How We Onboard a New Tourism Client for the Chinese Market
The first week with a new client sets the tone for everything. In our experience, campaigns that underperform can almost always be traced back to a bad week 1. Either we didn’t get the right information, or the client didn’t understand what we needed, or nobody asked the hard questions early enough. We’ve tightened this process down to a checklist that rarely changes now.
One thing that still surprises new clients: we spend more time in week 1 asking questions than doing work. That’s intentional.
What the onboarding process actually looks like
Our onboarding runs over four weeks. Week 1 is the foundation. Everything after that depends on what we find.
Week 1: audit and brief. We run a platform audit of every Chinese channel where the client has (or should have) a presence. Xiaohongshu, WeChat, Douyin, Ctrip, Meituan. We look at what exists, what’s broken, what’s missing, and what competitors are doing. Alongside this, we run a target audience segmentation by city tier. A hotel that wants to attract travelers from Tier 1 cities (Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen) needs different content than one targeting Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities.
Week 2: strategy alignment. We present findings and get sign-off on the audience definition, channel selection, and content direction before we produce anything. This is where most previous agencies skipped a step and went straight to execution. We don’t.
Week 3: content calendar and asset collection. We build the first 90 days of content planning and identify the assets we need from the client: photos, property descriptions, pricing ranges, unique selling points. We also set up the feedback loop at this stage. One named contact on the client side. One project manager on our side. Weekly check-in, documented in writing.
Week 4: launch. First content goes live. Accounts are confirmed. Monitoring is in place. The client has seen and approved everything before it’s published.
We cover WeChat, Xiaohongshu, and Douyin as part of our standard setup depending on the client’s goals and budget.
From the field: a Thai resort chain that taught us to ask better questions
We onboarded a Thai resort chain, 4 properties, solid reputation. They had been marketing to Chinese travelers for years through a local Thai agency with Chinese connections. We were brought in to improve results.
Week 1 audit: their Xiaohongshu content was good. Their WeChat account was inactive for 7 months. Their Ctrip listing had wrong pricing. Their main competitor had 3x the review volume on Meituan.
More importantly: when we ran the city tier segmentation, we found that 80% of their existing Chinese guests came from Tier 2 cities, but their content was entirely aimed at the Shanghai and Beijing luxury market. They were attracting one audience and marketing to a different one.
We had to go back and redo the audience brief. It added two weeks to the onboarding. But it meant that the content we launched was actually relevant to the people booking.
By month 6, direct Chinese bookings were up 40%. The Ctrip listing correction alone drove a measurable increase in OTA bookings within 30 days. Small fix, real impact.
The numbers
| Onboarding phase | Duration | Key deliverable |
|---|---|---|
| Week 1: Audit | 5-7 days | Platform audit report, competitor review, city tier segmentation |
| Week 2: Strategy alignment | 5-7 days | Signed-off audience definition, channel plan |
| Week 3: Content calendar | 5-7 days | 90-day content plan, asset list, feedback loop setup |
| Week 4: Launch | 3-5 days | First content live, monitoring in place |
| Month 2-3 | Ongoing | Weekly check-ins, monthly content review |
| Month 6 | Milestone | First quarterly review, ROI baseline established |
For benchmarking Chinese digital marketing onboarding practices, see China Travel Trends and the UNWTO China outbound reports.
What we got wrong early on
For the first two years, we started content production in week 1. It felt efficient. Clients liked seeing output quickly. It was actually a waste of money.
We once launched a full Xiaohongshu campaign for a European ski resort before we had confirmed their Chinese guest profile. The content we produced was targeted at high-income Shanghai families. Turns out their actual Chinese guest base was mostly Tier 2 city couples with a mid-range budget. The content was the wrong tone, the wrong price signal, the wrong aspiration. We had to redo three weeks of work.
After that, we moved the audience brief to week 1 and made it mandatory before any content is produced. The client signs off on it. In writing. No exceptions.
What we do now
- Run the platform audit before the strategy conversation. Find the facts first, then discuss direction.
- Segment by city tier in week 1. Tier 1 vs Tier 2/3 changes content tone, price positioning, and platform priority.
- Get a signed audience brief before producing any content. One page. Client signs it. Scope changes after that go through a change request.
- Assign one named contact on each side. Client side and agency side. All project communication goes through these two people.
- Document the feedback loop in writing. We specify: who approves content, in how many hours, through which channel. Usually WeChat for Chinese content approval.
- Set a 90-day content calendar before launch. Not a rigid plan, but a direction. Clients who see 90 days ahead make better decisions about asset production and approvals.
Summary table
| Topic | Key point |
|---|---|
| Onboarding duration | 4 weeks to launch |
| Most important week 1 task | Platform audit + city tier segmentation |
| Biggest early mistake | Producing content before the audience brief was confirmed |
| Required before any content | Signed audience brief |
| Communication structure | One contact each side, documented feedback loop |
| First milestone | Month 6 quarterly review |
Work with us
If you want to know how our onboarding would apply to your property, we can walk you through it in a call. See our services page or contact us directly.
We manage campaigns on WeChat, Xiaohongshu, and Douyin for tourism clients across Europe, Africa, and Southeast Asia.
About ME
Alex is a project manager at Chinese Tourist Agency. He has run 200+ China marketing campaigns for tourism clients and has rewritten the onboarding checklist more times than he would like to admit.
