China Destination Marketing Trends

China has become one of the world's most important tourist destinations since China adopted its “Open Door Policy” in 1978.

In recent years, destination marketing is more and more significant in China’s tourism market as retail sales continue to grow along with a boom in domestic and international tourism. The development of tourism markets combines shopping with hotels, F&B, events, entertainment, hotels, trade shows, convention centers and theme parks.

Destination marketing is the practice of promoting a city, a region or a country to attract more visitors. Previously, most China destination marketing was done with traditional media like prints, public transportation methods and television.

However, the continued growth of travel on a global scale has forced destination marketing organizations (DMOs) in China to come up with new ways to attract visitors. In recent years, the rise of the fan economy, the revealing of WeMedia, and the diversification of internet advertising in China, all together brought a new way to do destination marketing.

Baidu uses new ad displaying forms to help destination advertisers raise their visibility and click rate, such as creative writing, graphics and direct telephone bookings in China. Though travel decisions are sometimes rational decisions, there are also emotional factors. Good sight (pictures and videos), sound (music), and other senses will improve advertising results. Internet users usually spend only seconds on a specific website, giving ads very little time to make an impression.

Another new trend for DMOs to address is that consumers are now viewing more travel information during their trip. It means that destination marketing can’t just stop at promoting a brand and attracting visitors. It has to provide more convenient services, including helping travelers make better decisions before the trip, worrying about everything they might worry about, and offering solutions for travelers’ needs during the trip. Only in this way can you better accomplish the goal of attracting visitors.

Moreover, destination marketing in China is an endeavor of epic proportions. The key to reach the visitors of the destinations is that we should connect the target audience with the information and services they really need. SoLoMo (Social, Location, Mobile), a mobile-centric way of displaying local sites in search engine results, which can be made possible by the GPS technology built in the smartphones and tablets.

Mobile plays a key role in destination marketing now. By integrating information and services into travelers’ mobile devices, advertisers could take a further step forward in China tourism market. In the ever-expanding world of mobile technology, lots of space is left to improve, such as digital museums, music with local characteristics, and 360 degree panoramas. They are just a few of the many things we would like to see in the near future.