Tourism suppliers are focusing their marketing efforts on a growing new breed of technologically savvy millennial travellers from China, by catering to their needs and making it convenient for them to book and pay on the go, and to experience travel in unique ways.
Sharing their experiences during a panel discussion during ITB China last week were senior representatives from Finnair, Genting Cruise Lines and Maritim Hotels.
Panellists (from left) Genting Cruise Lines’ Li; European Travel Commission’s Frantisek Reismuller; Finpro’s Paavo Virkkunen; Finnair’s Öhrnberg; and Maritim Hotels’s Duan
Robert Ohrnberg, Finnair’s general manager for Greater China, said the company uses virtual reality (VR) to promote Finland, allowing customers to visualise the destination through VR headsets.
And when Finnair celebrated the first anniversary of its Helsinki-Shanghai flight in November 2016, it brought Santa Claus – an icon of Finland – onboard and streamed his movements including what he ate in business class, taking a nap and greeting our guests live through the popular Chinese Inke app. Santa’s life onboard the nine-hour flight generated 500,000 views on the app.
Finnair has also made it convenient for Chinese mobile users to make in-flight purchases by providing free Wi-Fi and facilitating payment through Alipay mobile solutions. First introduced on the Shanghai-Helsinki route in January, the service led to a spike in in-flight sales. This prompted Finnair to roll the service out on the Beijing-Helsinki route a month later, and to further introduce it to three more routes from China next month.
Recognising that “millennials cannot live without their mobile phones”, Christine Li, head of marketing senior vice president, Genting Cruise Lines, said her company has brought Alipay and UniPay as payment solutions on board its ships.
Huilian Duan, vice president of sales and marketing Asia with Maritim Hotels, shared that the company has built a large social media marketing team that has seen “huge success” in using WeChat to convert brand awareness into actual bookings made online.
Duan pointed out that studies have shown that mobile bookings incidences are high among the Chinese millennials.
