Tourism New Zealand & WeChat Pay

When China reopened its border in mid-2023 and named New Zealand as one of the first destinations to be given approved status for Chinese to visit, Tourism New Zealand recognised there would be pent-up demand to visit New Zealand and was keen to welcome back visitors from China.  

Working alongside Flying Tiger and Chinese payment system, WeChat Pay, Tourism New Zealand supported New Zealand tourism operators to welcome Chinese visitors back with two campaigns focusing on key Chinese travel periods, Golden Week and Chinese New Year.  These two campaigns supported tourism businesses to deliver a fantastic guest experience and increase spend from Chinese visitors.

The Campaign

Flying Tiger, as the delivery partner for both campaigns, engaged with over 100 key tourism businesses, encouraging them to leverage the marketing and payment tools offered by WeChat Pay. Being the number one payment platform in China, Flying Tiger knew that by offering this service and promoting their products and special offers to WeChat Pay users, tourism businesses could access Chinese visitors in a way that might otherwise be challenging.

Many of the participants in the campaign either did not accept Chinese payments or had let their acceptance lapse during Covid. Flying Tiger worked closely with these businesses, introducing them to partners who could support them through the process, ensuring they were ready to welcome Chinese customers during these important travel periods. Tourism businesses were encouraged to create special offers to appeal to Chinese customers. Flying Tiger used our years of experience in the Chinese tourism market to recommend the types of offers that would give the best chance of success.

WeChat Pay and Tourism New Zealand created themed campaign content within the WeChat Pay app, on Tourism New Zealand’s WeChat official mini-programme and offline at key New Zealand airport arrival areas, promoting the campaign. Flying Tiger delivered point-of-sale material to participating businesses. The result was an integrated campaign connecting with Chinese visitors from the minute they stepped off the plane.

The Results

Our goal was to engage with Chinese visitors and grow spend. The Golden Week campaign increased customer spend to 1.4x the equivalent 2019 levels, especially impressive given Chinese visitation during the period remained significantly below 2019. 

During Chinese New Year, WeChat Pay users who engaged with the campaign spent on average 4x the amount other users during the same period. Tourism business special offers were downloaded over 14,000 times.

These two campaigns have demonstrated how engaging with Chinese visitors to New Zealand, while they are in the country, is a compelling way to both attract them to a business and increase spend.