How to Promote a Foreign Destination in China

Chinese travelers made 120 million trips abroad and spent 105 billion US dollars in 2015, according to a report from HSBC. It predicted these tourists would make more than 240 million outbound trips within the next decade.

Half of these Chinese outbound travelers are aged 15 to 29 years old, according to January data from market research group GFK. Two thirds (66%) of this group belong to the high-income bracket, and their financial standing is expected to increase as their careers advance. The annual study found the majority of these travelers were white collar executives or had professional jobs.

Tourism companies have to know how to attract them and here we are going to introduce you how you can do that in an efficient way:

Website in Chinese: In order to start an activity in the Chinese digital market, you have to create a website presented in Chinese language and preferably hosted in China.

Provide precise and relevant content: If you want to attract people and be efficient, you need to have a good reputation and in order to reach this point you need to introduce the users interesting content and precise information to draw customers’ interest. You can, for example, give some information about what the country can provide them and show them different offers, so that they can have a good user experience.

Local search engines: If you want to enter the Chinese market, you have to be aware of the importance of local search engines. As we know, Google is blocked in China, so Chinese travelers are frequently using Baidu. If you are not viewable on Baidu pages, you will lose a lot of potential customers.

Importance of SEO: If you want to be viewable on Baidu pages, you have to do lots of work on it. The same as Google, users only pay attention to the first page. So if you are not there, they will never reach you.

Social networks in China: social media are important because they allow people to share what they experienced, what they saw and how good they were. By digging in social media, you can obtain interesting information about your potential customers and with these information you can improve your products to meet customers’ real demands.

Key Opinion Leader (KOL) campaigns: In China, a KOL is usually someone who is really famous and has thousands or millions of followers. They present as the brand ambassadors. In the tourism industry, KOLs hold a really important role, as many destinations are known by people only because the influencer has shared information about his holidays in this destination.

Be part of the conversation: Travelers, who have a vacation plan, would love to know the opinions of other people who’ve been to that destination. So when someone shares his opinion about you in the social media, you’d better be quick to give him a response, even if it’s a bad comment. In this way, you will gradually improve your reputation and attract more people.