In what appears to be the first and only compilation of its kind the global research firm Dragon Trail—it specializes in marketing travel-related products, including destinations, to China—tells us that Brand USA is holding its own midst national tourism offices (NTOs) and U.S. destinations are doing well vs. other major destinations that are communicating with Chinese consumers and travelers via WeChat, the largest online communications app in the world, with more than a billion monthly users. It is axiomatic for anyone in the tour and travel industry who is marketing to China that they must deploy its resources on and through WeChat.
In preparing its WeChat Rankings report for 2018 Dragon Trail looked at articles published on WeChat by the official accounts of national tourism boards (NTOs) as well as DMOs with accounts ranked by their total article views. Although the top five accounts for NTOs remained similar or unchanged from 2017 to 2018, the order of the rankings did see some shifts, with Visit Japan and Tourism Vancouver increasing their standing. The national tourism boards with the highest-ranking accounts tended to be established destinations in Asia, Europe and North America (including Brand USA), whereas Greater China, Australia and North America, where established destinations did well, with Los Angeles (#4), Vancouver (#5), Texas Tourism (#8), Travel South USA (#9), Orange County, Calif. (#12), New York City (#16), North Carolina (#17), Hawaii (#18) and Seattle (#20) placing in the Top 20 DMOs.
About the Ranking:
Data Collection Date, January 22, 2019
Ranking Criteria: Accounts are ranked according to the highest number of views per total number of posts published. WeChat views are “unique views.”
- Overseas National Tourism Organizations (NTOs) Surveyed: 47
About the Ranking:
Data Collection Date, January 22, 2019
Ranking Criteria: Accounts are ranked according to the highest number of views per total number of posts published. WeChat views are “unique views.”
Number of Overseas Destination Marketing Organizations Surveyed: 68
“Over-saturation” among DMOs. In discussing the findings of her company’s WeChat rankings, as well as the changes in market share in 2018 vs. 2019, Sienna Parulis-Cook, communications manager for Dragon Trail told a webinar audience that the reason for a year-over-year decline (see table below) in the number of WeChat views of Top NTOs and DMOs was an “over-saturation” of WeChat pages and mini-sites by national, regional, state and city destinations as more of them seek to use the WeChat tool. Adding “there are too many official organizations … competing for the same space.”
What Works Best on WeChat? Asked what kind of travel product performs the best on WeChat, Parulis-Cook said, “nature was, by far, the most popular content theme in 2017 and it’s done well in 2018 as well.” She went on to tell webinar attendees, “Destinations with beautiful nature should really plan to play them up in their content marketing for the Chinese audience. It doesn’t matter what season it is, as long as there’s beautiful nature.”
Finally, about BrandUSA: America’s DMO, Brand USA, remained steady in its 2018 quarterly ranking, except for the last quarter, when it slipped to No. 12. Still, its performance as a Top 10 performer on the WeChat marketing place will be interpreted by many as a justification of its efficacy as a national tourism organization.
