Sightseeing Reawakened: The Revival of Chinese Outbound Travellers
In a world that was once confined to the boundaries of homes and local neighbourhoods, a spirited renaissance is sweeping across continents, igniting the dormant flames of wanderlust. As borders in Mainland China reopened and travel restrictions loosened, a palpable sense of excitement filled the air. From the bustling streets of Bangkok to the serene sights of Seoul, from the vibrant markets of old town Dubai to the captivating landscapes of Sydney, the urge to explore, immerse, and connect with the world has reawakened.
In this article, we will embark on a thrilling journey through the revival of travel, delving into the much-awaited return of the Chinese outbound traveller, how Go City gained sales and market share during the pandemic, unravelling how we stayed focused and leveraged the work done during the pandemic which has benefited us in 2023 and beyond.
The return of Chinese outbound tourists
When the pandemic hit, there was no doubt that Go City’s business was impacted. The mainland Chinese customer source market happens to take up a significant portion of our APAC customer sales. Three years later, we’re happy to share that we’ve been seeing healthy recovery numbers, ahead of many industry counterparts and we’re projecting a stronger spike in recovery in Q4 2023 and into Q1 2024.
In the chart below, we started off January with Mainland China being far behind 2019, compared to the rest of the Asia Pacific countries. Despite the borders being open earlier in the year, many travel brand witnessed a delay in recovery due to various factors – consumers preferring to be extra cautious about their outbound trips, and for those who were able to travel immediately, they were faced with long waiting times for passport renewals and visa applications to various destination cities. But as we see in our latest numbers, we’re now well ahead of 2019 when it comes to Mainland Chinese customers – something we’re thrilled about but also conscious of what’s more to come.
How did we pave way for this growth during the pandemic and what your brand can also do right now
It was easy to panic and pivot during the dark days of the pandemic. However, we did quite the opposite. We doubled down on what worked best for our customer – we made improvements in our customer journey and technology and ensured that we were well positioned to sell better and more efficiently once the pandemic was over.
The first thing we did was localize our brand. Go City is a brand where customers can plan their trip and access a wide range of attractions at a great savings, all at their fingertips and this was relatively a straight-forward execution. It is indeed possible to have local elements and style that is still in line with our global brand. This was reflected across all customer touchpoints such as the website, social media pages, third party listings, advertising collaterals and so forth.
The second thing we did was to ensure that we showcased our product in the best and most accurate way possible, be it on our social platforms or via influencers. Influencers were still using our passes and reviewing them whenever they could and we continued this with locally-based Chinese influencers since there were no flights inbound from China. There was a lot of work done to source for these influencers and KOLs who were based in Singapore, Bangkok, London and New York for example but this enabled us to continue the conversation about the USPs of our product whilst we wait for the borders to open.
The third thing we did was to overcommunicate our product USPs – my team ensured that across every customer touchpoint, we elaborated on the key selling points of our products. It’s easy to forget that our product USPs may be very familiar to us, but not to a potential customer, especially one who has not heard of your brand or purchased your product yet. For instance, with Go City, users can change plans as they go, find attractions they didn’t otherwise know about, and have a stress-free trip. Our brand also offers passes that save customers up to 50% at as many attractions as they want. We made sure these, and other key selling points were communicated effectively across social, website, and via partners to drive the message home. Ideally, brands should not overlook the importance of this to the customer.
The fourth thing we did during the pandemic which paved way for a full recovery this year is to explore a wide variety of partners. At Go City, we kickstarted collaborations with several key content and trade partners at a time where brands were hungry for marketing activity. We also used the time we had to build these relationships and ensure accuracy and relevancy in content as well as the entire customer journey. I must admit that this was a bit of a gamble where we had no idea what the outcome would look like – but we didn’t have much to lose except for a bit of time, and time was what we had in the dark days of 2020-2021! So, we buckled up and went full force with our partnerships. All this was completed by end of 2021 and by 2022, we saw outstanding results – we grew incremental revenue on our partnerships channel by over 20x vs. 2019.
Last but not least, Go City’s goal for the Chinese market and also other customer source markets was to aim not just to serve, but to delight. The final important growth lever for us which helped pave the way for a strong revenue recovery this year was customer service. We are quite reactive and take customer service feedback seriously with the aim to continuously improve our product offering, attraction roster, technology, service and value. We constantly seek feedback from various external stakeholders as well as different types of customers – this is an ongoing challenge and is by no means the end.
Go City’s journey is just beginning in Mainland China and I have a lot more plans in store in the second half of this year. In the wake of one of the most challenging periods in modern history, the recovery of China's travel industry after the pandemic has been nothing short of remarkable. Go City is poised to embrace a new era of transformative growth, built on strong product offerings, value to the customer, technological advancement, and long-term sustainable practices. As China's travel industry rises from the ashes of adversity, the world awaits with a renewed sense of exploration and adventure. We absolutely cannot wait!
What is Go City?
For starters, Go City is a travel pass and city card program that offers tourists and travellers the opportunity to access multiple attractions, activities, landmarks and interesting things to do within a particular city or region for a low, fixed price. Originally known as Leisure Pass Group, we were founded in 1998 to help travellers easily access the best experiences in cities all over the world. With these city passes, travellers can gain admission to a wide range of attractions such as museums, historical sites, theme parks, tours, and other cultural or recreational activities. Available in 30+ cities, Go City offers passes that save customers up to 50% at as many attractions as they want, all available on an app.
This is a guest post written by Dawn Jeremiah, VP of Marketing & Ecommerce APAC at Go City
Catch Dawn Jeremiah on 16th August, 2:55PM on "All-Star Panel: How can you build the optimum marketing mix and adopt the tech stack to increase direct bookings and grow a returning customer base?". Find out more here!