion of the RM498,347 sponsorship cost for Chinese actress Fan Bingbing as the Visit Melaka Year 2024 (TMM2024) ambassador.

According to Bernama, Melaka State Tourism, Heritage, Art, and Culture Committee chairman Datuk Abdul Razak Abdul Rahman stated that the state government spent just RM77,850, or 16% of the total cost. The remaining expenses were funded by several private companies.

"The cost borne by the state government is only for promotion and organising the programme in Melaka, while RM420,497, which included flight tickets, accommodation, transport, 'ground handling', the cost of professional services, and 'projector mapping' at Encore Melaka, was sponsored by several private companies," Abdul Razak explained during the Melaka state assembly sitting on 9 July.

He added that a report on the impact of Fan's ambassadorship will be published after the TMM2024 campaign concludes on 31 December.

So far, Fan's three-day activities as Melaka's tourism ambassador have generated 1.2 billion online searches, with 'Melaka' alone accounting for 445 million searches, primarily from WeChat, a popular instant messaging service in China.

"This is a high return on investment for the state government," said Abdul Razak.

He also mentioned that Melaka expects to receive six direct flights from China daily in September and October.

Appointed as Melaka's tourism ambassador in late May, Fan toured the state in mid-June, wearing various traditional local attires. The award-winning actress, who has 63 million followers on Weibo and 4.1 million followers on Instagram, is often hailed as a global icon of Chinese culture.