Tap into local Chinese community to win tourism, marketers urged
Travel marketers would reap benefits from targeting the local Chinese community, a panel of directors have told the audience at Mumbrella’s Travel Marketing Summit.
Andrea Plawutsky, director of consultancy AmplifyMe, said businesses and marketers should remember how much of an influence family and friends already living locally have on potential visitors.
Yu, Plawutsky and Granfield: Tap into the local community
“The other influencers we always need to not forget is the friends and families,” she said.
“They’ll actually be the litmus test on ‘should I go here or should I go there?’
“Never underestimate the local Chinese market in terms of being aware of your brand and marketing to them as well, because without their tick of approval or their support, you could be on the itinerary and you could find you come off the itinerary. ITtheir recommendation comes with a level of value and credibility,” Plawutsky told the audience on Thursday.
The co-founder and director of ReadySetGo, Yin Yu, agreed, urging businesses to start targeting the local Chinese community because it will help them understand the particular demographic.
“I would go as far as suggesting some of the businesses, particularly the businesses who deal with China for the first time, to start with the local Chinese community, that is a great market in itself, there’s about one million Chinese living in Australia to start with and secondly it is much easier to target more confined audiences, it’s less crowded.
“Thirdly, it’s really great research for you in terms of understanding this particular demographic.”
She added: “You see there is lots of movement, lots of agencies and media, who are in Australia and are run entirely by Chinese and for the Chinese community. There is huge opportunity for businesses there.”
Discussing what those travelling from China to Australia are interested in experiencing, the executive director and general manager of Brisbane Marketing, Matt Granfield said it was “beaches, food and wine and wildlife”.
“No Australian city on the coast has a monopoly on any of those three things wherever you are, unless you are in the centre, you’ve got beaches, you’ve got wildlife, you’ve got food and wine so just because you are not in the Barossa or the Hunter doesn’t mean you can’t give people from China a great food or wine experience.
“What we found is Chinese tourists don’t necessarily know the big differences between Sydney and Melbourne and Hobart and Adelaide, they’re coming for their Australian holiday and they are coming for a western holiday.
“They are not just wanting to experience Australia, they want to see Australian wildlife and beaches but they don’t get out of China that often and they are coming to see the western world so if you are a city or a large town in Australia, that’s a unique urban western experience for them.
“Chinese tourists want to come and see Australia and they are happy going to all different parts of Australia.”
Abigail Dawson was Mumbrella's senior content journalist covering event content. She left Mumbrella to move into an agency role in 2020.
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Well said Abigail! Many people don’t know that there are 1 million Chinese studying, working and living in Australia, which is no small number. With the rise of China, this is what I have coined The Wild East of Chinese digital marketing. I am seeing this first hand as me and my team have been experiencing a large influx of enquiries regarding interest in Chinese digital marketing from Aussie businesses small and big. So far the most demanded service of all is the WeChat business account setup, and we have cracked the code on this one because we can now allow the ability for Aussie companies to receive payment from 1.3 billion Chinese…!
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We would like to look into advertising our, one of its kind indoor shooting range to the Chinese community. We own and operate a very safe environment, South of Adelaide for un-licenced people to come and shoot at our indoor shooting range, with real guns and ammo but the option of static or moving targets. We currently advertise on Trip advisor and other sites. But what would be the best way to advertise this to the Chinese community in Adelaide?
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