Los Angeles is rolling out the red carpet for Chinese visitors with a new tourism campaign seeking to boost visitation numbers.
China is already the city’s number one overseas market and the number of Chinese travelers venturing overseas is forecast to double to 200 million by 2020.
The ‘NiHao China’ (Hello China) campaign, led by LA Tourism, was launched focusing on the need for cultural awareness training for local hospitality businesses and a China-Ready certification program.
Communication is key to bringing down cultural barriers, according to LA tourism CEO Earnest Wooden.
There will be monthly training sessions for hotel, retail and restaurant businesses covering best practices in digital marketing for Chinese visitors and managing Mandarin-speaking staff.
China-Ready certification will be awarded for firms who offer Chinese language content such as hotel welcome packs and menus, and the acceptance of China UnionPay credit cards.
Although the number of Chinese visitors to LA rose by 21% last year, tourism officials said there is still a lack of good Chinese-language information for tourist attractions, hotels and transportation in the city.
