The recently concluded CXSRITE festival in Xi’an attracted participation from a number of tourism boards across Asia who are focussing on the Chinese travellers. We spoke with representatives from participating countries to understand their strategy for the China market.

Cambodia Tourism’s Strategy for China

Cambodia is very rich in culture and nature. We have a lot of cultural heritage in the form of Angkor Wat and temples. In addition, we are rich in nature and have lot of beaches, mountains and wildlife in Cambodia. We have lot of tourism products that are built for Chinese tourists. In addition, our government policy is very open and inviting. We welcome all tourists around the world irrespective for religion, cast or color.

On Digital

We have worked with CITS (a big tourist company in China with head office in Beijing). We have got the Cambodia tourism website built in Chinese with CITS. In addition, we are almost about to launch the mobile app for Chinese tourists planning to visit Cambodia. We wish to also use platforms like WeChat and Meilishuo in China for attracting Chinese tourist as much as possible.

As per recent reports, Cambodia is expected to attract nearly 1 million Chinese tourists this year and up to 2 millions in 2020, tourism minister Thong Khon.

Sok Sinarith (Deputy Director Marketing & Promotion Department)

Views from Sri Lanka Tourism Board

To tap Chinese market is the primary focus of any destination. The Chinese tourists are rising in Nepal and we are finding more and more places in China to increase that number. China is the second largest market for us after India. China is an emerging market for us with a growth rate of 70%-80% every year. Last year 2,14,000 Chinese tourists came to Sri Lanka. We have a lot of direct flights from the major cities in China and we are continuously trying to increase the numbers to promote our country in the Chinese market.

On digital

Sri Lanka Tourism is very much focusing on leading websites here in China. We are aware that we need to keep up with the technology and digital trends and we are internally trying to strengthen ourselves in this domain to keep up with the digital trends. In China, everything is online and the trend towards online marketing continuous to grow. There is no doubt that we have to adapt to online medium of marketing. We use channels like weChat and weibo to keep up to the Chinese trend. In addition, we do lot of banner ads with our partners here in China.

Chinthaka Liyanaarachchi (Assistant Director), Sri Lanka Tourism

Insights from Tourism Malaysia

Last year we got 1.62 million from travelers from China to Malaysia and this year we are targeting 2 million travelers from the country. China is a very big market as far as tourists are concerned. We have direct flights started by Air Asia to Kuala Lumpur which has a frequency of 4 times a week. Malaysia does not have a Chinese language problem. Lot of population in Malaysia are Chinese.

Malaysia has a variety of food and Chinese food is easily available in Malaysia. Even on chartered flights, Chinese food is available.Tourism Malaysia has over 40 overseas offices. Each office has yearly market online strategy for their target market. We are targeting youth in different markets and they are mostly available on digital media. In China specially we use WeChat and Weibo because of other social media channels being blocked. The way a tourist travels has changed with the emergence of digital media. Now lot of people are also travelling solo/with families instead of groups. Tourism Malaysia has an official website that is especially available in Chinese language. In addition, every year, we invite famous bloggers/travelers from different destinations to visit our country as a part of digital media strategy.

Lisa Ning, Marketing Manager, Tourism Malaysia

Excerpts from our conversation with Tourism Board representatives at the Xi’an Silk Road International Tourism Expo 2016, the three-day tourism exhibition held at Qujiang International Convention and Exhibition Centre in Xi’an from 26 to 28 August 2016.

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WTM Connect Asia had opened last week with its inaugural conference being held in Penang. The event lasted for two days from 18-20 May 2016. It hosted buyers from China, SouthEast Asia, and the rest of the world while they met, networked, and had meetings with various exhibitors.

The WTM Portfolio launched a 1-2-1 ratio pod format to facilitate business in South-east Asian leisure travel market. The event was proved to be different from traditional format, proved to be successful amongst attendees with a very sober and effective set up for quality appointment schedules.

More than 1800 meetings took place in the course of two days, and potential buyers and suppliers met for 20-minute meetings and networked during breaks and evening dinners.

Shangri-La Rasa Sayang Resort and Spa was a stunning location for a beach gala dinner on Thursday 19 May. Exhibitors included: Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board, Ministry of Tourism Indonesia, Philippines Tourism Promotions Board, Penang Global Tourism, Kuala Lumpur Tourism Bureau, Visit Berlin, Jac Travel, Inner Maldives, Eskimos Iceland, Cox & Kings (India), Westfield, Travellanda, C Hotels, Discovery Overland Holidays Sdn Bhd, Marriot Vacation Club International, Banyan Tree Vabbinfaru and many more.

The pod concept was very much appreciated as it helped people to focus on their own meetings with the exhibitors. There were buyers from 25 countries that attended the show. They included: Antavaya, Beijing Luxtrip Holding Ltd, Caissa, Cathay Pacific Holidays, Gate 1 Travel, Interpark, Mayflower Holidays Sdn Bhd, Novatours Group and Uthing Travel.

The event generated a huge ROI as WTM Connect Asia brought buyers and exhibitors from leisure travel space in an exclusive setting. WTM Connect Asia procured a huge round of applause from the Ministry of Tourism and Culture Malaysia, Malaysia Convention & Exhibition Bureau, Tourism Malaysia and Penang Global Tourism both pre-show and onsite with over 20 VIPs in attendance.

Speaking on behalf of Penang Global Tourism, Ooi Chok Yan, CEO commented:

“Congratulations to Reed Exhibitions for successfully organising the first WTM Connect Asia here in Penang, Malaysia which is off to a good start and we’re very much looking forward to its continuity. The WTM branding has enhanced Penang’s status as a destination and this undeniably supports Penang to host more extensive and complex events”.

The inaugural WTM Asia had successfully concluded as it has contributed greatly in propelling the Asian travel market.  Throughout these three days, the event provided a great platform for Malaysian and international sellers to showcase their products, network with international hosted buyers and explore potential partnerships and business opportunities.

Source: eturbonews

The post WTM Connect Asia 2016 concludes and leisure travel market dawns in APAC appeared first on TravHQ.

Do you live in Malaysia? Did you recently travel to the country? Are you planning to do that soon? If the answer is yes for any of these questions, you can take part in the #BeautifulMalaysia photo contest recently introduced by Tourism Malaysia. They are inviting people to share their Malaysia moments over Instagram or upload them to their website and they will pick a winner every week. The contest will run for 12 weeks starting from 15^th June till 20^th September.

Tourism Malaysia is strongly trying to promote the country as a prominent tourist destination. They have lined up various carnivals and events with multiple partners for this year. The #BeautifulMalaysia photo contest is open to people all over the world and with the hashtag being used throughout the campaign over social media platforms, it is sure to generate some buzz. This in turn will help promote multiple Malaysian destinations.

Participants are sharing some really beautiful pictures for the contest

You will have to submit your photos that capture the beauty of Malaysia in any of the following categories- places, festivals, food or shopping. To participate through Instagram, you will have to post the photos with #BeautifulMalaysia hashtag, a nice caption and tag malaysia.truly.asia. It goes without saying that the photos should be relevant to one of the categories. If you don’t use Instagram, you can participate through the website. The entries will be judged on the basis of creativity of the photograph, caption and its relevance to the category. The prizes include Canon EOS 100D DSLR, iPad Air 2, Oppo R5 mobile phone and GoPro Hero 4. There will be a different prize for each week so you can consider spreading out your entries across multiple weeks.

Apart from the photo contest, they will also introduce #BeautifulMalaysia postcards that will be distributed at selected airports across the country. The winning photos from the contest will be displayed on these postcards once the campaign comes to an end.

The campaign is working well for them and has already generated good amount of activity around the hashtag. The last time we checked, there were over 7K photos on Instagram with the hashtag #BeautifulMalaysia and on Twitter, the posts with the same hashtag generated over 180K impressions (Source: Tweetreach). This campaign is a good initiative by Tourism Malaysia and other destination marketers can also do something similar to promote the destination. You can browse the photos shared over instagram by following #BeautifulMalaysia.

So what are you waiting for? Pick your best Malaysia moments pictures and start posting.

(Featured image: Image by martin.coppola)

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