China is fascinated by Berlin. In 2014, the capital proved the favourite destination for Chinese visitors to Germany. According to the "Chinese International Travel Monitor" study by Hotels.com, Berlin takes top place in the rankings of the country's most popular cities, ahead of Munich, Bad Soden am Taunus, Frankfurt, Cologne, and Hamburg. The official tourism statistics indicate that in 2014 around 90,000 Chinese visitors (+ 6.9 % in comparison to the year before) spent more than 210,000 nights (+ 12.5 %) in Berlin.

"China is in the process of developing into the most attractive intercontinental market for Berlin, together with the USA. China has a middle-class of around 250 million people who enjoy travelling and have significant purchasing power", states Burkhard Kieker, CEO of visitBerlin. "The potential is enormous, in the MICE segment, too. We are currently involved in intensive negotiations with partners from China who are interested in major incentive trips and congresses."

For many years now, visitBerlin has led the way in developing operations on the Chinese market, and has built up strong relationships with the Chinese travel industry and airlines. The visitBerlin marketing activities have also included a focus on the so-called second tier of major Chinese cities such as Chongqing, Qingdao, and Chengdu.

The Chinese website of visitBerlin laibolin.com provides a wealth of information about Germany's capital city. The possibility of promoting Berlin using social media is also applied intensively in China, for example, by means of a dedicated Weibo fan community. Since the middle of 2014, the German capital has also been advertised via WeChat, the Chinese version of Whatsapp and by some distance the most popular channel of communication on the smartphone. In addition, Chinese native speakers at visitBerlin ensure that the information and marketing promotions which are implemented are in line with cultural expectations.

The full "Chinese International Travel Monitor" study is available here: www.citm2015.com

Photo: Public Domain