How Chinese Celebrities can Boost your tourism destination ?

In 2026 Chinese tourists plan their trips based on what they see on their phones. And what they see is shaped, more than anything, by the people they follow. Chinese celebrities and KOLs (大V) are not just influencers. They are travel recommendation engines with millions of loyal followers who act on what they say. If a mid-tier KOL posts a 90-second Douyin video about a ski resort in the Alps, that resort can receive thousands of inquiries in 48 hours. This article breaks down how the celebrity marketing system works in China, which tier gives you the best return, and how destinations like yours can get a piece of it.

Why Chinese Celebrity Culture Drives Travel Decisions

China has one of the most celebrity-driven consumer cultures in the world. The concept of “种草” (zhòng cǎo), literally “planting grass,” describes how KOLs inspire desire in their followers. When a celebrity shares that they skied in Zermatt or ate croissants in Paris, millions of fans immediately start saving, planning, and booking.

According to data from Mafengwo and Ctrip in 2025, over 68% of Chinese FIT (free independent traveler) bookings for international destinations were influenced by content they discovered on Douyin or Xiaohongshu. That number climbs to 81% for travelers under 35. Celebrity content is not a nice-to-have for destination marketing. It is where the decision gets made.

For your destination, this creates a real opportunity. But it also requires understanding how the celebrity tier system works, because not every KOL will deliver results, and not every platform is right for every type of content.

Top-Tier vs. Mid-Tier: Where Your Budget Actually Works

Top-tier Chinese celebrities, think actors like Xiao Zhan or athletes like Su Bingtian, have follower counts in the tens of millions. A single sponsored post can cost between 500,000 and 2,000,000 RMB. For most destinations and tourism businesses, that is simply not a realistic option. And even if it were, top celebrities spread their attention across hundreds of brand deals. The connection to any single destination is thin.

Mid-tier KOLs, with between 50,000 and 2 million followers, are a completely different story. They are often deeply specialized: travel lovers, food enthusiasts, outdoor adventurers, luxury lifestyle creators. Their audiences trust them precisely because they are not mega-celebrities. They feel real. They respond to comments. They have a community.

A campaign with a mid-tier KOL focused on European skiing or Japanese hot springs can cost between 20,000 and 150,000 RMB, and deliver a more targeted, engaged audience than any top-tier post. In 2025-2026, this is where savvy destination marketers are putting their money.

Look for KOLs whose past travel content is specific, detailed, and gets strong engagement (comments, saves, reposts), not just likes. A KOL who posts vague “lifestyle” content with 1.5M followers may convert less than a passionate ski enthusiast with 200K dedicated followers.

Xiaohongshu vs. Douyin: Picking the Right Platform

These two platforms serve very different purposes, and a smart destination campaign uses both.

Douyin (China’s TikTok) is ideal for emotional impact and fast reach. Short videos between 30 and 90 seconds showing stunning visuals, skiing powder runs, tropical beaches, or local markets can go viral overnight. The algorithm pushes content to people who have not yet followed the creator, which means discovery. For destinations that want to build awareness quickly, Douyin is where you start.

Xiaohongshu (小红书, also called Little Red Book or RED) works differently. It is search-driven, more like a visual Google for lifestyle decisions. Chinese travelers go to Xiaohongshu to research before they book. They search “Switzerland winter trip” or “what to do in Paris with kids” and they find detailed posts from real users and KOLs. Content on Xiaohongshu stays searchable for months or years. It builds lasting SEO value inside the Chinese internet.

For destination marketing, the ideal formula is: Douyin for emotional trigger + Xiaohongshu for research content + WeChat for booking conversion. A KOL campaign that runs across all three, with coordinated messaging, will significantly outperform a single-platform push. You can read more about this in our Chinese outbound tourism market strategy guide.

What to Look for When Choosing a Celebrity Ambassador

Choosing the wrong KOL is an expensive mistake. Here is what actually matters when you evaluate a potential ambassador for your destination.

• Audience match: Their followers should reflect your ideal visitor profile. Age, income, travel frequency, and interests all matter. Ask for audience analytics before signing anything.
• Engagement rate: Divide total engagement (likes + comments + shares) by follower count. Anything above 3-5% on Douyin or Xiaohongshu is strong. High follower counts with low engagement are a red flag.
• Content authenticity: The best KOLs travel because they love it. Scroll through their last 20 posts. Does this person genuinely love outdoor adventure, fine dining, cultural experiences? Or are they posting whatever brand pays them?
• Past destination work: Have they promoted places before? Did those posts perform well? Check comments for real reactions, not generic praise.
• Exclusivity clauses: For a ski resort or a specific region, you want to ensure the KOL is not simultaneously promoting three competing destinations during your campaign window.

How Thailand, Japan, and France Use Celebrity Marketing

Several destinations have made celebrity and KOL marketing a central part of their China strategy. Thailand’s Tourism Authority has run multiple Douyin campaigns with mid-tier Chinese lifestyle creators, resulting in direct booking spikes on Ctrip. Japan has benefited enormously from organic KOL content around cherry blossom season, with Xiaohongshu posts driving record FIT arrivals in spring 2024 and 2025.

France, through Atout France’s China operations, has worked with Chinese fashion and food KOLs to reposition Paris beyond the “luxury shopping trip” image. The goal is to show Chinese visitors that France is also about food culture, countryside, wine regions, and local art. These campaigns reach new audience segments that never considered France before.

The key lesson from all of these destinations: consistency matters more than one big campaign. A steady stream of mid-tier KOL content throughout the year outperforms a single celebrity post, every time.

Key Trends for 2026

• Mid-tier KOLs (50K-2M followers) now generate higher conversion rates than top celebrities for destination travel campaigns
• Douyin, and WeChat both work for destination marketing but serve different stages of the traveler decision process
• Xiaohongshu “search SEO” is now a formal part of most China destination strategies, with content optimized for in-app search terms
• “Real experience” content (authentic, unpolished, spontaneous-feeling) consistently outperforms polished advertising-style posts
• Chinese travelers under 35 increasingly filter out obvious paid content and prefer KOLs who disclose partnerships but speak genuinely
• Short-form vertical video (15-90 seconds) is now the primary format for destination discovery on Chinese social platforms
• KOL-led group tours are growing as a format, where a KOL brings their community on a curated trip and documents it live

What Philip Chen Says

“When destinations ask me which KOL to pick, I always say: start with the audience, not the follower count. A KOL with 300,000 loyal adventure travelers will outperform a celebrity with 5 million passive fans every single time. We have seen this play out across dozens of campaigns. The second thing I tell clients is to budget for a series, not a single post. One video creates a moment. Ten videos over six months create a destination identity in the Chinese traveler’s mind. That is what drives real booking behavior.”

Philip Chen, GMA Senior Consultant

How One Swiss Ski Resort Got 400% More Chinese Booking Inquiries

It was January 2024, and Marcus Huber was standing in his office at the Berghaus ski resort in Grindelwald, staring at his booking system. The numbers from Chinese guests were worse than the year before: just 12 group bookings, all through a single tour operator in Beijing who took a large commission and sent guests with minimal engagement with the resort itself.

Marcus had tried the obvious things. He had a Chinese-language page on his website (poorly translated, rarely updated). He had posted a few times on WeChat. He had even paid for a banner ad on a Chinese travel portal in 2023. None of it moved the needle. He felt like he was shouting into a void.

The turning point came through a conversation with a Chinese guest, a young woman named Yanling who had booked directly after seeing a friend’s photos on Xiaohongshu. She told Marcus, bluntly: “You need someone Chinese to talk about this place. Your website looks like a corporate brochure. Chinese people trust other Chinese people.”

Marcus started researching. He found a Douyin creator named Zhang Wei, a Beijing-based outdoor lifestyle KOL with 800,000 followers who specialized in skiing and mountain experiences. Zhang Wei was not a mega-celebrity. He was a 31-year-old former ski instructor who had built a dedicated following over four years with honest, detailed content about ski destinations across Europe and North America.

The deal was simple: Zhang Wei would spend five days at Berghaus in January 2024, fully hosted, and create a series of 8 Douyin videos plus 12 Xiaohongshu posts. The resort paid a creator fee of 85,000 RMB (around 11,000 EUR) plus hosting costs.

The content went live over six weeks. Zhang Wei showed everything: the powder runs at dawn, the cheese fondue after skiing, the view from the cable car, the children’s ski school where he found three other Chinese kids learning alongside Swiss ones. He filmed a short video in his room, in Mandarin, explaining how to book directly and what packages were available. He answered every comment.

The results surprised even Marcus. In the six months following the campaign (January to June 2024), Chinese booking inquiries increased by 400% compared to the same period in 2023. Direct bookings via the resort’s WeChat account, which they had set up properly for the first time as part of this campaign, accounted for 38 new room-nights from Chinese guests. Three Chinese travel agencies reached out to discuss group packages.

For the 2024-2025 winter season, Marcus ran the campaign again with Zhang Wei plus two additional Xiaohongshu KOLs focused on luxury skiing and family travel. Chinese guests, this strategy is perfect for boutique hotels and mountain resorts that offer something visually distinctive and culturally interesting.

How GMA Can Help

GMA specializes in connecting tourism destinations with the right Chinese audiences. Here is what we offer:

• KOL identification and vetting: We identify mid-tier KOLs whose audience matches your target traveler profile, with full analytics review before any commitment
• Campaign strategy: We build multi-platform campaigns across Douyin, Xiaohongshu, and WeChat, with clear content briefs and measurable KPIs
• Content production support: We help KOLs create content that communicates your destination’s key selling points in a way that resonates with Chinese travelers
• WeChat account setup and management: We set up and manage your official WeChat presence so that interest from KOL content converts into real inquiries
• Chinese SEO on Xiaohongshu: We optimize your content for in-app search on Xiaohongshu so your destination stays visible long after the campaign ends
• Performance tracking: We monitor engagement, reach, and conversion across all platforms and give you clear monthly reporting

Learn more at GMA’s China advertising page.

About GMA

Since 2012, GMA has worked with 500+ brands, destinations, and tourism businesses to build their presence in the Chinese market. We have run KOL campaigns across Douyin, Xiaohongshu, and WeChat for hotels, ski resorts, national tourism boards, and boutique operators. Our team includes Chinese digital marketing specialists, tourism consultants, and content creators who know what Chinese travelers actually respond to. We do not sell generic solutions. We build campaigns based on real data, real platforms, and real results. Our clients include businesses from Europe, Australia, Southeast Asia, and North America who want to attract more Chinese visitors and convert them into loyal, repeat guests.

About the author: Claire is a Digital Tourism Specialist at GMA. She has spent 6 years working with hotels, brands and destinations to attract Chinese travelers. She writes about what actually works in the Chinese market in 2026. Visit our services page to learn more.

Chinese Sources

中国旅游网 (www.cnta.gov.cn): The China National Tourism Administration reports that outbound Chinese tourists increasingly rely on social platform recommendations when choosing international destinations, with digital content influencing over 65% of travel decisions in 2025.

马蜂窝 (www.mafengwo.cn): Mafengwo’s 2025 travel trend report highlights that KOL-recommended destinations see a measurable spike in user searches and trip planning activity within 72 hours of a major post going live on Douyin or Xiaohongshu.