Cher Chua Lassalvy

Co-owner and managing director of Batu-Batu resort, Cher Chua-Lassalvy, shared her father’s love for Pulau Tengah and saw what it could offer from a young age. After completing her degree in Social Anthropology at the University of Cambridge, UK, Cher spent ten years within the financial services industry in London before returning to Malaysia to set-up and run the family-owned Batu Batu island project.

Cher’s deep desire to protect the island’s rich biodiversity, coupled with her vision to transform tourism into a force for good, became the founding basis for the Tengah Island Conservation, a Malaysian non-profit biodiversity management organisation working within the Johor Marine Park. The Tengah Island Conservation has seen Cher’s vision come true with impactful initiatives such as the release of 13,802 endangered Hawksbill turtle hatchlings into the wild.

As a native Johorean, Cher finds a particular pleasure in developing projects in her home State. She is a founding and steering committee member of Sustainable Travel Mersing, a multi-stakeholder initiative supporting the development of Mersing District as a sustainable destination. She is also a founding member of the Malaysian Sustainable Tourism Network, a member of the Global Sustainable Tourism Council’s (GSTC’s) Research and Academic Working Group, Economics Co-ordinator for the IUCN WCPA Tourism and Protected Areas Specialist (TAPAS) Group and an Acumen Malaysia Fellow 2021.

Today, Batu-Batu continues to run on sustainable practices, proving that peaceful coexistence and luxury don’t have to be compromised for visitors and inhabitants of the island.

Making an impact to me means having some sort of influence that can result in change (preferably positive!). That could be as small as playing a part in one individual’s life to being part of change at a systems level. Both are extremely important as long as the intentions for good are authentic.