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Digital Marketing to Capture China

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Most Important Post-COVID Tourism Market

By Nicholas Ruwan Dias, PhD, & Niresh Eliatamby, MBA

  • China is least affected by COVID among the world’s major tourism markets.
  • Almost every other major tourism market has been devastated – U.S., UK, France, Germany, Italy, Russia…
  • Chinese took 149.72 million overseas visits in 2018 (China Daily)
  • The China travel market with its population of nearly 1.5 billion is largely untapped, although growing fast. Currently, 120 million Chinese citizens hold passports — about ten percent of the population, compared to 40 percent of Americans and 95 percent of Brits.
  • 52% of Chinese tourists booked through Online Travel Agencies (OTA)
  • Japan received 8.13 million Chinese visitors in the first 10 months of 2019, up 13.5% year on year (Japan National Tourism Organisation).
  • Chinese have gained a reputation as high spending tourists worldwide.
  • Chinese ecommerce spend by travel (Including accommodation) USD 228.5 billion

Going by current global statistics on COVID, China is likely to be the largest and most stable tourism generating market for some time, as western markets such as Europe and the United States are staggering due to the pandemic. So it may make a lot of sense to have China as the main target market, instead of scattering your marketing efforts across the world.

China at a Glance

Total populationMobile subscriptionsInternet usersActive social media users
1.44
Billion
1.61
Billion
854.5
Million
1.04
Billion
Urbanisationvs. PopulationPenetrationPenetration
59%112%59%72%

The following factors make Digital Marketing ideal for marketers to make an impact on the China market:

  • 72% use social media
  • 59% are active on the Internet
  • Mobile penetration is 112% or 1.12 for each person in the population.

Device Ownership (Percentage of internet users age 18-64 who own each kind of device)

Mobile PhoneSmart PhoneNon-Smart phone Mobile PhoneLaptops & Desktop
95%95%4.8%58%
Internet Streaming DeviceSmart watchTablet DeviceVirtual Reality Device
7.9%28%36%4.4%
    

Mobile Actions

Watch content on TV by castingUse or scan QR codesUse an image search toolUse mobile phone as a Ticket or boarding passTransfer money
33%42%46%26%60%

Internet connectivity

Total number of internet users on any deviceInternet users as a percentage of total populationAnnual growth in the number of internet usersAverage daily Time spent on internet
854.5
Million
59%+25 million5H 50M

Chinese tourists sales channel

Helpful Hints
● Chinese tourists tend to book trips about 3 months in advance
● Bookings are made mainly by women
● Chinese tourists prefer destinations with direct flights from their city in
China
● Localize content of your campaigns into Mandarin or the language of the
region you are targeting, including your website
● Enlist Chinese Online Travel Agencies to promote your business
● Ensure your presence on Chinese Search Engines
● Participate in online Chinese travel discussion forums
● China has different holidays to the West. Target Chinese National Day
holiday ‘Golden Week’ in October 2020 and Chinese New Year in
February 2021
● CRM – reach out to the hundreds of thousands of Chinese who have
already visited and ask them to recommend the island to friends and
relatives
● Chinese tourists seek destinations for rest and relaxation; nature-culture-
history; and shopping
● They also require safe and politically stable destinations with low
population, nature features and landscapes
● FIT travellers prefer shorter distances, 4-6 nights, customised itineraries
● They also have a preference for Chinese speaking guides and other
persons to interact with

How to Digitally Market Your Country in China

Marketers must understand that western social media sites that are most used worldwide for marketing purposes, such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, are prohibited in China. However, a range of additional channels are available for businesses to use in China for digital marketing.

China’s social media has enormous reach, given the size of the population and their general familiarity with technology. People in China spend a significant amount of their daily lives in social networking, especially on WeChat. It’s not just WeChat, however, that’s now one of China’s most competitive marketing channels.

Chinese equivalents of western social media

Western Social MediaChinese Social MediaRemarks
FacebookWeChatConnect with friends, family and other people
TwitterSina Weibobreaking news and entertainment to sports and politics, get the full story with all the live commentary.
WhatsAppTencent QQInstant Messaging App
YouTubeTencent VideoOnline Video Platform
AmazonBaidu TiebaA Search Engine Forum
RedditDoubanLifestyle Discussion Platform
TikTokDouYinThe Short-video App Taking the World by Storm
YelpMeituan – Dianping:User Reviews and Recommendations of Best Restaurants, Shopping, Nightlife, Food, Entertainment, Things to Do, etc.

Chinese Tourism Statistics 2019

China’s Top Outbound Tourism Destinations in 2019 were Vietnam, Thailand, Japan, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Philippines, Cambodia and Macau. 

High Spending Tourists

The Chinese spend significantly on traveling, as personal disposable income increases every year, and China’s demand for tourism is steadily growing. It is expected that China’s overall tourism expenditures will hit $178.4 million by 2022 .

For Chinese tourists, Japan is the most attractive location all year round. Ctrip China analyzed the tour products booked by Chinese travelers and ranked the various activities they have to do. Check the first and second places for the cherry flowers and maple leaves, then enjoy the thermal springs and ski pistes. Increasing momentum also is in trying Kimonos and sushi sampling. Tourists would prefer to explore local culture and flavors and do not like sightseeing or shopping.

Digital Touch Points

Average daily time spent consuming and interacting with media by the internet users in China by type

Source: Statistica 3rd quarter 2019.

 

Social network users

Total number of active social media usersSocial media users compared to total populationChange in social media user numbers
(Apr 2019 to Jan 2020)
Percentage of active social media users accessing via mobile
1.04
Billion
72%

+1.5%
+15 million
100%

Social media behaviour (Internet users age 16-64 engage with social media)

Visited or used a social media network & messaging service in past monthActively engaged with or  contributed to the social media in past monthAverage amount of time per day spend using social mediaAverage number of social media accounts per internet userPercentage of internet user who use  social media for work purposes
98%89%2H 12m9.345%

Most-used social media platforms (Jan, 2020)
(Internet users age 16-64 engage with social media)

Number of monthly active smart device users of Tencent QQ in China from 2014 to 2019 (in millions)

Source: Statistica 2020

Number of monthly active WeChat users from 2nd quarter 2011 to 1st quarter 2020 (in millions)

Tencent’s active WeChat accounts have steadily increased. About 1.2 billion active monthly users from different ages were identified in Tencent WeChat in the first quarter of 2020.

Top 10 most popular countries for Chinese tourists during Chinese New Year

Thailand, Japan, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Singapore, Cambodia, Malaysia, the Philippines, the USA and Indonesia are the 10 most popular countries for the New Year. 65% of visitors prefer short trips to Japan and south-east Asia because of their small holidays.

Chinese OTA (Online Travel Agency) market in 2018

 

Trip.com or Ctrip as it was originally known, is one of the largest Online Travel Agencies in the world. Listing 1.2 million hotels in 200 countries, it has 400 million members, with its flight booking routes connecting over 5,000 cities. It has over 45,000 employees, and a turnover of USD 5.12 billion in 2019.

Net revenue of Ctrip.com International in China (in billion yuan)



Ctrip has also branded its mobile app trip.com as a move with over 1 billion downloads. Visitors will book and follow flights on the go with the Ctrip application. The trip.com app is available in Chinese, English and seven other languages, which is partly why travelers are so popular.

Chinese FIT Travellers

As the latest data from the China Tourism Academy and Ctrip show, 31% of China’s outbound population were young and well-educated, with a predominant 27 to 37 year-old age and 77% of FIT’s hold undergraduate or university degrees. As young people, they are also very technologically savvy, particularly this FIT group, who prefer to book trips using mobile phones. As they have strong digital literacy skills, mobile phones are a big planning tool before, during and after their travel. This was also the main reason why they were more likely to change their routes while traveling. According to the Chinese Tourism Academy (CTA), 43% of the Chinese FIT’s are most likely to plan to travel for 2 weeks and 26% most likely to do so for one month, because of their spontaneous decision making.

Chinese FIT outbound travel grew by 18.8% during 2019’s Chinese New Year holiday, compared to the equivalent holiday period in 2018.

Source: Forwardkeys

Mobile Search engine market share( 4Q 2018)

 

Number of online payment users in China from 2009 to March 2020

(in millions)

The mobile payment has been a regular practice in China for the past few years. According to a survey, the most common payment form used by 92 percent of Chinese city residents in 2018 was WeChat Pay and Alipay. In rural areas, the same phenomenon occurs: 47 percent of rural inhabitants in China use mobile payments regularly. The PBOC (People’s Bank of China), released by statistics early in 2020, indicates a 6.3-percent rise over the same period in 2018 in the amount of electronic payments processed by country’s banks. 62.1 billion electronic payments, including 30.7 billion mobile transactions, have been reported, reflecting a 73.6 percent annual increase.

Around 83% of all payments were made via mobile payment

Ali pay use by websites across the globe

Lessons from Japan’s popularity among Chinese tourists

Japan has been the favored destination for Chinese family trips for comfort and health reasons. One-third of those who applied for a Japanese visa through Ctrip were traveling with their families.

The visa application for Chinese tourists has been simplified further since January 2019. The second reason is transport convenience. In winter 2019, there were 1,406 daily flights between Japan and China in the winter and a 224 rise over the summer according to estimates by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transportation and Tourism. Chinese routes comprise 27 percent of Japan’s international flight routes. Chinese cities of the second and third-tier, including Nanjing, Xi’an, Hefei, Ningbo, Haikou, Daliano, Chongqing, have been opened to new routes from Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya and elsewhere.

Chinese tourists visiting Japan by age

Age groupAge Range
20 or below17%
21-3020%
31-4034%
41-5014
51-609%
60 or above6%

Conclusion

The continuous and rapid growth of the Chinese OTA industry simultaneously increases demand, allowing companies and countries to take advantage of this huge market. This especially applies to Asian countries, the leading region for most tourists in China. Clearly, enterprises who want to tap into this wide audience will benefit from a strong online presence. A well-conceived, Chinese-friendly online marketing campaign would therefore be crucial. Ctrip continues to dominate the OTA market while new entrants and existing competitors are certain to offer a fluid tourism industry the right opportunities.

Chinese tourists are very advanced with regard to technology and prefer electronic transactions as much as possible. Thus, it is vital that tourism marketers upgrade the various aspects of their products to seamless and paperless operations. These would include payment gateways, booking engines for all aspects including air tickets-hotel bookings-attractions, mobile applications and QR codes, and ewallet.

(Copyright Nicholas Ruwan Dias and Niresh Eliatamby)

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