Running Virtual Fam Trips for the Travel Trade

The Situation

As part of a virtual roadshow to prepare for the successful recovery of Chinese tourism to South Africa, South African Tourism Beijing office held a series of virtual fam trips. With three days of rich presentations from Beijing and throughout South Africa, the fam trips transported hundreds of Chinese travel trade professionals to South African hotels, national parks and more through digital technology.

The Results

– 502 Virtual Fam Trip Attendees (as of 21 October, 2021)
– 7,930 Roadshow Page Views
– 39 Exhibitors
– 210 Buyers
– 1,196 Completed Meetings
– 94% Meeting Success Rate

Our Work

Using Dragon Trail’s all-in-one virtual event platform on WeChat mini-program and web, the virtual fam trip program ran over three days and focused on three themes: “Hospitality in Cape Town”, “Seaside Leisure and Wild Nature of South Africa”, and “Safari at National Parks”. The fam trips were each hosted from a studio at South African Tourism’s Beijing office, but primarily consisted of video footage taken in South Africa.

These virtual fam trips are a game-changer for the tourism industry, allowing them to give travel trade professionals around the world an in-depth understanding of a country’s tourism resources, on a scale that would be impossible to achieve on a physical trip. The virtual tours attracted nearly 350 live viewers, with 155 playbacks as of 21 October.

The virtual exhibition part of the roadshow was also hosted by Dragon Trail, bringing together 39 exhibitors and 210 Chinese buyers for five days of meetings. South African destinations, hotels, receptive tour operators, and airlines all had virtual booths at the roadshow, which could be found through the exhibition map, or by an easy-to-sort list. At the booths, buyers could watch videos, download materials, and contact the exhibitors. The platform was fully bi-lingual and accessible through WeChat mini-program or web browser, with interpretation services available for meetings.