Dubai, the new favorite “Shopping” destination for Chinese!

Chinese tourists in Dubai’s current facts

Chinese outbound tourism is the biggest market in the world and is expected to double by 2020. The traditional and most famous destinations for Chinese tourists are neighboring countries such as South Korea, Japan, Asian countries (Thailand, Indonesia), and European countries or the US.

According to Helal Almarri, Director of Dubai’s tourism department, Dubai ranks fourth among the most visited cities in the world in 2015. Dubai is a city-state located in the UAE. It has more than 2.3 million inhabitants. According to Xinhua, 14.2 million foreign tourists visited the country last year, which is a 7.5% growth year-on-year. Among them, 450,000 Chinese tourists visited Dubai, which is a 29% increase compared to 2014.

Faced with this situation, Emirates Airline, Dubai’s airline, which already has daily flights to China, has decided to increase its number of flights this month between Dubai and Yinchuan (Northwest China) and Zhengzhou stated China Daily. Dubai’s Tourism department created an effective strategy to attract Chinese tourists. The Dubai Expo 2020 is a huge opportunity for the city-state to attract even more tourists. The government expects at least 25 million visitors.

But how did Dubai attract such an important amount of Chinese travelers?

According to Khaleej Times, Dubai Tourism (the Department of Tourism of Dubai’s government) decided to partner up with UnionPay International and Tuniu, a major Chinese online travel agency. Tuniu ranks second with a 15% market share in the Chinese online travel agency market.

Issam Kazim, CEO of Dubai Tourism, declared during this interview: ”We strive to continue our work with strategic partners such as UnionPay and Tuniu to promote the full spectrum of Dubai’s tourism offering to a diverse range of Chinese tourists.”

The partnership with Tuniu will allow Dubai to attract more Chinese visitors by being more visible online. With more than 660 million Internet users in China, having an online presence is a must. Tuniu will offer a range of Dubai hotel offers particularly luxurious hotels.

Go digital …

According to the hotels.com 2014 report, about 3 out of 10 Chinese tourists search for information while planning their trip online. According to ctcnn.com, The OTA (Online travel agency market) is also growing fast with a revenue of $US11.25 billion in 2015. If a city or a nation wants to attract more Chinese tourists it must go digital and build a partnership with local major players.

Chinese should find you “easily”

Another way to attract more visitors when they are looking for information is by having an optimized SEO website. In fact, where is the first place to search for information on the web? Search engines, of course. Baidu, with about 80% of the market share in China, is the most used search engine in China. Ranking among the first in some specific keywords will help in getting more traffic, thus potential Chinese customers.

Build a strong e-reputation

Finally, word-of-mouth is important in China. Chinese people strongly value the opinions of their peers, and family but also online communities. It is also necessary to build a positive, strong e-reputation via good community management practices on the main Chinese social media (WeChat and Weibo) as well as doing some online PR in specialized magazines or forums.

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further readings : 

• Best Platforms to Attract Chinese Tourists
• Kenya welcomes Chinese tourists with open arms
• 5 new trends in Chinese tourists
• Read our article on LinkedIn or on this LinkedIn page
• 101 marketing Tips 
• Asia Tourism is going Digital 

The Malaysian Tourism strategy to attract more Chinese tourists:   China has the biggest outbound tourism mar… https://t.co/QxVm5swQGy

— Olivier VEROT (@Olivierverot) 17 mai 2016