Travel Ramps Up for Chinese New Year — Digital Marketing News This Week

It’s probably no surprise by now that more travel marketers are catering to the world’s growing audience of Chinese travelers. But understanding when and why they travel is often less well understood, particularly when it comes to big annual events like Chinese New Year.

This annual celebration dedicated to family, tradition and culture is increasingly becoming one of the most popular times of the year for Chinese citizens to hit the road. And much like Americans during long holiday breaks, they’re doing it in huge numbers. In fact, many experts are predicting Chinese revelers will make more than three billion trips during this year’s celebrations.

How can travel brands capitalize on this massive spending burst? And what do they need to know about travelers’ habits during the holiday period? Read on for more details, plus the rest of this week’s news.

Understanding Travelers’ Habits During Chinese New Year
Thanks to a population of 1.3 billion travelers, Chinese New Year has evolved into one of the world’s biggest travel spending periods. But where do consumers typically go during the Chinese New Year period? And what types of media are they using to make their buying decisions? Here are some thoughts on effectively appealing to Chinese travelers during this critical time period. Read more

How Are Loyalty Programs Evolving in Asia?
Loyalty programs are in the midst of key period of evolution. The old points paradigms are fading as travel marketers design new incentives for today’s changing traveler tastes. In the Asia-Pacific region, this shift in loyalty is playing out in subtly different ways. Traveler interest in loyalty rewards like experiences, food and wellness are all playing a more important role in Asian travel firms’ loyalty program design. Read more

Hilton Executive Talks About How Travel Marketers Can Use Data
“Big data” seems to be on the tip of every marketer’s tongue these days. But what exactly is data marketing, and how might travel marketers put the concept to use for their own brand? In this interview, Jonathan Wardman, vice president CRM for Hilton, talks about how this famous hospitality brand is able to utilize the information it gathers for better decision-making. Read more

Visit Seattle Takes Documentary Approach in New Film Series
Many tourism videos are produced like a multimedia-style brochure, highlighting the typical array of city parks, dining options and historic landmarks. But what if more tourism board marketers were to take their inspiration from the world of documentary filmmaking? That’s the idea behind Visit Seattle’s new which attempts to highlight the city’s characters and culture in a soulful new film series. Read more

Airbnb Looks to Acquire Social Commerce Firm Tilt
With the launch of its new Trips product and a string of recent acquisitions, Airbnb has been making moves to expand its business beyond its original focus on the accommodation-sharing space. This week’s rumored Airbnb acquisition is Tilt, a peer-to-peer digital payment service. Analysts believe Airbnb will use Tilt to more efficiently handle payments for a growing range of tour and event products sold via the company’s platform. Read more

7 Travel Trends to Watch for 2017
Predicting the future is never an easy task. But that doesn’t stop prognosticating experts in the travel industry from forecasting the trends that will be driving executives in the year ahead. Here’s another interesting prediction of travel trends for this year, including thoughts about the importance of data science, Chinese travelers and the intercity bus industry. Read more