Taipei, July 9 (CNA) A Taiwan travel promotional video featuring Mira Filzah, a popular actress and TV host in Malaysia, and targeting Muslim visitors will premiere in the Southeast Asian country in late August, the Taiwan Tourism Bureau said in a statement released Monday.
As Filzah is a celebrity in the Muslim world with more than 3 million fans on Instagram, the bureau invited her to be the spokesperson for its campaign to promote tourism in Taiwan to Muslims in 2018.
Filzah and three Malaysian social media stars specializing in fashion and cosmetics -- Yasamin Redzuan, Sharifah Rose and Aisha Liyana -- recently visited Taiwan to produce the promotional film "Salam Taiwan - Taiwan welcomes you," according to the bureau.
Salam is a word of greeting in the Malay language which is used in the film to convey the message that Muslim travelers are welcome to come to Taiwan.
The film shows the four Internet celebrities visiting a number of tourist attractions, including Taipei 101, Yangmingshan National Park, Taipei's Ximending and Shilin Night Market, and several theme parks and tourist farms, as well as Halal certified restaurants.
The bureau is set to hold a press conference for the premiere of the film in Malaysia in late August, which will be aired as a TV commercial, be shown in movie theaters, on outdoor bulletin boards and the Internet in Malaysia and Brunei, according to the statement.
Malaysia is an important source of international visitors to Taiwan, the tourism bureau said, adding that 528,019 Malaysian tourists visited Taiwan in 2017, up 11.3 percent from 474,420 in 2016, making it the sixth largest source of foreign visitors to Taiwan and the largest among the ASEAN countries.
Malaysia's population is currently estimated to be about 31 million, of which approximately 60 percent are Muslims. Meanwhile, Brunei's population is estimated at 400,000, with around 66 percent adhering to Islam. The two countries are rapidly-growing markets with the potential to make a significant contribution to inbound travel to Taiwan, according to the bureau.
According to MasterCard's 2018 Global Muslim Travel Index (GMTI), this year is the first time Taiwan has featured in the top five non-Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) destinations for Muslim travelers.
