Countries around the world are setting up official accounts in Chinese messaging app Wechat introducing their national tourism attractions, and more than 20 national tourism bureaus have already registered accounts on China’s most popular blog Weibo in an effort to attract Chinese tourism.
Chateau de Versailles announced it had opened a Wechat account in order to develop better engagement with Chinese tourists. It will use Chinese language to offer information service regarding the history, present condition, landmarks and hot topics regarding Versailles.
The Louvre opened a Weibo account on May 1 publishing information in the form of picture and text content introducing 24 of its collections and exhibitions. The account has already collected 1,600 fans in the first month.
GoUSA published its first post on its Weibo blog account on August 1, 2013 and has published 1,800 posts up until June 4 this year. The account has over 560,000 fans and trending discussions can garner over 100 comments.
Some regional tourism bureaus have even opened their own official Wechat accounts to introduce local sights and specialties. For example, the states of California, Florida, and Hawaii and cities such as New York and San Francisco have opened their own Chinese social media accounts.
Korea and Japan have also leveraged Chinese social media in the last two years to continuously tried out new marketing proposals to attract Chinese tourism. Both countries are utilizing social media to promote famous shopping centers that are well stocked with the latest fashion and household goods that appeal to young Chinese fans.
Korea’s Shinsegae Department Store hired two Chinese nationals this Spring Festival to manage its Weibo and Wechat accounts and they quickly helped it gain almost six million followers. Meanwhile some Korean duty free and department stores have been making Wechat red envelope subsidy campaigns to attract Chinese tourists.
Japan’s Tobu Department Store also announced it was launching a discount coupon campaign on its Wechat account to offer a better shopping experience for Chinese visitors to Japan.(Translation by David)
