The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
City tourism body in great call to China
Marketing: New drive to attract visitors to delights of north-east
Thenorth-east will reap the rewards of an influx of Chinese visitors if a new marketing drive by VisitAberdeen succeeds.
SteveHarris, the tourism body’s chief executive, hopes to lure some of China’s wealthier citizens to the region with an offer of magnificent castles, fine whiskies and stunning golf courses, not to mention the chance to learn a little bit of Doric.
VisitAberdeen is launching a new website aimed at Chinese tourists looking to travel overseas, while the organisation also plans to take part in key tourism events in the Far East.
Mr Harris said: “China boasts the largest outbound tourism market and is the highest spender on overseas travel, contributing around £78billion to the global industry – 50% higher than that of the US.
“This willingness to travel and explore overseas, coupled with a cultural love of golf, whisky and history, makes Aberdeen the perfect destination forChinese tourists.
“With 60 golf courses within an hour of the city, some of the world’s most famous whisky brands, including The Glenlivet and Royal Lochnagar, and a number of the finest castles in Scotland, Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire have a lot to offer Chinese tourists.”
VisitAberdeen is targeting 638million Chinese internet users, especially those making nearly £14billion-worth of travel bookings online every year.
MrHarris said:“We have been working with the China BusinessNetwork to create a newwebsite which will be hosted on the China Wide Web (Chinese online information service).
“This has involved the translation of a large portion of the VisitAberdeen website, which will provide useful information to those wishing to travel from China to Aberdeen.
“This year, 110million Chinese tourists travelled overseas and it is predicted that inthe next 15 years this will increase to 500million.
“Through the introduction of our newwebsite, we will reach out to those travellers and show them all that Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire has to offer.
“We are also working to produceChinese brochures and literature that will be distributed throughout the country.”
VisitAberdeen will be represented by the CBN at the China International Travel Mart, taking place this Friday to Sunday.
Next year, the region’s attractions will be promoted at two other big trade shows – the China Outbound Travel and Tourism Market event and the Incentive Travel and Conventions, Meetings China exhibition – and possibly other major expos in order to “reach out to tourism operators to show them the value of Aberdeen as a tourism destination”.
VisitAberdeen, launched in 2012, is a partnership between Aberdeen City Council, Aberdeen City and Shire Hotels Association and business organisation Aberdeen Inspired.