Why Chinese Tourists Don’t Choose Foreign Travel Agencies (+Solution)
Let me share something I have learned over 15 years in the Chinese tourism market. Chinese tourists are not avoiding your travel agency because they do not want to visit your country. They are skipping over you because you are not showing them you understand their needs. You are not visible, you are not credible, and you are making it too risky for them to book with you.
If you are serious about attracting Chinese tourists you have to adapt to how they travel and how they communicate. Here is why you are losing out, and how to fix it.
Four facts about the Chinese outbound market in 2025:
- China sent over 130 million travelers abroad in 2024, a 30% increase from 2023 (China Tourism Academy).
- 83% of Chinese travelers check reviews on Chinese social media platforms before booking a foreign tour (Mafengwo Consumer Survey 2025).
- Foreign tour operators with a verified presence on Xiaohongshu see 3 to 5 times more inquiries from Chinese independent travelers than those without (Jing Travel 2024 analysis).
- The post-95 generation now represents over 40% of Chinese outbound travelers, and they plan trips almost entirely through apps, not travel agents (Ctrip Youth Travel Report 2025).
Why Chinese tourists are not booking with you
1. No adaptation to their culture and preferences
Chinese tourists expect travel agencies to understand what makes them comfortable far from home. If your offer does not reflect that, they will find someone who does.
What they think: “This agency doesnt understand what we want. How can I trust them to plan a trip that fits us?”
2. No Mandarin translation anywhere
If your website, brochures or customer service are only in English, you have already lost their attention. Chinese travelers want to feel understood and language is the first test.
What they think: “If I cant even read their website, how do I trust them to guide me through a foreign country?”
3. No website, or a slow English-only one
In China, a professional website hosted locally is a baseline for trust. If your website is in English, hosted abroad and takes forever to load, you are not just invisible, you look unreliable.
What they think: “This agency feels unprofessional. Maybe it’s a scam?”
4. No social media presence means no credibility
Chinese travelers live on Douyin, WeChat and Xiaohongshu. If they cannot find you on these platforms, you do not exist to them. And if you have something to hide, they assume that is exactly why you are not there.
For small and mid-sized tourism operators, Xiaohongshu is often the best starting point. The platform is designed for exactly this kind of trust-building: real content, real reviews, real people recommending experiences to their followers. See our Xiaohongshu marketing services for more.
5. No Mandarin customer service
If your agency cannot answer questions in Mandarin, Chinese tourists will not book with you. Not because they cannot speak other languages but because they do not want the stress of a language barrier when something goes wrong during a trip.
6. No reviews, no trust
Chinese tourists are careful spenders when booking through foreign agencies. Without reviews, testimonials or endorsements from sources they know, you look like a gamble. Nobody wants to risk a family holiday or a company trip on an agency nobody has heard of.
How to fix this and start attracting Chinese tourists
1. Adapt your services to what Chinese tourists actually want
Mandarin-speaking guides. Chinese meal options on tour, at least once per day. Group packages that work for families traveling three generations at once. Itineraries built around major Chinese holidays. This is not complicated, but it requires you to think from their perspective, not yours.
Estimated cost to adapt your service offer: $5,000 to $20,000 depending on scope.
2. Translate everything into Mandarin
Your website, brochures and all marketing materials need to be in Mandarin. Professional translation for a standard tourism website runs $500 to $1,500. That is a small investment for the access it opens.
3. Build a fast, localized website
Host your website in China for fast load times. Optimize the design for mobile, since over 85% of Chinese tourists browse on their phone. Add a WeChat QR code so anyone landing on your site can contact you instantly. A properly built Chinese website costs $2,000 to $5,000 including design, hosting and optimization. See the GMA services page for this.
4. Get on Douyin and Xiaohongshu
Post short videos on Douyin showing your tours in action: happy travelers, real destinations, local food. Use Xiaohongshu to share testimonials, photos, and tips. KOL partnerships on both platforms can accelerate this significantly. Setup cost: $500 to $1,000. KOL partnerships: $1,000 to $5,000 depending on reach. See our Douyin marketing page.
5. Offer Mandarin customer service via WeChat
Hire a Mandarin-speaking customer service person or use a translation service. Offer support via WeChat, not email. The cost is $1,000 to $3,000 per month, which is a reasonable investment when you are targeting a market of 130 million outbound travelers.
6. Build credibility with reviews and PR
Collect testimonials from Chinese clients. Share them online. Partner with Chinese travel bloggers. Get coverage in Chinese travel media. A solid PR campaign costs $2,000 to $10,000, but the credibility it builds lasts for years.
Cost summary
| Action | Estimated cost | Impact |
|---|---|---|
| Service adaptation for Chinese travelers | $5,000-$20,000 | High |
| Mandarin translation | $500-$1,500 | High |
| Chinese website | $2,000-$5,000 | High |
| Douyin + Xiaohongshu setup | $500-$1,000 | High |
| KOL partnerships | $1,000-$5,000 | High |
| Mandarin customer service | $1,000-$3,000/month | High |
| PR and reviews campaign | $2,000-$10,000 | Medium-High |
For further market context: Mafengwo travel insights and Statista China tourism data. For our full service offer: Chinese digital marketing agency overview.
What success looks like
Once you have a localized Chinese website, an active Xiaohongshu or Douyin account, and Mandarin customer service on WeChat, Chinese travelers can find you, verify you and reach you. That is when the inquiries start coming in. You are no longer a foreign agency they stumbled across. You are a brand they recognize from their social media feed and that their friends have already reviewed.
Chinese tourists are not avoiding your agency because they do not want to travel. They are avoiding you because you have not adapted to what they expect. Localize your materials. Show up on Chinese platforms. Offer Mandarin support. Build credibility through reviews and partnerships. In China trust is everything and trust takes work. Start building it now.
How GMA helps tourism businesses attract Chinese travelers
Douyin
GMA manages Douyin campaigns for tourism operators, from creative production to KOL matching and performance reporting. We have done this for agencies and destinations across Europe, Asia and North Africa. See our Douyin services page.
Xiaohongshu (RED)
We build and run official accounts on Xiaohongshu for tourism brands, create Mandarin content adapted to the platform, and connect businesses with the right travel KOLs. If your agency is not on Xiaohongshu yet, this is the fastest way to start building trust with Chinese travelers.
From official account creation to content, Moments campaigns and WeChat Pay integration, GMA handles the complete WeChat scope for tourism businesses. Details at chinesetouristagency.com/our-services.
Olivier Verot is the founder of GMA, a digital marketing agency in Shanghai. He has been in China since 2008 and spends most of his time helping Western brands not make expensive mistakes in the Chinese market.
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