UAE: Dubai Tourism Woos More Chinese Tourists

Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing and China’s internet major Tencent have signed an agreement to help promote the emirate as a destination of choice for Chinese tourists, whose numbers in Dubai surged 41 per cent last year.

The agreement will result in ecosystem-wide strategies spanning the Tencent network to expand Dubai Tourism’s marketing reach and penetration within China – one of the fastest growing source markets for Dubai, Dubai Tourism said in a statement on Tuesday.

Tencent will promote its offerings including WeChat and WeChat Pay as an option for convenient and secure mobile payment for Chinese tourists at local outlets.

In parallel, Dubai Tourism will encourage Dubai merchants to leverage the Tencent Cloud and media solutions to enhance the overall city-experience for Chinese visitors and drive spending from this significant consumer base.

Dubai is boosting its profile in China to attract more tourists after their number surged to 764,000 in 2017, pushing it to fifth spot among the emirate's global source markets, after the UAE eased visa rules for Chinese nationals.

Dubai Tourism in January this year also signed an agreement with Chinese telecom operator Huawei, which will pre-load all its devices with both user-generated and official cinematographic content of Dubai.

On Monday, the agreement was expanded further, with Huawei Mobile Services agreeing to offer useful and accessible content about Dubai, in particular through the company’s newly-updated SkyTone travel and roaming apps.

The Tencent MoU opens the far-reaching spectrum of WeChat solutions for Dubai to effectively and efficiently target key Chinese audience segments through Dubai Tourism’s official WeChat account, Dubai Tourism said.

With over 980 million monthly active users on WeChat and Weixin, Dubai Tourism will be able to drive amplified brand awareness of the destination and its superlative offerings, extending the benefits across Dubai’s stakeholder ecosystem.


Tourism Observer

QATAR: More And More Chinese Tourists Are Flocking Qatar, Thanks To Qatar Tourism Authority And Visa Free For Chinese Tourists

Qatar Tourism Authority (QTA) office in Beijing, along with the other two QTA offices at Shanghai and Guangzhou, has achieved great success during the first quarter of this year in attracting more tourists from China to Qatar.

The managing director of the office, Jiajing, told reporters in Beijing that 15,158 Chinese tourists visited Qatar during the first three months of this year, a 68% rise over the same period last year.

He said this figure was for tourists only and did not include those going on business.

The huge success is attributed to the efforts exerted by QTA offices in China to promote Qatar as a new destination for traditional Arab heritage.

He pointed out QTA offices in China have printed and distributed a brochure in Chinese and used popular Chinese social media and chat applications such as Weibo and WeChat to promote Qatar as a promising destination.

Besides, local media representatives and social media influencers were invited to visit Qatar.

Travel agents were also invited to tour Qatar so they could better market the country to their Chinese clients.

QTA Beijing office managing director stressed that Qatar is expected to be a favourite destination among Chinese travellers, in particular as they do not require an entry visa and given visa free on arrival.

As part of the strong friendly relationships between China and Qatar, Peking University School of Foreign Languages, Department of Arabic Language and Culture, has celebrated the passage of 120 years.

Its establishment which also coincides with the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relationships between the two countries.

Wu Bingbing, deputy director of the department and professor of the Qatar Chair, said Qatar has extended generous support to the department and donated $10mn as an endowment to create the Qatar Chair.

The department uses the annual profit of $500,000 to further expand and improve its studies and researches in the field.

He said also that the department has fruitful co-operation with Qatar University and other universities at the Education City, Qatar.

Some Chinese students come to Qatar to study Arabic, and others are research scholars and their number is steadily increasing.

Qatar Chair is not only concerned with Arabic language studies but also covers Middle East studies.

Bingbing stressed that the graduates have good opportunities to work for the government and other major private companies as the Chinese interests are steadily increasing in the Middle East and it helps bring about more understanding among the Arab world and China.


Tourism Observer

UNITED KINGDOM: More Chinese Tourists Arrive In The UK

Despite the current political situation in the UK, tourism is one of the strongest sectors of the UK’s economy. Of course, we can’t discuss tourism without talking about Chinese tourists.

With over 120 million Chinese tourists traveling abroad, the Chinese outbound market is the biggest in the world. Not only are they numerous, they are also high spenders.

The Chinese tourism market alone is worth more than US$60m with each Chinese traveller spend on average US$4,160 on one trip.

What about Chinese visitors in the UK? Well, according to VisitBritain, the national organization in charge of promoting the UK abroad (the official tourism organization), the number of Chinese visitors going to the UK skyrocketed by almost 40% during the first three-quarters of 2015.

The volume of Chinese tourists totalled 200,000 at the end of last year. In terms of spending, Chinese visitors spent a total of US$580m last year accounting for a growth of 4% compared to 2014. Finally, China represents one-fourth of the total tourist spending in the UK!

Forecasts are pretty optimist for the UK. VisitBritain is expecting Chinese visitors to spend double the current amount by 2020 and reach the £1billion mark.

The UK is gaining popularity among Chinese tourists but it isn’t without effort. Chinese visitors have to face issues such as a different currency from most of the other European countries, visa requirements and so on. With the UK leaving the European Union the pound sterling has decreased slightly in value.

This may help in boosting export as well as inbound tourism. However, most Chinese tourists will naturally go to the capital, London. Some other big cities in the UK can and want to benefit from this flow of Chinese tourists who love to spend.

Greater Manchester wants to do just that. Chinese visitors flying from Beijing can now enjoy a new flight offered by Hainan Airlines ( A Chinese local airline) travelling directly to Manchester.

The number of flights is not yet huge but this route will be operational four times a week and reflects a growing demand for UK travel outside of London.

According to official UK tourism data, this new flight between Beijing and Manchester will allow the city to attract over 20,000 Chinese visitors traveling for either business or leisure every year.

This is expected to bring generate a revenue of £250m for the UK economy by 2026.

Why do Chinese tourists want to go to Manchester instead of London for example? They are mainly drawn by the famous football teams who have attracted millions of supporters in China, the prestigious universities, and it’s shopping experience.

In order to capitalize the arrival of Chinese tourists to Manchester, Visit Britain decided to create a specific training program for any tourism figures and any businesses that will be interacting with Chinese visitors (shopping stores, service providers and so on).

This is called the ‘China Welcome Training’ and is part of the Great China Welcome Charter Mark certified by the COTRI (China Outbound Tourism Research Institute). It will be run and delivered by the reputable Capela Training.

This training will help businesses learn more about the Chinese culture, market, needs, customs, traditions, behavior as well as digital marketing practices.

For the tourism director of Marketing Manchester; “China is a rich and complex country and this training will give tourism organizations an insight into how to appeal to tourists and business travelers.

I encourage as many organizations as possible to sign up so we can make Manchester the most China-friendly city in the UK.”

Talking about digital marketing, Manchester could attract even more Chinese tourists if it focuses more on digital marketing just like Visit Britain did for the whole national tourism strategy to reach the Chinese market.

From social media to using opinion leaders, going digital in China is the way to go and Visit Britain understood this well.

With over 660 million Chinese internet users, China is one of the biggest online communities. It is estimated that 90% of Chinese netizens use their mobile phone to access the Internet and own at least one account on a social media platform.

The main Chinese social media platforms are WeiBo, WeChat, QQ and Ren Ren. WeChat is an instant messaging mobile app developed by Tencent (Creator of QQ). It has more than 690 million active users worldwide and China is the main market.

WeiBo, with more than 222 million active users is a Twitter-like platform, the name literally translates as micro-blogging.

New Zealand partnered with a famous Chinese artist named Huang Lei. He is an actor, teacher, producer and screenwriter and has more than 40 million followers on Weibo.

The collaboration with New Zealand started with the TV show called: “Dad, Where are we going” in its second season. Several places in New Zealand were pictured in several episodes giving more visibility to the country.

The last time he went to NZ was in 2015 with his wife and 2 daughters.

They were sponsored by Tourism New Zealand and other media platforms. Their trip draws a lot of attention on Chinese social media and generated more than US$27 million of equivalent advertising material as well as over 1,600 publications on various media platforms.

Manchester could also use the Visit Britain strategy on WeChat and Weibo by engaging with their followers. Visit Britain launched a marketing campaign on both platforms asking their fans to choose a Chinese name for the main attractions in London.

This worked quite well and they now have about 620,000 followers on Weibo.

Star Alliance Launches New Social Media Campaign in China

Star Alliance has launched a social media campaign in China, targeted at international frequent flyers in this market, as well as their friends, colleagues and family members. Using the slogan “you make the difference”, the Alliance is encouraging the traveller’s “circle of friends” to show their appreciation for their dedication to work and travel. In addition, the campaign aims to educate and engage the Chinese international frequent flyers and also increase their brand awareness and affiliation to Star Alliance.

The campaign will run through December 7th, 2015 and is accessible via the Alliance’s WeChat social media channel in China. In addition, it is also being promoted in the communication channels of Star Alliance member airlines, such as for example their respective Chinese social media platforms or frequent flyer eNewsletters.

Friends, colleagues and family members of international frequent flyers are invited to send thank you messages, expressing their appreciation for the traveller’s devotion to work and travel. These messages can be sent through the online campaign platform in WeChat. The international frequent flyer who receives the message has the chance to win Star Alliance Gold Status, to make their travels more comfortable. A total of 10 Star Alliance Frequent Flyer programmes are participating in this promotion and will be giving away one Gold Status each: Aeroplan® (Air Canada), PhoenixMiles (Air China), ANA Mileage Club® (ANA), Asiana Club® (Asiana Airlines), Infinity MileageLands® (EVA Air), KrisFlyer (Singapore Airlines), MileagePlus® (United), Miles & More (Austrian, LOT Polish Airlines, Lufthansa, SWISS), Miles&Smiles (Turkish Airlines), Royal Orchid Plus (THAI).

The friend, colleague or family member who sent the message of appreciation has the chance to win two Star Alliance Round-the-World tickets.

These exclusive prizes underline the Star Alliance brand value and allow the winners to experience the Star Alliance global airline alliance benefits.

As a prelude to the current campaign, Star Alliance launched its new Elite Gathering Community on WeChat in China last month. This group brings together global business travelers, providing a platform for them to share their insights and valuable tips about travelling throughout the world.

Star Alliance is present in both WeChat and Weibo in China and in addition to the daily posts related to international travel, the Alliance also runs smaller promotions through these channels.

In total 20 member carriers serve the Chinese markets. Member carriers Air China and Shenzhen Airlines have both been adding international services this year. Air China for example recently launched flights from Beijing to Minsk, Budapest and Montreal and will be serving Johannesburg from the end of October. This is in addition to increasing services to, for example, Australia and the USA. Shenzhen Airlines this year started non-stop flights from Shenzhen to Osaka. It total, the Star Alliance member airlines offer around 270 daily flights international flights from China, connecting to 79 destinations in 42 countries.

According to the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA), China is on track to become the world’s primary business travel market. Driven by domestic and international outbound business travel, China continues to close the gap on the U.S. as the largest business travel economy in the world.

The campaign can accessed at http://x.spayz.cn/e1 or by using the QR code below. The video accompanying the campaign can be viewed via the Star Alliance youtube channel at:www.youtube.com/watch?v=yX37IN9u05I (available in Chinese only).

USA: Nexmo Powers KLM Royal Dutch Airlines Customer Engagement On WeChat

Nexmo Chat App API seamlessly connects KLM Royal Dutch Airlines customer service to consumers on WeChat via Salesforce Service Cloud.

Nexmo, the leading cloud communications platform company, announced its Chat App API is empowering KLM, the leading airline of the Netherlands, to engage with Chinese customers on WeChat, the leading social communication platform, through Salesforce Service Cloud.

KLM Royal Dutch airlines is now able to process and handle user inquiries from Chinese customers on WeChat more efficiently based on previous interactions with users on multiple platforms. Now no matter which social communication platform people choose to contact KLM, they will always get a personal, high-touch customer service based on previous conversations independent of which social platform they chose. The newly launched service is available on Weixin, WeChat's sister product targeting users in China. The combined monthly active user accounts on WeChat and Wexin reached 600 million as of the second quarter of 2015.

This is the first time a company has been able to engage with customers on a social communication platform through Salesforce Service Cloud. Today's announcement contributes to Nexmo's vision for one cloud communication API to connect all chat apps to all CRM platforms, ushering in the next wave of how brands interact with customers.

"We sincerely believe that we can service our customers best by being where they are," said Karlijn Vogel-Meijer, Manager Social Media at KLM Royal Dutch Airlines. "Apart from the one-to-many platforms, like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn, we are seeing enormous growth of social communication platforms like WeChat. Salesforce is the backbone of our social organization and Nexmo offers us a solution to add platforms like WeChat to our CRM system."

Social communication platforms have a massive built-in audience and make up four out of the top six largest social platforms with QQ, Whatsapp, Facebook Messenger and WeChat challenging Facebook and Qzone, according to social media agency We Are Social. This presents a significant opportunity for brands to engage with consumers in authentic, one-to-one engagement, with both Forrester and IDC saying chat applications are the new face of social media.

Scaling for Rampant Growth
While customers and brands have much to gain from customer engagement via social communication platforms, scale is a significant hurdle for brands since they have to manage multiple social platforms at once. Also, the high volume of messages from these chat apps must flow into the correct CRM platform. For example, KLM receives approximately 70,000 mentions per week from customers worldwide via social platforms, making scale and platform integration vital to excellent customer engagement. To solve this, Nexmo's Chat App API uniquely allows KLM's customer service team to engage WeChat users through their existing Salesforce Service Cloud portal, who can deliver a better, more tailored and seamless customer service experience for each passenger.

"Customers are demanding more and better service, delivered through every conceivable channel, and our work with KLM and WeChat is the next big thing in cloud communications," said Chris Moore, CRO of Nexmo. "We are eager to continue lowering the barriers brands face when engaging consumers on chat apps, and accelerate how cloud communications change the way people communicate."