|

5 things that Travel Agencies should know about Chinese Tourists

You are a travel Agency based outside of China and you want to attract Chinese travellers ? You have a lot of question , you are lost and you should read this article.

Shrugging Businessman --- Image by © Bob Jacobson/Corbis

Even though studies have shown China is experiencing a slow economic growth, the truth is the numbers of tourists for both outbound/ inbound are actually growing unlike other countries. Ever since 2012, China has been the world’s biggest outbound marketing and reach a total expenditure of 104.5 billion dollars in 2015. According to CLSA, Chinese outbound tourism is expected to reach 200 million by 2020 double the number from 2015  and there is nothing we can do to stop the growth. You should read this article first

Travel for Chinese is a trend

Tourism industry is now a trend of this world which can offer many different career opportunities while boosting a country’s economy. Particular in such a competitive tourism market like China, knowing the expectation of Chinese tourists will get your agency stand out from the crowd and catch the attention from them. In the following content, we listed the top 5 service of what Chinese tourists expect:  

Optimize your customer Service

Before your travel agencies provide any type tourism service to Chinese people, you need to understand the importance of onsite content in the whole business procedure. It is the showcase of your service and the very first thing you offer to make your service look appealing and trustworthy. Chinese tourists love browsing on fast and appealing site with high quality photos and videos.

More importantly, your website should be able to operate on mobile phones because a recent research showed that Chinese people prefer using mobile phones for internet surfing to desktops. According to the CTrip.com Chief Operating Officer Jane Sun via CNN, “More than 50% of our hotel bookings on mobile.” As a marketer, you need to know where to find your customers and how to serve them well. In China, mobile version onsite service is a must thing to do.  

Chinese speaker to reply to question 

find-chinese-learning-partners

 

Unlike the situation, Chinese used to travel in groups, in the past, the numbers of Chinese independent travelers is rising up rapidly because of the growth of the middle class. Many of the people in this middle class level have higher education which brings them good advantages in traveling regarding to language for communication or technology for information.

 

Invest in your Digital Communication to generate leads

digital-china


However, the partial middle class case can not represent all of the Chinese tourists. According to many survey conducted by airline and travel companies, people still expect some Chinese services such as Chinese-language menu, brochure, and even TV programs. Languages from home has the amazing power to make people feel welcome, feel safe, and feel comforted as they are hundreds to thousands of miles away from their comfort zone.

Social Communication WeChat  & Weibo QQ 

In China, promoting your business only through search engines will never be enough and soon you will be eliminated There are more than 80 % of the 720 million internet users in China have at least one to multiple accounts on social medias and people spend 25 hours a week on average using them mainly through mobiles.

chinese mobile

The role of social medias to Chinese people now a days is much more than a social platform but a place to seek counsels, a channel to catch up updated news around the world, and even a tool to do customer services. Having an official accounts on Chinese popular website like WeChat (Instant messaging app) and Weibo (Micro-blogging app) will help your agency tune in on the same communication channel with Chinese tourists.

  (A travel information on Weibo)

weibo-travel

(A travel agency on WeChat)

liontravelagency-wechat

Practical Payment Method

Placing orders, making deals, and transferring money in China only require a few finger tapping on their mobile devices. Chinese are so used to such a convenient payment method in their daily lives, so it is time to examine your agency’s payment method to see if it is user-friendly to Chinese customers..

If you agency have the access to any banks in China, you may simply open online payment accounts through Aplipay or WeChat pay, the top 2 third party payment companies in China. Otherwise, you may consider to include Union pay, the bank car accounts for over 90 % market share in China, in your payment method.

UnionPay

With this payment adoption targeting Chinese customers, you will be more prepare as you welcome any Chinese tourists to visit your travel agency online. Just make sure you display the symbols of the three payment methods on your websites after you make the changes for Chinese market.

Extra-mile Customer Services

The first rule to serve Chinese tourists is to try your best to give them what they want. For travel agencies, you need to learn lessons of how to deal with Chinese tourists because this could be very helpful as the situation happens.

As Chinese tourists travel abroad, they tend to have high expectation on their tour quality and the service they receive. Many traveling business around the world are preparing themselves to welcome the Chinese customers through hiring Mandarin speakers in their stores, providing Chinese language lessons, and even exchange program to China. Same thing to travel agencies around the world, you may start thinking of a way to best serve your Chinese customers and always be ready to walk the extra mile with them. Believe me, you will see the reward in the future.

Similar Posts

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *