Attracting Tourists from China: Simple, Free and Secure

Before the pandemic, the number of Chinese citizens traveling abroad grew exponentially every year. Today, after the easing of COVID-related restrictions, the Chinese tourism market has started to recover and offers great prospects for the global tourism industry. In this article, we will tell you about the main characteristics of Chinese tourists, tourism marketing and how to successfully attract Chinese tourists using digital marketing tools.

Contents:

• Chinese tourists abroad: the main features

• Chinese market after COVID-19: perspectives for Chinese outbound tourism

• Top destinations for Chinese travelers

• How to attract Chinese tourists: the main steps

  • Infrastructure Preparation: localization and creating a Chinese website

  • Integration with Chinese Social Media

    • WeChat

    • Weibo

  • Largest Chinese social media for Chinese tourists

    • Mafengwo

    • Qyer

    • Ctrip

    • How to make a free placement?

    • Baidu Services and Zhihu

    • TripAdvisor Chinese Version

• Chinese KOL as a powerful tool for promotion

• How do online promotion channels work altogether?

  • WeChat

  • Weibo

  • Free posting on dedicated forums and news portals

• Summary

Chinese tourists abroad: the main features

Traditionally, Chinese tourists travel abroad in large groups. The tour groups are mostly composed of Chinese tourists of pre-retirement age. This can partly explain their somewhat "bizarre" behavior.

The local Chinese tour operators usually offer cheap "all-inclusive" programs with accommodation in 3/4-star hotels on the outskirts of the city. This group of Chinese tourists rarely feel the authentic local atmosphere because their Chinese guides would not allow it. However, they are interested in popular local showplaces, Chinese shoppers are really keen on food and shopping.

Individual travelers from China are the most solvent group worth focusing on for western companies. These new "forward-looking" Chinese travelers are young Chinese customers who are also active Internet users. In addition, they have less problems with the language barrier because many Chinese tourists related to this group study to speak English. As a result, they work with online travel agencies or use online services instead of Chinese travel agencies to book tickets, pay for accommodation in any hotel they like, and plan their own routes.

This form of individual tourism, which is becoming more widespread, involves more and more tourist infrastructure, i.e. potential places where Chinese tourists may appear, such as hotels, public catering places, museums, exhibitions, shopping malls, etc. In order to avoid this trend from taking your business by surprise, you can use simple tools to adapt your services to China and make them "China-friendly".

In the past, the majority of Chinese outbound tourists were mainly interested in shopping abroad, but now the new types of outbound tourism are becoming popular, including eco-tourism, family tourism, etc. According to the latest McKinsey survey, Chinese tourists today are interested in experiencing local characteristics such as culture and history, and local natural beauty, and more and more Chinese people attach importance to the relaxation factor and personal wellness when traveling.

Chinese market after COVID-19: perspectives for Chinese outbound tourism

The easing of China's anti-COVID policy has led to the opening of cross-border travel and a wide range of destinations available to Chinese tourists.

Major adjustments related to the relaxation of the zero tolerance policy and restrictions on cross-border movement in China

Talking about the main drivers of China's outbound tourism market, we should note the increasing disposable income of Chinese consumers, the active development of smaller cities and the growing middle class. These factors stimulate the growth of service imports, which include outbound tourism industry services.

Talking about the main drivers of China's outbound tourism market, we should note the increasing disposable income of Chinese consumers, the active development of smaller cities and the growing middle class. These factors stimulate the growth of service imports, which include outbound tourism industry services.

According to the COTRI' forecast, the market will recover to 2/3 of the pre-pandemic level by the end of 2023. Growing consumer spending in China is driving the long-term growth of the Chinese outbound tourism market. Based on FMI's estimates, the GAGR will be approximately 14.1% over the next 10 years.

Top destinations for Chinese travelers

Traditionally, Chinese tourists prefer Asian destinations. Hong Kong and Macau, which are part of Greater China, are the most popular due to their geographic and cultural proximity. These factors also ensure that Taiwan is another popular country for Chinese tourists.

Other Asian countries popular with Chinese travelers include Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia.

European countries are also attracting Chinese tourists, especially it relates to France which is the top European destination which Chinese travelers would like to visit. Other foreign countries popular with Chinese travellers include the USA, Australia, and Great Britain.

With the rising standard of living and the increasing number of affluent households in China, we can expect to see more interest in new destinations in the future.

How to attract Chinese tourists: the main steps

Infrastructure Preparation: localization and creating a Chinese website

Infrastructure preparation includes actions aimed at adapting your business to the Chinese audience. Since the first acquaintance takes place online, you can use the tools to show that you are adapted to serve clients from China.

There is no need to reinvent the wheel: the typical western website structure is familiar to the Chinese, so it would be sufficient to make a proper localization of the site in Chinese.

The most vivid example is the Italian Rinascente store. Instead of translating the entire multi-page website, some additional pages were created with the essential information for Chinese visitors.

To avoid loading problems, it would be better to host the Chinese version in Hong Kong or Singapore to have the website open much faster. We recommend using the hosting provider zzidc.com.

The price would be around 300 USD including one year of service and a domain in the CN zone. If you want to promote your business in China, you will also need to obtain a commercial ICP license.

Integration with Chinese Social Media

Today, working with Chinese social media platforms is the most important channel for promotion in China. Chinese social media marketing and other digital marketing tools are not only a great way to attract Chinese consumers, but also the main approach to attract Chinese tourists.

WeChat

There are two main options enabled by WeChat:

• Support service

• Content management

The incoming request processing tool will be either a group chat or the company's subscription account (to learn more about the difference between the group chat and the subscription account, see "How to Enter the Chinese Market on a Minimum Budget"). The generated QR code will be placed on the Chinese version of your website so that customers can scan it and ask any questions, such as prices, terms, or discounts. Content management in WeChat has the same functions as news updates on your website or company page on Facebook.

The content is posted in Chinese and can be re-posted and forwarded to group chats to reach a wider audience.

In addition, WeChat is not only a social media platform, but also an application that operates WeChat Pay. WeChat Pay and Alipay are the most popular payment systems in China, and integrating them into your business is another important factor in making your business more attractive to Chinese tourists.

Weibo

The microblogging service Weibo is a perfect image tool to promote your business. First, this social media platform is similar in functionality to Instagram - it allows you to share images, videos and active links with your followers. Second, it is convenient to target tens of thousands of users by age, gender, location, and topics.

As a result, you will have a Chinese-language website that is easy to access from mainland China, as well as active accounts on the largest Chinese social media platforms accessible to your visitors. This infrastructure will be sufficient to demonstrate your affinity for customers from China.

Largest Chinese social media for Chinese tourists

Mafengwo

The travel portal mafengwo.cn, with an audience of 21 million unique visitors per month (according to SimilarWeb), is a popular Chinese tourism platform that businesses can use for advertising. The average price of a banner ad on the site or mobile app is 15,000+ CNY per day. Mafengwo has its own forum with many thematic sections and the possibility to post active links to your website for free.

Qyer

Another platform worth mentioning is the travel portal qyer.com with an audience of more than 8 million users per month (according to SimilarWeb).

This portal is for independent travelers (not tour groups) and offers individual routes with places to visit. Qyer publishes a guide for the major tourist cities, listing local showplaces, restaurants, and shopping malls. The price to be mentioned in such a guide is 150,000+ CNY per month.

Ctrip

Ctrip is the largest Chinese aggregator for air and train tickets with many additional functions from hotel booking to car rental. The monthly traffic is 43 million users (according to SimilarWeb). The price for advertising on the website and mobile app is 20,000+ CNY.

How to make a free placement?

Each major tourism portal has its own built-in forums; there are also a large number of general information portals where you can post for free. Some of them are:

• Toutiao stands out, and along with Sohu and Sina, is one of the most important news feeds for advanced Chinese Internet users, with 400 million monthly visitors. Toutiao's main feature is the presentation of relevant material. The resource uses neural network algorithms to expand the recommendation feed to cover the maximum target audience. Its western counterpart is BuzzFeed.

Baidu Services and Zhihu

The two surefire online services for the best audience coverage and indexing in Chinese search engines. In addition, you can work with the applications related to the most popular Chinese search engine Baidu and have better search results.

• Baidu Zhihu, a Q&A service where any user can ask and answer a question as a Chinese user.

• Baidu Tieba where users can create and maintain a blog to post sales articles with active links to the Chinese version of our website.

Another popular service to consider is Zhihu, which is often referred to as the Chinese Quora and is similar to Baidu Zhidao. This platform can also be used to develop a search engine optimization strategy.

TripAdvisor Chinese Version

This is one of the first sources a Chinese tourist will consult when planning a trip. Tripadvisor.cn is synchronized with its international version, but even if you are already registered there, you may experience problems with the perception of information about your service due to machine translation. Once you are registered on the Chinese version of the service, your page will only be available to Chinese users.

Chinese KOL as a powerful tool for promotion

A Key Opinion Leader is an influential blogger or celebrity whose opinion matters to potential customers. In fact, Chinese customers often consider another opinion before deciding to buy a product or service.

How do online promotion channels work altogether?

Where can you get Chinese traffic on a minimum budget? The main channels for promotion and targeting can be combined to provide your business with successful promotion in China.

WeChat

There are many groups on WeChat dedicated to your business. Ads can be posted by the administrator or independently if the group is not private. Typically, an administrator can run dozens of similar groups with a total reach of thousands of people.

You post messages on your subscription account and make a distribution with active links to the Chinese version of your website. This is the way for Chinese people to find your page and subscribe to you on WeChat.

Besides, if you represent a HoReCa business, you can put QR codes in your hotel or restaurant, Chinese people will scan them and join you on WeChat.

Weibo

You can direct your Chinese localized posts to Weibo from your Instagram account. The content should be relevant to Chinese clients. You can promote your posts by adjusting the targeting settings based on geography, age, gender, and topics related to your business.

Free posting on dedicated forums and news portals

The articles you post on your subscription account and share with dedicated groups can also be shared for free on forums and news portals. Posting regularly can improve the Baidu search results indexing of materials about you, and attract a wider target audience. The same applies to Baidu services such as Zhidao/Tieba or Zhihu, which usually rank highly on Baidu.

To increase the number of followers and convert Chinese leads into clients, include a link to the Chinese version of your website, the QR code of your subscription account, and a link to your official Weibo page whenever posting materials.

Summary

Customers from China are nearer than you anticipate, and to start any journey, proper marketing and infrastructure are essential.

We hope this information was helpful and of interest to you. If you would like a better understanding of the most relevant and cost-effective advertising channels for your company, please feel free to contact us. We will gladly answer any questions you have.