During Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to the United States last month, he and U.S. President Barack Obama announced their two countries would launch a "China-U.S. Year of Tourism" in 2016. Los Angeles, already a primary destination for Chinese tourists, is going all out to increase the number of visitors from the city's largest overseas travel market.
The head of the Los Angeles Tourism and Convention Board (LA Tourism) led a delegation to China for a tourism campaign called China Mission, touring from Guangzhou, to Shanghai and Beijing from Oct 11-17.
Ernest Wooden, the president and CEO of LA Tourism, said China, like Europe, has many markets and needs to be approached differently.
"The buying habits and interests of travelers from the three cities are very different," he said. "Visitors from Beijing are more traditional and they prefer to go in groups. Shanghai is a very international city. A little bit more is going to Los Angeles for the second, or the third time, while Guangzhou may be the first time."
Wooden said there are differences between first-time visitors and seasoned visitors. "Typically, first-time visitors want to do all the things they see on movies and series on TV and visit those the must-sees and take Chinese food, while those who visited LA more than once, we found they want to learn how we live in LA, to understand the art and culture of the city, such as the fashion scenes, theaters, and museums. They are more ambitious about the food. They want to try food tracks, grazing from one to one."
When it comes to a tourists from China's tertiary market, they will be different, Wooden said. "Those tertiary cities have more than 20 million people, a big market. We are expecting to see more and more first-time visitors to the U.S.. We are seeing what we can do with itineraries."
Los Angeles has an average of 17,000 seats aboard 54 non-stop weekly flights from China. according to LA Tourism. The board has offices in Beijing and Shanghai, and on Oct 12 it opened an office in Guangzhou because Los Angeles gets more arriving flights from that city.
The Los Angeles tourism delegation to China also included representatives of duty-free shops and top hotels to see and understand firsthand what the Chinese interests are and what they want in Los Angeles.
"Chinese travelers are relatively new international travelers, compared with older travelers, and they are different from other international travelers," Wooden said, citing examples of Chinese not liking ice in a glass of water and liking beer that is room temperature.
"They are generally not sophisticated yet, but will be over time. More and more FIT travelers are doing their own itineraries, which makes them more open to new ideas and things," he said.
As people have started to do more research on their trips, LA Tourism is using WeChat, and its Chinese specific website HelloLA.cn to advertise specials.
Wooden started using WeChat three years ago, and he said trade delegation members signed up for the APP before they arrived in China.
"We talk back and forth in the group on the APP," Wooden said. "More importantly, WeChat is a much stronger commercial platform than facebook or anything like that. It has a massive database of users and their interests in places like Los Angeles. We are looking for ways to work with WeChat to develop an APP on the platform."
He said that although LA has a reputation that people need cars to travel, the city is investing in infrastructure to make public transportation more convenient.
According to LA Tourism, a record 44.2 million people visited Los Angeles in 2014, 4.8 percent more than in 2013.
"I just read today there are more people in middle-class in China," said Wooden. " It is very important, because it means the market is ripe for travel and more people can afford long-haul travels. I am very positive about the market."
