Sri Lanka Tourism must continue social media marketing efforts to attract the Chinese
Life in China seems to be fast returning to normalcy. In February 2020 specifically, China’s occupancy dropped 75.9% to an absolute level of 14.0%. Fast forward to the end of March specifically, 82% of employees in the F & B and Hotel sectors have returned to work according to Baidu big data. Already, the Chinese authorities have confirmed that the lockdown on Wuhan, the city at the epicentre of the coronavirus will be lifted on the 8th of April 2020.
Fliggy, the online platform owned by Alibaba, carried out a survey and found that 55% of those who booked and cancelled the trips, owing to COVID -19, indicated that they will reinstate the cancelled trips, whilst 24% were still undecided. Only one-in-five said they will not travel.
A survey by Travel Daily revealed 65% of the respondents questioned believe that China tourism will rebound within 3 to 6 months from the end of March 2020.
PATA, IVY Alliance and China Comfort Travel combined together to conduct another survey and discovered that 60% of the respondents will travel – provided COVID-19 is under control by April, and 32% of the respondents are already planning for July, August trips.
Research done thus far indicates the top ten (10) outbound destinations post-COVID-19, as:- Japan (18%), Thailand (14%), Europe (14%), Maldives, Singapore, New Zealand, Australia, South Korea, Sri Lanka and Malaysia. The desire to visit Europe may dip should the situation there remain high risk.
While the urge to travel by the Chinese grows in intensity, it is the opportune moment to dispatch positive vibes to build up goodwill for the destination and promote short-term tactical offers at this point.
Hence, Sri Lanka tourism will miss a good opportunity if it stops social media marketing efforts at this juncture. The important thing to remember is that the content created is relevant. It should shy away from been COVID-19 related. Instead focus on resource-related topics. How about something in the lines of “Now’s the time to get the best of Sri Lanka ”?
Be that as it may, clearly, China, which was the first to explode with the coronavirus, will be the first market to recover and this market can rescue our hotels in 2020.
A recent communications report by Reuter states, “As China is on the road to recovery, hotel brands are reactivating their marketing and communications….”
Are we at Sri Lanka tourism doing that?
Shafeek Wahab – Editor, Hospitality Sri Lanka, Consultant, Trainer, Ex-Hotelier. |
|
|
|
