Published on : Tuesday, February 5, 2019
Users in WeChat can now browse restaurants, shops and attractions which engage Chinese visitors, for instance by employing staff who speaks mandarin.
Ever since 2011, Chinese visitors to Scotland have grown by 316%.
The app divides Scotland into four regions and will illustrate two hundred businesses at first, although the software will permit for more to be added later.
It will be accommodated under VisitScotland’s account Scotland (Travel Scotland) on WeChat, which has over one billion active users every month.
The launch overlaps with Chinese New Year as VisitScotland identifies China as a “priority market” with an estimated international tourism spend of $257.7bn (£198bn)
Between 2009 and 2011, Chinese visitors to Scotland averaged at around 12,300 while between 2015 and 2017 the figure was 50,300 – an up of 316% approximately.
VisitBritain – the tourism body for the UK – forecasts Chinese visitor numbers all over the UK will grow by half over the coming five years.
In the meantime, Scotland increased its engagement with the Chinese market in 2018, including the first direct flight from China to Scotland, the biggest contingent of Chinese buyers participating in Scotland’s premier B2B travel trade event VisitScotland Expo, and the beginning of social media channels in China by VisitScotland.