Melaka is wooing more tourists from China, but state’s strategy risks irking some locals
Some businesses have lauded the boost in tourism dollars but critics say the state government should be adopting a “more holistic” tourism campaign showcasing the city’s rich culture and heritage, rather than focusing solely on a China-centric approach.
by Amir Yusof · CNA · JoinMELAKA: Standing amid the stifling heat, Ms Yiyi - a native of China’s Yunnan province - was dressed in a pink embroidered Nonya kebaya with blue sarong, posing for photographs against a backdrop of maroon-painted shophouses in the heart of Melaka city centre.
Her travel companion snapped dozens of photographs of her, including some of her standing beside a conspicuous “I Love Melaka” sign. The photos were to be uploaded on the Chinese social media app WeChat, Ms Yiyi told CNA.
The 27-year-old was holidaying 3,800 km away from her hometown, visiting the port city for the first time since she first learnt of its existence in June through social media.
She had seen - on WeChat - one of her favourite celebrities from China Fan Bingbing posing in different parts of Melaka city, clad in a similar Peranakan ensemble. Peranakans are descendants of the early Chinese migrants who settled around the Straits of Melaka, including in Melaka city.
“I saw the photos, and she was also wearing a Nyonya outfit,” added Ms Yiyi, who made the decision to travel to Melaka independently without the help of a tour agency, rent a pink kebaya and pose for photographs just as her idol, Ms Fan, did.
Ms Yiyi was not the only one with a similar train of thought, as CNA saw hundreds of China nationals within a two-hour period, many alighting by the busloads, to pose for photographs in the vicinity. Many of the women rented kebayas just for photo-taking.
This was a snapshot of the Melaka state government’s successful strategy in trying to court tourists from China, as part of its Visit Melaka 2024 campaign.
In particular, the appointment of Ms Fan as the state’s tourism ambassador has garnered much attention.
The state has also introduced new attractions, like the glitzy Encore Melaka opera house, to attract international tourists.
And although these efforts have already boosted tourism volume and Melaka’s economy, some locals have raised concerns that these approaches are not holistic enough, and do not capture some aspects of the city’s unique history and heritage.
For instance, some said the tourism strategy should showcase more of Melaka’s Malay heritage, and how the Melaka Sultanate has been held up as an exemplar of Malay-Muslim civilisation. Others, meanwhile, believe that the state should feature the city’s colonial heritage, which reflects Dutch, Portuguese and British elements across Melaka’s architecture and culture.
Mr Joo Thum Kwon, a freelance licensed tour guide in Melaka for more than a decade, told CNA that the impetus is on the state government to strike the right balance between having an approach that attracts more tourists and reflective of the city’s heritage.
“No doubt Melaka is doing something right. You can just look around and see for yourself - the increase in tourists over the last few months has been stark - and a large number of them are from China,” said Mr Joo, who acknowledged that the spike in demand for tour guides has increased his income by 30 per cent recently.
“However, I think there needs to be a more holistic approach so that everyone is happy. The strategy cannot be just focused on one demographic of tourists, and I think it must also reflect Melaka’s different races and cultures,” he added.
Mr Desmond Liow, an executive council member of the Melaka Tour Guides Association echoed similar sentiments, highlighting how the current strategy - such as using Ms Fan as tourism ambassador - would likely only attract tourists for the short term.
The association is a non-governmental organisation that aims to promote Melaka as a tourism destination.
"It generated a lot of buzz on social media and we see a lot of Chinese tourists this year, but how about subsequent years - will they be attracted to come again and again?" said Mr Liow.
"If tourists came because they wanted to know more about the city's heritage, sample the local cuisine and learn about its history, they are more likely to return, and this will be more beneficial for Melaka in the long term," he added.
IS FAN BINGBING THE RIGHT CHOICE?
As part of the Visit Melaka 2024 campaign, the state government has announced that it aims to attract one million tourists from China this year with at least a three-night stay in the state.
In 2023, the number of China tourists to Melaka was 204,818 out of a total of 8.63 million tourists.
And in some aspects, the strategies have already borne fruit. Melaka welcomed 3.7 million visitors, encompassing both foreign and domestic visitors, in the first quarter of 2024 and is projected to hit 18 million by year end, surpassing initial targets.
As of July 2024, Melaka has also seen more than 8.7 million tourists, an increase of 84.55 per cent compared to the same period in 2023, according to statistics released by the state government.
Melaka is banking on Ms Fan’s star power and new attractions like Encore Melaka for it to meet targets. It has also been buoyed by Malaysia’s visa-free policy to attract more Chinese holidaymakers to the country.
Ms Fan is a household name in China, with 63 million followers on social media platform Weibo. She is known for her roles in the Chinese TV epic The Empress Of China as well as her appearances in Hollywood blockbusters such as in the X-Men series.
In June, Ms Fan visited Melaka where she walked along the city’s famous street market Jonker Walk and sampled local fare. Her short visit sparked a frenzy on WeChat when the search term Melaka drew more than 320 million searches.
Ms Annie Lee from local tour group company Travel World told CNA that Ms Fan’s star power has had a “clear impact” on tourism in Melaka.
“I think we never expected or realised the influence she would have. Since she came in June, tour companies overall have seen an increase of around 20-30 per cent in business overall, and this … increase is mostly from Chinese tourists,” said Ms Lee, outlining that many of them would fly to the capital city Kuala Lumpur before taking a two-hour road trip down south to Melaka.
“Many of the itineraries are prepped for them because they involve visiting durian farms, photo sessions at Melaka town and sampling local Peranakan or Chinese food at Jonker Street,” she added.
The state government had announced that Ms Fan’s ambassadorship involves a sponsorship amounting to almost RM500,000 (US$121,000), and that the state paid only 16 per cent of this cost, with the remaining borne by “several private companies”.
It did not elaborate on what these private firms are but added that a report on the full impact of Ms Fan’s ambassadorship will be published at year-end when the campaign wraps up.
Ms Lee - from the local tour group agency - suggested that this is money well spent.
“If you consider the ROI (return of investment) in terms of tourism dollars, I think it's a drop in the bucket,” she added.
However, Ms Fan’s appointment has not been embraced by all segments of the local population.
Melaka leaders from Islamic party Parti Islam Se-Malaysia (PAS) have been vocal against her appointment as a tourism ambassador, with the information chief of its Melaka chapter Wan Zahidi Wan Ismail releasing a statement in June stressing how appointing an individual from overseas to promote Melaka to the world was a “strange” move that could “embarrass” the state.
“The icon must be from Melaka, only then can he or she paint a clear picture of the city and how it can be promoted,” he said.
Mr Wan Zahidi also highlighted that Ms Fan had been convicted of tax evasion charges in her native China and was therefore purportedly not a good role model.
In 2018, the A-list movie star was ordered to pay about 884 million yuan (US$125.98 million) in overdue taxes and fines amid a Chinese government crackdown on tax evasion in the entertainment industry.
He added that Melaka should instead appoint a local Malay to feature the state’s history as a city that was an Islamic hub under the Melaka sultanate.
“We must remember that Melaka was once an Islamic empire which was a hub for studying the religion. It is not an entertainment city like Hollywood or Hong Kong,” he posited.
Some of these sentiments are shared by local businessman Mohd Qamar Zamri, who owns hipster joint Tuju Cafe in the city centre.
He told CNA that the tourism ambassador for Melaka should not be any individual but rather the town itself. He outlined that Melaka city is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and this is something the government should have placed front and centre in its campaign.
“The town itself should be the ambassador because it has so many stories. Melaka’s civilisation dates back to before other kingdoms in Southeast Asia,” said Mr Mohd Qamar.
“Instead of using Fan Bingbing as an ambassador, maybe emphasise more on the historical (aspect) or what makes Melaka so special so that tourists (even from) Europe will come here,” he added.
STRIKE DELICATE BALANCE BETWEEN LOCALS AND TOURISTS
Another key attraction that observers believe has been instrumental in attracting Chinese tourists is Encore Melaka, a 1,600-seater theatre perched on reclaimed land facing the Melaka Strait.
Construction for the state-of-the-art theatre was completed just before the COVID-19 pandemic, and it was only in the last two years it was given the runway to showcase performances to the masses.
The prominent building with its pale-white facade and flashy LED screens offers a unique show where the audience sits on a 360-degree rotating platform and the performances are done along a 240-metre long stage with sound, light and a 3D mapping projection.
The theatre’s current anchor show - also called Encore Melaka - is directed by China’s Wang Chaoge, a member of the creative team for the 2008 Beijing Olympics opening ceremony.
The show focuses on Melaka’s culture and history, but it homes in on the baba and nyonya heritage, with a segment on how this dates back to the 15th century Ming Dynasty when Chinese explorer Zheng He sailed the Maritime Silk Route and visited Melaka several times during his many expeditions around Asia.
A tourist from Chongqing, China, who wanted to be known only as Ms Guo, told CNA that reading about Zheng He in her textbooks in school stirred her curiosity and prompted her to make the trip this year.
“We wanted to come here to experience it for ourselves and learn about the culture,” said Ms Guo.
She added that watching the show at Encore Melaka brought back fond memories of what she read in school.
Ms Lee of Travel World told CNA that the theatre has good rapport with tour agencies who bring tourists from China, so it gets a constant flow of visitors for its shows.
However, she suggested that the attraction might fail to attract visitors of other countries or locals, given the theme of the performances.
“Hopefully they will offer other performances that might appeal to a general audience,” she added.
Encore Melaka’s founder Boo Kuang Loon told CNA that finding a balance to attract both locals and foreigners alike is key to the theatre’s objectives.
“All the performers are Malaysians, they are locals telling the Melaka story … locals are also privileged because ticket prices are lower for them” said Mr Boo, who is also chief executive of local tourism property firm Yong Tai.
Tickets for Encore Melaka are priced at RM78 for locals and RM158 for foreigners.
“More importantly, we want to let the tourists know more about Melaka … We are not a restaurant, we are not a zoo. We are not just any of the sightseeing destinations. We are an experience destination (where people) come here to watch, to learn, and at the same time, experience,” he added.
Speaking generally about Melaka’s vision in trying to attract tourists, Mr Boo believes the state government is doing its best to draw visitors from everywhere including the west - not just from China and from nearby Singapore.
“What has contributed to Melaka being recognised as a UNESCO heritage site is because no matter how much hard times we go through, that threaten to divide the people, locals have strong belief and are willing to stay and preserve their traditions,” he added.
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