Chinese stars help lure travelers abroad

World
Europe

With an estimated 6 million Chinese expected to go abroad during Golden Week this year, tourism officials around the world are taking notice and going to all sorts of extremes to lure this lucrative traveling group.

Starting next month, Ryan Zhu will spend 30 days living in Helsinki Airport. Courtesy / Finavia‍

Finland’s largest airport, Helsinki International, has hired Chinese star Ryan Zhu to spend 30 days living in the airport. Starting this coming Sunday and running until November 8, Zhu will be eating and sleeping in the airport as part of a marketing campaign by Finnish airport operator Finavia.

They are hoping to prove that Helsinki Airport deserves its place among the international elites. The campaign named “Life in Hel” has been described as a mix between the 2004 Tom Hanks movie “The Terminal” and the 1998 film “The Truman Show.”

During this time, Zhu will have to keep himself amused within the transport hub of the airport. People can follow his experience on the campaign’s official website as well as other social media platforms including China’s WeChat and Weibo.

Starting next month, Ryan Zhu will spend 30 days living in Helsinki Airport. Courtesy / Finavia

The experiment will include a number of challenges and rewards, with different events being planned out for him each day. Zhu will have an open return ticket to go back home whenever he wants, however, if he endures for the whole month, he will win a trip to Lapland.

Selecting Zhu for the campaign also underlines the growing importance of Chinese travelers.

Travel targets

Here’s a look at some of the marketing campaigns targeted at attracting Chinese travelers:

Tourism Australia partnered with Chinese singer and actor Nicky Wu to promote various adventures around Australia. The campaign featured a series of videos with Wu exploring different areas in Australia, including Sydney, Cairns (Great Barrier Reef), and the Gold Coast. Wu’s passion in promoting Australia raised the country’s profile as a hot commodity to the Chinese market.

Courtesy/ Tourism Australia

The Canadian Tourism Commission ran a campaign in partnership with Godfrey Gao. Gao went on excursions around Canada in videos targeting Chinese travelers.

Courtesy/ @goffreygao

When the richest person from China, billionaire Jack Ma, visits a country, make no mistake the world will know about it – especially fellow Chinese travelers. Ma visited Kenya at the launch of a mobile online training course for travel agents in China, which rolled out to create destination awareness and spur interest for travel among the Chinese.

Courtesy/ Xinhua

Alipay, which has over 450 million active users in China, partnered with four more financial services providers in Europe, as it looks to tap into Chinese consumers traveling abroad. This move could help China’s top online payments platform expand its global footprint nearly tenfold.