By Renee Hartmann

As anyone who has visited a U.S. National Park this summer can attest – peak Chinese tourism season has arrived. With continued strong growth in Chinese tourism worldwide, the summer of 2016 will see more Chinese tourists traveling overseas than ever before.

Despite upticks in Chinese tourism numbers during Chinese New Year and the October National holiday, July and August will see the highest numbers of Chinese traveling overseas. Expectations are that summer 2016 will also see more Chinese individual travelers than ever before, as Chinese tourists increasingly venture out on their own, away from group tours and set itineraries.

Alex Li, of Chinese tour operator CAISSA, agreed that the FIT (Free & Independent Tourists) segment will drive future growth, commenting, “the mix of group travel and FIT is currently about 40% group and 60% FIT. The FIT market is only going to grow in the future.”

As the Chinese tourism market has grown, however, the makeup of the FIT segment has also shifted subtly, as Li indicates: “a majority of Chinese FIT falls into the semi-FIT category. Families, friends, colleagues, club members often travel together in a fully customized small group format. They have 100% control of their hotel, transportation and itinerary. We expect multi-generation family groups will lead the growth, and are also seeing increases in destination weddings, dating trips and other themed travel packages.”

As Chinese tourist characteristics and habits shift, we expect Chinese tourists to increasingly seek off the beaten track destinations, and for tourists to actively pursue in-depth authentic local experiences.

Carol Chen from Chinese Tour Operator Diadema explained, “group packages are increasingly segmented — often with a theme such as wine, private jet, cruise, shopping, hiking, scuba diving and adventure tours.”

The Brexit Effect

The U.K. may see an uptick in Chinese tourism this summer, as Chinese tourists demonstrate increasing interest in the U.K. following the Brexit vote, in an effort take advantage of the plummeting British pound to snap up Burberry Trench Coats and other luxury goods in the U.K.

Since Brexit, China has seen increased Internet searches for U.K. holidays and some local tour operators have reported increased bookings to the U.K., according to Shanghai Daily. Chinese media have also been publishing stories about how to take advantage of a weaker pound and suggesting Chinese consider investing in the real estate market in the U.K..

It remains to be seen whether Brexit signals a long-term trend for Chinese tourists, or simply a temporary bump. Uncertain visa policies in a post-Brexit Europe and complicated VAT policies and customs duty procedures may preclude Chinese tourism companies and tourists from adding the U.K. to their itinerary, or from maintaining a sustainable increase in Chinese tourism to the U.K..

Becoming China-Ready

When asked what recommendations she had for destinations to better attract and serve Chinese tourists, Carol Chen from Diadema advised overseas destinations to “develop unique, experience-driven products tailored to the interests of Chinese visitors. These products must be “China Ready,” meaning there are designed and developed specifically for the market.”

As Chinese customers increasingly travel independently and explore new destinations, it is important for destinations and retailers to continually upgrade their Chinese consumer strategies and tactics, and to ensure that they are not relying on outdated methods that ignore the rising number of experienced, young, individual travelers.

CLA recommends the following tactics for destinations to attract, convert and retain young, independent Chinese tourists.

Reaching Chinese Customers:

Create a Chinese website (optimized for mobile)
Audit your presence on Chinese travel forums
Establish a compelling, and interactive presence on Chinese social media platforms
Work with Chinese influencers in China and around the world
Don’t forget about the local Chinese media and community in your market
Tap into local Chinese community for Friends and Family recommendations
Work with Travel Trade to provide unique products and add-ons

Adapting Your Services for Chinese Customers:

Make sure to have Wi-Fi on-site
Create unique, educational products tailored for the market
Ensure on-site language support
Utilize WeChat to augment your in-store/at-destination customer experience, and to add customized services/amenities/information for Chinese customers
Invite FIT customers/students for a complimentary visit and gain valuable feedback and insights
Tailor services for a younger, more international audience
Don’t forget about multi-generational families and kids

Generating Repeat Visitors

Create a loyalty program for Chinese customers
Provide incentivizes for visitors to share content about your store on social media or recommend to a friend
Find creative ways to interact with consumers on-site and generate positive buzz and word of mouth
Provide opportunities for visitors to take photos and share
Monitor your travel forums and respond to questions
Create a CRM system on WeChat to stay in touch

For a full version of China Luxury Advisors’ recent interviews with Chinese tour operators download CLA latest intelligence briefing (http://www.chinaluxuryadvisors.com/download/752/)

Having already established itself as a major payments player within its home market, China’s dominant mobile platform, WeChat, has set its sights on global expansion, with a particular focus on payment solutions for globe-trotting outbound Chinese tourists.

Launched in 2014 to allow users to send digital “red envelopes” (worth small amounts of money) to friends during Chinese New Year, the use of WeChat Pay has grown exponentially over the past two years, with more than 8 billion digital red envelopes sent during Chinese New Year in 2016.

Having successfully rolled out these types of campaigns to incentivize its users to link their bank and credit card accounts to their WeChat accounts, WeChat Pay has built a robust business inside of China, allowing its users to pay for a host of goods and services. Aside from sending virtual red envelopes, WeChat Pay users can:

-Pay bills

-Hail and pay for taxis & car-sharing services

-Make offline payments at brick-and-mortar stores

-Pay medical fees

-Buy Fast food (e.g., McDonald’s)

-Make WeChat m-commerce purchases

WeChat recently announced that its WeChat Wallet service now supports transactions in nine currencies, including the Euro, US Dollar, Japanese Yen, New Zealand Dollar, Australian Dollar, Canadian Dollar and Great British Pound. This will allow overseas vendors to accept payments in their local currency, which are funded from Chinese citizens RMB accounts in China.

This allows for Chinese customers to spend money overseas without transferring money outside of China – a prospect that is getting more and more difficult for Chinese citizens as of late.

WeChat Pay has already been rolled out internationally in a number of Asian countries, and is going global at a rapid pace.

-In Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines, users can pay for taxis using WeChat Pay.

-WeChat Pay has been integrated into e-commerce apps such as Lazada and FoodPanda in Asia.

-Through collaboration with Naspers, WeChat rolled out its international payments solution in South Africa, allowing users to send and receive cash via WeChat Wallet, withdraw cash from ATM machines and pay any SnapScan merchant.

While we have not yet seen any vendors roll out this service in Europe, the United States, or Canada, we expect to see retailers, tourism destinations, hotels and cultural destinations begin to adopt WeChat Pay as an integral part of their payment solution for Chinese travelers in the near- to medium-term.

Retailers, destination attractions and hotels in Europe and the US are already leveraging WeChat’s robust and customizable functionality to engage Chinese outbound travelers, improve customer experience onsite, and develop sophisticated CRM solutions to communicate with Chinese travelers as they explore the world.

The ability to now accept payments will truly make WeChat the go-to app for engaging Chinese tourists worldwide.

As any brand or retailer well knows, young Chinese consumers are increasingly difficult to reach, motivate, and engage — particularly online. However, with the right approach and long-term view, true engagement with this sought-after demographic is still possible.

To strengthen its position as a “must-visit” for Europe-bound Chinese travelers, recently the Spanish department store El Corte Inglés celebrated Chinese New Year by hosting a group of four rising Chinese digital influencers in Madrid, showcasing the city (and Spain) as inspiring destinations for experience-hungry travelers.

El Corte Inglés shared an insider’s view of Madrid, highlighting locations that encompass the historical as well as the contemporary, from culinary and cultural highlights to the newest in Spanish fashion and style.

El Corte Inglés immersed the influencers — whose specialties spanned travel and fashion — in a four-day tour of the Spanish capital. The itinerary focused on “historical secrets” (a walking tour of the Madrid de los Austrias and Las Letras, photo shoots in the Salamanca district and at the Royal Palace, and a private visit to the atelier of luthier Felipe Conde) as well as glimpses of “modern Madrid” (a cocktail master class with Diego Cabrera, a private visit to the Reina Sofia Museum, fashion-walking tours of Tribal District, and a Real Madrid game).

The influencers stayed in two of the best hotels in Madrid, the Villamagna hotel and the Ritz by Mandarin Oriental, and enjoyed some of the country’s best culinary destinations. (Which included 175 year-old L’Hardys; two-Michelin-star chef Paco Roncero’s restaurant Domo in NH Eurobuilding; Gourmet Experience Callao by El Corte Inglés; and Ramon Freixa’s two-Michelin-starred restaurant at the Unico Hotel.)

As one of the influencers, Jinpeng Zhang, a popular travel blogger and author of five books on independent travel, commented, “This is my third trip to Madrid, and this experience curated by El Corte Inglés allowed me to see a whole new side of [the city] that I never even knew existed. I am so impressed with the food, culture and history that Madrid has to offer Chinese visitors.”

In addition to the cultural immersion, El Corte Inglés showcased Spanish fashion, hosting a styling, make-up, and photo session at the Royal Palace of Madrid, and an introduction to Spanish style trends hosted by ECI’s Director of Fashion. El Corte Inglés officially inaugurated the start of Chinese New Year with a reception at its Castellana flagship store, with attendees that included the Chinese Ambassador to Spain.

Popular fashion and travel columnist and photographer Mok, one of the four influencers, said, “Spanish people are known for their love for life, which is evident through their passion for arts, culture and food. Such passion is so contagious that you feel it at every street corner in Madrid, and in every conversation you have with a local.”

As a follow up to the tour, El Corte Inglés launched a photo competition, “Madrid Moments,” to further engage audiences on Weibo and WeChat. The contest features photos taken by the influencers on the recent Madrid tour, which fans can vote on for a chance to win gourmet Spanish food products.

The influencer tour was one of several online and offline initiatives launched by El Corte Inglés to celebrate Chinese New Year 2016, a tradition the retailer has followed for several years. In-store, ECI is honoring Chinese New Year with special luxury brand promotions and offers, as well as a luxurious floral decorations and a three-meter wishing tree (where customers can share their wishes for the Year of the Monkey). Online, the retailer has also launched a “digital wishing tree” to engage fans on China’s dominant mobile social platform, WeChat.

To date, ECI’s Chinese New Year engagement efforts have paid off, with the company’s official Weibo and WeChat fan bases already nearly doubling, even as the campaign continues.

One key takeaway, particularly for companies with locations exclusively outside of China: taking a more tailored, nuanced, and long-term approach to the market will always come across as more authentic than “one-shot” attempts to drive buzz.

Officially kicking off on February 8, Chinese New Year is just around the corner. Generally considered China’s most important holiday, Chinese New Year marks a time when friends and family come together to celebrate and start a fresh new year.

2016 is the Year of the Monkey – the “Red Fire Monkey,” to be exact. In Chinese culture, monkeys are considered very clever and smart, and the red fire monkey is particularly strong and dominant, filled with passion and force. Lucky colors in the red fire monkey year are gold and blue, lucky numbers are 1, 7 and 8, and lucky flowers are chrysanthemums and alliums.

China has declared a national holiday this year from February 7-13, which paves the way for the massive travel that corresponds to Chinese New Year, known as the 40-day Chunyunperiod. This is also the largest human migration in the world, with more than 3.7 billion trips made during the Chunyun period in 2015.

In recent years, Chinese New Year has been a time for a rapidly growing number of Chinese citizens to travel abroad, as more seek to take advantage of easier tourist visas and — perhaps more importantly — escape the crowds at home. Accordingly, more retailers, brands, tourist destinations, and cities have ramped up their Chinese New Year efforts worldwide to cater to this important traveling demographic.

Chinese New Year-Themed Products

Over the past decade, we’ve seen a growing number of luxury brands release limited-edition Chinese New Year-themed products — often to mixed reception. This year is no exception, with brands such as Louis Vuitton, Prada, Kate Spade, Ferragamo, Tory Burch, Dior, Paul Frank, Rebecca Minkoff, UGG, Harry Winston, Armani, Godiva and many more releasing their own monkey-themed collections. (Here’s a useful round-up of Year of the Monkey products by Chinese blogger Mr. Bags.)

Overseas Promotions and Celebrations

The number and scale of Chinese New Year promotions and celebrations taking place outside of the Chinese mainland continues to grow exponentially.

Leading department stores and shopping centers worldwide, such as Bergdorf Goodman,Bloomingdales, and Harrods, have launched special Chinese New Year promotions, Chinese New Year-themed window displays, limited-edition products, themed entertainment, and other unique activations.

In 2015, the Beverly Center in Los Angeles hosted the popular NBA star, Jeremy Lin, to place a wish on their Lunar New Year Wishing tree, while Madrid-based El Corte Inglés invited Chinese actress Liu Yun to launch a jointly developed limited-edition jewelry line.

Perhaps the most elaborate Chinese New Year celebrations outside of China take place in Las Vegas, which has long been aware of the power of the Chinese New Year holiday. Every major casino features large-scale Chinese new year decorations, special menus, promotions and live performances.

We are also seeing more entertainment-focused efforts to celebrate Chinese New Year, with the NBA recently releasing a fun video starring Jeremy Lin, James Harden and Steph Curry, as well as Chinese team favorites the Houston Rockets, Golden State Warriors, and Washington Wizards hosting area events for the occasion and wearing uniforms featuring their teams’ names in Chinese.

Chinese New Year Do’s and Don’t’s

As brands, destinations, and retailers seek to adapt their own Chinese New Year marketing and activations, it’s important to keep these basic do’s and don’ts in mind:

Chinese New Year Do’s:

• Create an opportunity to connect with both local and overseas Chinese
• Honor Chinese culture and Chinese New Year traditions
• Look for compelling reasons for Chinese customers to engage with your experience
• Seek to break through the increasingly cluttered Chinese New Year season
• Find ways to add your own unique twist to Chinese New Year and share your brand values and local flavor
• Use plenty of red and gold
• Use numbers with 8 in them for luck
• Provide gifts to valued partners and customers
• Seek local partners to enhance your offering
• Ask for help for translation and cultural sensitivities

Chinese New Year Don’ts:

• Don’t use white (symbol of death)
• Don’t use 4s
• Don’t use red writing
• Don’t exclude other customers or nationalities
• Don’t forget that Chinese New Year is just one travel window in the year – summer is actually the highest volume for travel!

Last week, the Alibaba-owned Chinese online travel platform Alitrip held its first promotional event in the US in Los Angeles. The event, “Attracting China’s 1.3 Billion Travelers,” was launched to promote Alitrip as the go-to partner for US travel agencies and suppliers interested in the fast-growing Chinese outbound tourism market.

The event featured keynote speakers including Roger Dow, President and CEO of the US Travel Association, and attracted more than 100 representatives from hotels, attractions, and destination marketing organizations (DMOs) from California and neighboring states.

Formerly known as Taobao Travel, Alitrip was spun off from Taobao as an independent brand in October 2014. Backed by an early adopter base from Alibaba’s ubiquitous payment solution Alipay, Alitrip managed to secure 100 million users within just three years, siphoning market share long occupied by competitors like Ctrip and Qunar.

Previously, Alitrip’s growth had mostly been focused on domestic airline ticket and hotel sales. However, the company has recently built direct partnership with international destinations and suppliers. Earlier this month, Alitrip announced an agreement with the Singapore Tourism Board and several local receptive agencies to provide destination guides and exclusive offers through the Alitrip platform.

Despite concerns over its devalued currency and sluggish economy, China continues to impress the world with its tourist exports. According to a recent study by British research firm GfK, 109 million Chinese travelers ventured abroad in 2015, collectively spending some $229 billion on overseas retail purchases.

The US in particular has seen a surge in Chinese visitation, with 2.5 million tourist visa applications (a rise of 52.6 percent YoY) filed since the end of 2014, when the US extended their validity to 10 years for Chinese citizens. In the first half of 2015 alone, 1.2 million mainland Chinese visited the US, an increase of more than 18 percent over the year before.

According to Sherri Wu, Alitrip’s Chief Strategy Officer, the event in Los Angeles marked an important step for the company’s strategic growth in the US, a top priority market. Alitrip’s efforts to build relationships with US destinations and suppliers are not only motivated by the growing number of Chinese visitors, but also by the rapid demographic change of the country’s travelers.

The future growth from Chinese outbound tourism will be led by an entirely new generation of free independent travelers (FIT), who are in search of novel experiences rather than a laundry list of the usual attractions.

“What [FITs are] looking for today is extreme experiences, such as skydiving, bungee jumping, and other outdoor travel,” Alitrip’s Sherri Wu told CLA last week. “Those customers can’t find these products easily in the Chinese market.”

Alitrip plans to launch a dedicated destination page for the US, where DMOs, attractions, and suppliers can work directly with Alitrip to provide unique itineraries and tips to Alitrip customers. This could give Alitrip a leg up on competitors like Ctrip, Qunar, and Qyer, which still heavily rely on user-generated content (UGC) to educate customers.

In addition to being thrill-seekers, the new generation of Chinese visitors is also young, affluent, and tech-savvy. Some data has shown that this group accounts for 75 percent of China’s FIT market and 73 percent of its luxury market. Looking to tap this tech-loving demographic, Alitrip announced plans to expand its “Park of the Future” and “Post-Post Pay” services.

The “Park of the Future” concept lets theme park or zoo visitors buy tickets, pay for merchandise, navigate around the park, and access exclusive offers on their mobile devices, all integrated into the Alitrip platform.

“Post-Post Pay” is a hotel booking solution — powered by Alipay and Sesame Credit — which lets hotel guests who booked through Alitrip check in with a quick scan of their mobile devices and pay after they leave, without waiting in line or submitting payment info to the hotel.

Some industry leaders are already testing the waters with Alitrip. Last November, Marriott International – now the largest hotel chain in the world – announced plans to launch a flagship store on Alitrip and explore the “Post-Post Pay” feature at some of its properties.

Whether these strategies will help Alitrip outpace Ctrip and Qunar (which merged last year) remains unknown. But it is clear that companies who hope to win the lion’s share of the China market must take the effort to understand fast-changing consumer demographics and adapt business strategy accordingly.