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10 ways for a Hotel to attract Chinese tourists

Nowadays, China is one of the largest world markets for outbound tourism and in 2023 hotels are trying to win them back.

Through marketing strategies, hotels can boost their popularity among Chinese travellers.

The amount of Chinese tourists around the world is growing at an unprecedented pace due to the rise of disposable income and the increase of the Chinese middle class.

As reported by the Tourism Administration of China, more than 150 million Chinese tourists travelled abroad in 2019, which means now in 2023 their trips will start to get back.

As a result of the Chinese trend to travel abroad, forecasts state that in 2026 the number of Chinese tourists will have increased by up to 200 million per year.

That is the reason why hotels are focusing their efforts to attract Chinese tourists, who also are the main source of tourism cash over the world.

In order to attract them, hotels must keep in mind the following advice.

1. Develop a digital presence in China:

The first step to attracting Chinese tourists is to develop a digital presence in China, through the internet and Chinese social media platforms.

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Chinese users tend to distrust the product reviews offered by official sites and have more trust in comments, opinions and information that they find in social media platforms because the content is generated by users and not by the brand.

2. Create a Chinese Website:

The second step is to create a website in Mandarin language or have a Chinese language option in the original version. The reality is that most Chinese do not understand English well enough to do it effortlessly. Therefore, should you want to catch this audience, you must develop a website which Chinese tourists can understand.

hotel web

In addition, image and content are essential elements in order to improve the website’s visits, therefore the site must be clear and impressive in order to gain clients. The key idea here is customer experience

3. Presence on social media is the most powerful tool in attracting Chinese tourists:

The majority of Chinese spend a long time on social networks such as Weibo or WeChat. Those platforms have become an important part of their daily life and are considered trustful sources of information. The content, reviews and comments that Chinese travellers find through these popular social networks will be decisive elements for their choice.

social-media3

That’s why hotels have to adapt these social tools in their online marketing strategy in order to increase their presence and therefore attract more Chinese tourists.

Top Destination Marketing Strategies to Attract More Chinese Outbound Tourists (update 2020)

4. Press Relations are vital:

Through PR in China, hotels can promote their services to a vast Chinese audience. The content of this communication has to include rich visuals, feedback and testimonials from travellers who have visited the hotel. This is an efficient tool in order to gain more customers.

pr

5. Establish partnerships with Chinese agencies is critical:

Most Chinese tourists travel in groups and organize their trips with travel agencies. The reason is that agencies take care of everything and handle the travel preparations, which is more comfortable for tourists.

agency

Hotels can increase the chance to attract Chinese tourists, through the creation of partnerships with those agencies.

6. You must have high-value content about the destination:

Tourists don’t plan their trips around the hotel, they plan the travel around the destination.

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It is important to provide them with information about the city and the country where the hotel is located in order to make more attractive that destination and attract them. To do it, hotels have to create content about the cultural attractions, restaurants and activities that Chinese tourists can find there.

Also is important to provide information about transportation and how to arrive at the most interesting places.

You must make them dream about the destination and your hotel

7. You must have mandarin speaking staff:

Hotels that have Mandarin-speaking staff are more likely to attract Chinese travellers because are very useful to help them with any issue and provide the best service. Hotels with Mandarin speakers have the ability to make the guests feel comfortable.

8. You must understand Chinese culture:

Hotels looking to attract Chinese tourists must adapt their services to them. Knowing and understanding their culture is a factor which plays an important role in order to satisfy them.

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They have a superstitious culture, that’s why is important don’t give to them rooms or floors with the number 4 because, for the Chinese, this number is related to death. On the contrary, hotels must accommodate them in floor or rooms with the number 8 because is considered a lucky number in China.

9. Top-of-the-line hospitality for excellent feedback spread through social media:

Another important aspect is that through some little details, hotels have the chance to make Chinese travellers feel at home. These details include a Chinese breakfast, kettles and tea in their rooms and Chinese TV channels.

kettle

In addition, guides, maps and all kinds of information that hotels provide to the tourist must be also in Chinese.

Being caring, and attending to the needs of your Chinese guest is not only to satisfy them in the short term but also to have them publish good reviews about your destination and your hotel on the Chinese social network.

Impressions and opinions spread like wildfire in China.

10. Optimized reservation system:

Chinese travellers are looking for a convenient and easy reservation system. Tools such as search and order confirmation should be simple.

resr

It is important to allow payment through Chinese credit cards, therefore hotels must accept payments with UnionPay.

Conclusion:

to attract Chinese travellers it is essential to have a presence on social media platforms because most of them plan their vacations via the Internet. It is also important to adapt the hotel services according to Chinese culture in order to provide the best service and make the happy.

If you are interested to attract Chinese tourists, don’t hesitate to contact us, we are your Marketing agency specialising in Chinese tourism in China.

????Expert Tips:

  1. Start with a good website in Mandarin – you have to be visible in China
  2. Advance your visibility –  your website should be on the top of dedicated search results
  3. Work on your e-reputation in China – serious Chinese clients should trust you
  4. Socialize – target your category of prospective clients with Chinese social platforms

Undoubtedly well-crafted strategy with an SEO on Baidu, the advantage of using Baike, Tieba, Wechat, Douyin, Red and Weibo could bring you a lot of new Chinese clients.

Want to attract more Chinese tourists to your Hotel?
We are Experts in Chinese E-Hospitality!

????Contact us now to get a Free Consultation or campaign to attract more Chinese travellers.

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6 Comments

  1. Very interesting. Could you please give to us more details about Booking system in China.
    1/ SEO can it be possible ? Google & baidu ?
    2/ We use Facebook a lot but it works in China ?
    3/ trip advisor and daodao it is really usefull ?

    1. Hi,

      1 ) It depends who you target :
      Mainland China : Baidu and other Chinese search engines, Google has been banned and Chinese prefer to search information in Chinese anyway. So you may want to do SEO Baidu to target Mainland China.
      Outside China, the Chinese diaspora : it’s mainly highly educated people, living or studying abroad, so you might want to do a bit of SEO on Google as well, after all there are approximately 50 million Chinese living outside China.

      2) No, Facebook has been blocked since 2009
      3)Chinese tourists put a lot of trust into users reviews (1 billion reviews worldwide, 150 million on daodao as of February 26.) So yes it would be interesting with the right strategy (community management comes first in my mind.)

  2. Thank you for these information.
    Do you think that hotels in Africa has chance to attract Chinese people ?
    I have the feeling that they only use travel agencies.

    1. Hi Mark,

      Chinese tourists go online to book their holidays, they use Online travel agencies and travel specialised platforms like Tuniu to get their information. Hotels in Africa can definitely attract Chinese tourists, the only thing you need to do is to be where they are : online.
      Please go there for more information about this

      If you have a project in mind, don’t hesitate to contact us 🙂

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