West seen from the east
How will Chinese tourism reshape tourism in Europe?
Despite the government’s efforts to discourage people from moving around during the Spring Festival, to prevent new clusters of the pandemic, some Chinese cities saw a surge in numbers: rooms in Shanghai’s Disneyland were fully booked for New Year’s Eve. Tourism is expected to return the same as 2019 for the coming Qingming Festival in early April. Internationally, the sector will come back to pre-Covid levels by 2023. Until then, the situation will keep improving: tour operators must be prepared, taking into consideration the way Chinese tourism is changing. Requesting customized tours, for example, more often for families and individuals, rather than large groups. Operators must therefore adapt their products, widening the range of options and tailor-made proposals.
But the most evident characteristic of Chinese tourism is its digital nature: Chinese consumers make extensive use of digital tools, and WeChat is the place to be for professionals and cities wishing to promote their services. In Italy, for example, the city of Milan has an official account on WeChat, where it engaged in a promotional campaign called Yes Milano, thanks to which tourists receive periodically highly engaging digital content boosting their desire to visit the city, while similar initiatives are active in Tuscany. And we bet digital and customized travel trends will be protagonists at both the Guangzhou International Travel Fair and at the Hong Kong International Travel Expo next June, the main Chinese dates for tourism professionals.
Being familiar with Chinese culture, consumer trends and digital habits, we may be the support needed to promote your services for Chinese customers. We count on our expertise in hospitality – as among our clients there are prominent hotel chains as Marriot – and the contact we keep with tourism professionals, thanks to our Italian location, among art cities and the world-renowned Romagna Riviera. These factors, for example, convinced the city of Rimini to rely on us for its tourism promotional campaign on WeChat: contact us to discover more!