AsiaPac x HKGCC Interview 2023 - Market Hong Kong As a Tourist Destination with A Xiaohongshu Business Card

2 Oct , 2023

The latest The Chinese General Chamber of Commerce (HKGCC) September newsletter features Daniel Chan, the Chamber’s Committee Member and CEO of AsiaPac Net Media Ltd, discussing how to market Hong Kong as a tourist destination by using Xiaohongshu.

As Xiaohongshu's Official Global Partner, AsiaPac has been active in the Mainland China social media market since 2001. Besides recent tourist consumption preferences, the interview also shares a case study of a five-star hotel in Mongkok that successfully implemented a Xiaohongshu marketing strategy. Carried out by our AsiaPac team experts, leveraging big data and identifying trending topics on Xiaohongshu, we are able to gain a huge boost in views, fans, and overall exposure for the hotel.

Read the full interview below to learn about the most recent digital marketing solution or click https://rb.gy/ug10k (p.31-32).

Market Hong Kong As A Tourist Destination with A Xiaohongshu Business Card

Now in its tenth year, Xiaohongshu is supported by 300 million active users with continuous growth projected for the future. It is a highly influential social platform. 

Daniel Chan, the Chamber’s Committee Member and CEO of AsiaPac Net Media Ltd, has witnessed rapid changes over the years as a player in the Mainland social media market. “Xiaohongshu contents have evolved dynamically to cover diverse scenarios in life. Today, it is a daily life encyclopaedia for a wide audience of all age groups, making increasingly vital bearing on people’s lifestyle and consumption decisions.” Most users think Xiaohongshu contents are more authentic and reliable than other social media. “As opposed to users of other platforms who are inclined to buy a product after reading related contents for at least six times, Xiaohongshu users develop consumption desires after coming across related contents just three times.”

        Ride the wave of heritage city tours

In the past, visitors came to Hong Kong to shop for luxury goods. Chan says tourist consumption preferences have changed in recent years. There has been a new interest in experiential discovery tours that present the city’s culture and heritage, such as historical buildings, book shops with a strong sense of design or style, cafés or even MTR stations. “For example, MacDonnell Road, Fife Street and other street signs are hot with tourists.” 

He points out that most young Mainland visitors search the internet for strategies and walkthroughs before coming to Hong Kong. Dummies’ guide and special sharing guides are favourites. “For instance, young people like to visit shooting locations of Hong Kong TV drama series and movies. Many make their own itineraries for Hong Kong TV drama one-day tours or Hong Kong movie one-day tours.”  

Cater to visitors’ taste and market Hong Kong by word-of-mouth

More than 170,000 brands have established a presence on Xiaohongshu, including a growing number of Hong Kong names with an eye towards Mainland marketing. Chan shared a case  where his team drew up a Xiaohongshu marketing strategy for a five-star hotel in Mongkok. Actions include setting up a brand account on Xiaohongshu, “seeding” (recommending hit products to stoke purchase desire) and arranging promotional site visits by KOLs. Topics related to holidaying in Hong Kong were also posted. Coupled with eye-catching ad covers, tag lines and hashtags, these features worked well to boost the number of searches and overall exposure.

“In just two months, these posts clocked more than 110,000 views and the number of fans hiked 12 times in one month.” Chan believes that with the right platform, brands can plant contents in target users’ minds progressively to boost sales by word-of-mouth and turn social media traffic into offline consumption over time.

“Seeding” and KOL strategy main thrust of marketing campaign

Chan has seen the Mainland social media market’s transition from being text-based to video-based. He believes what KOLs and amateurs share on social media are genuine personal experiences. He suggests brands choose the right KOLs who suit their corporate image as spokespersons based on their background, fan group and platform interaction performance. They can also use big data to identify Xiaohongshu trending topics and create viral posts and hot-sellers with hot search keywords. “The trick is to create customized contents for different customer groups and strike the right chord with down-to-earth buzzwords.”

Chan stresses that social media platforms are shop windows that draw traffic to merchant pages. A brand account on Xiaohongshu is like a business card. He hopes companies engaged in local tourism can turn this channel to their advantage and help raise awareness and popularity of Hong Kong as a tourist destination.