What are Chinese tourists looking for today? Foreign Service providers pick up the use of WeChat and Alipay to attract Chinese tourists

Ms G

The other day, my mom was telling me about her travel plans for the soon-to-come Labour Day. To my surprise, her decision was a pottery-making workshop in a nearby town.

She was looking forward to making her own drinking cup and parading it to her friends on WeChat. Thinking back to other holidays she treated herself to most recently, a spa in the forest, watching sunset at a newly opened amusement park, and a lantern festival spiced up with cultural shows and the fact that she made all her plans online, I realise something is changing about the Chinese tourists.

At the turn of the millennium, when twenty years of economic reforms were finally making a real difference in the country, the Chinese began to allow themselves the luxury of traveling.

In the decades since, dominating the choice of Chinese outbound tourists have been popular destinations such as the United States, UK, South Korea, and Japan. A road trip from the US west coast to the east was once a must-try for the new middle-class Chinese travellers. And no trip was complete without a stop at the big brand shops.

Today, these happy holiday-goers are looking for something else.

Lesser known destinations

Europe and the US have become a banal choice; the Big Ben and the Statue of Liberty are no longer exciting landmarks, but a sight as familiar as the Tiananmen Square or Great Wall in Beijing.

These days, the Chinese are more in search of adventures and unique experiences. Destinations like Iran, Georgia, the Laos, Bolivia, Madagascar are being recommended and explored; they are seen as the choice of the more experienced travellers, a reflection of better taste. In Chinese, destinations like these are described as “xiaozhong”, which can be literally translated as “small crowd”.

Experience instead of products

While big Western consumer brands remain competitive in China, they are no longer only accessible on the shelves of Western malls.

Chinese e-commerce giants now offer them in their virtual shops just one click away for the Chinese customers.

The popularity of Chinese brands are surging as well. From clothing to home appliances to cosmetics, Chinese customers are finding the home brands more trustworthy and suitable. Chinese celebrities and social media influencers are also vigorously promoting domestic products.

Buying Chinese has become fashionable. So the Chinese travellers are looking to get something different from their trips overseas, primarily a unique experience, especially cultural ones. Many tourists shared their experience of learning to prepare

Thai food in Thailand, a late night visit to a zoo, and concocting their own fragrance.

More silver-haired travellers

With a longer life expectancy, better health conditions, and better living standards, the retired find themselves blessed with both money and free time to spend. This is a generation who worked real hard in their youthful days, as China experienced food shortages and serious economic difficulties before the 1970s.

Making good use of the leisure now to see the world is particularly important and urgent to them. A recent survey by the National Committee on Aging shows that the number of elderly tourists in China accounted for more than 20 percent of the total number of tourists in the country. My mom has joined many more travel groups than I have ever done.

It’s all online

It seems now almost everyone in China is organising their life on WeChat, which has more than 1,2 billion users registered. From obtaining information to making arrangements to eventually going on a trip, it is all done online.

Travel agencies would run ads on Wechat. Interested users would sign up online and read up “strategies” shared by those who have been there before to learn about what is worth doing and what pitfalls to avoid.

When a trip begins, it also begins virtually. Travellers would share real time what they are seeing and eating and how they feel about the destinations and services.

And they LOVE paying from their WeChat and Alipay accounts. Days are long gone when Chinese tourists would carry loads of cash with them.

This is why Chinese tourists look for Wi-Fi connections wherever they go. When exotic dishes are served to a group of Chinese travellers, you will see first the move they make is not to dive into the food, but to take out their smart phones, take a good picture or short video and post it on WeChat for thumb-ups.

After a trip, some would also write in great detail customer reviews. So having a good reputation online is essential in China.

To most Chinese, Zimbabwe is an unknown, exotic destination.

Having a good time here would be much more interesting a topic of conversation than a trip to South Africa, which is no longer mysterious to the well travelled Chinese middle-class.

Zimbabwe should make good use of its “small crowd” advantage to lure more Chinese tourists. The first thing to do is perhaps to refine the traveling experience and increase its WeChat footprint.

You Might Also Like

Comments

Take our Survey

We value your opinion! Take a moment to complete our survey