The Swedish produced reality TV series Robinson, Survivor in the US, has made a number of Malaysian islands off the Mersing coast well known and more importantly well visited by Scandinavian tourists who view the show now in Denmark, Norway and Sweden.
According to Malaysian news agency Bernama has the six seasons of Robinson productions in Malaysia generated a healthy stream of tourist revenues to the resorts in the region.
Even during the height of the Sars scare and the outbreak of war in Iraq did the local economy benefit from the series.
More than 400 production crews lived on the islands then and the production company Strix also employed Malaysians as security guards for their broadcasting equipment, doctors, additional crews and others.
Today more and more Scandinavians enquire at Strix about the Mersing’s islands with the intention of spending their holidays at “Robinson Islands” after watching the shows.
