Founder of Curiosity China. Digital & Tech Company focusing on Social CRM & Chinese digital platforms such WeChat. Operate in Beijing, Shanghai, HK and Paris.

Oct 10, 2016

China Golden Week: What we need to know

Yesterday, Tencent revealed some travel statistics from the golden week holiday on one of their official accounts (tencent_blackboard), acquired from the 800+ million users of WeChat. The information was obtained from the Moment shares from these users.

The United States of America, Hong Kong and Japan had the most tourists from China and the top 3 cashless travel destinations are: South Korea, Hong Kong, and Japan

WeChat is the window to seeing the world. The Moments updates by friends in your contact list allow one to travel the world without actually leaving the country.

Here some key statistics related to WeChat & Chinese Travelers:

*Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou are the cities that had the most outbound travellers*

*Hong Kong, Taiwan and Tokyo had the highest number of tourists during the golden week*

The United States of America, Hong Kong and Japan had the most tourists from China. Perhaps Brexit had a part to play in bringing England to the 7th place, as the weak pound lured Chinese tourists to visit for luxury goods shopping.

We also see that the top 3 cashless travel destinations are: South Korea, Hong Kong, and Japan. Perhaps it is not coincidental that these locations are amongst the top few regions that most Chinese tourists go to during the golden week.

Integrating cashless payments methods such as Alipay or WeChat pay into the purchasing process is a good way to encourage Chinese travellers to consume. Certain countries, such as South Korea, has enabled tax refunds to be refunded through the Alipay accounts, making the entire process even more simple and fuss-free for the Chinese travellers.

The most popular places of interest outside of China included mostly shopping havens in South Korea, such as Myeongdong — famed for Korean cosmetics shopping, Lotte Department Store, Lotte Duty Free, Shilla Duty Free, and Shinsegae Department Store.

From this report, we can see that the golden week holidays is a great opportunity for overseas brands and businesses. Making use of WeChat, an integrated platform that is present in almost every aspect of the life of a Chinese, is an efficient and effective way to reach out to Chinese travellers. After Chinese travellers pay with WeChat Pay, they automatically follow the official account associated to the brand, which means that the user can receive updates and promotion details straight to their phone.

This gives international brands the opportunity to track sales with digital content, reach out to Chinese consumers, and receive information about these Chinese travellers, which would help the brand appeal to their audience better, achieving better sales overall.

Given that the database of WeChat users is growing, WeChat Pay going global is an exciting trend to behold, as the possibilities it can bring are endless.