2025 Full-Year WeChat Rankings Report

Dragon Trail’s WeChat Rankings Report for 2025 examines and analyzes the performance of eight categories of travel brands on WeChat: national tourism organizations (NTOs), destination marketing organizations (DMOs, referring to regional and municipal tourism boards), airlines, cruise lines, museums and attractions, hotels, airports, and car rental companies. The report is based on data collected by Dragon Trail on a weekly basis, and aims to provide industry benchmarks and track trends in WeChat content marketing for overseas tourism brands. Dragon Trail has been collecting weekly data on NTOs, DMOs, airlines and cruise lines since 2017, with the hotels and attractions categories added in 2018, and airports and car rental companies in 2024.

Have a question about the report, want to check your brand’s ranking, or let us know about an account we might not be tracking yet? Please get in touch at communications@dragontrail.com

Not just a source of travel inspiration, WeChat content published by international travel brands in 2025 highlighted the popularity of offline events, including pop-ups, concerts, exhibitions, food events, and cultural festivals. We also see the potential for celebrities – from actors to athletes – to drive views, alongside seasonal sales events. Chinese New Year stood out as a peak season for WeChat content and special promotions, with Mid-Autumn Festival another important Chinese holiday. Lastly, both the NTO and DMO rankings highlight the strong marketing push from Saudi Arabia and the UAE, alongside growing interest from Chinese travelers in these Middle Eastern destinations.

Scroll to the end of the report for Q4 2025 rankings tables

NTOs

The leading outbound destination since China reopened in 2023, Japan topped the WeChat rankings for national tourism boards for the eighth year in a row, with the most content views and the highest views per post. Several of the tourism board’s most-read posts of the year were published in Q4, just before China issued a safety warning for travel to Japan (though post views have remained steady since then, too). With 31k views the week it was published, the most popular was an article on Seki City, a “hidden gem” located an hour outside of Nagoya. Another popular article focused on hot springs. Throughout the year, articles highlighting off-the-beaten-track small towns and cities in Japan proved particularly popular, alongside posts on cultural festivals, Tokyo’s award-winning Haneda airport, and Japanese breakfasts.

(Left to right) Guide to Seki City, Japan; Li Xian debuts as New Zealand’s tourism ambassador; Saudi Arabia’s November 2025 event at Shanghai’s Oriental Pearl Tower

Other top NTO WeChat content in Q4 included New Zealand’s announcement of actor Li Xian as their new tourism ambassador, and posts from the Tourism Authority of Thailand welcoming back Chinese visitors, sharing photos from a Mid-Autumn Festival event with the Chinese embassy in Bangkok, and promoting Phuket’s vegetarian festival in October. The TAT’s posts emphasized Thailand as a friendly, trusted, and safe travel destination.

One of the biggest changes in the WeChat Rankings for 2025 compared to 2024 is Saudi Arabia’s continued ascent up the rankings table. From 12th place by total views in 2024, they ranked 7th in 2025, and average views per post increased by 53.8%. Q4 was particularly successful for the Saudi Tourism Authority, which ranked 5th for the quarter. Its most-viewed content was all about the “Saudi Land” pop-up event at Shanghai’s Oriental Pearl Tower in November.

DMOs

Macau’s tourism board accounted by 57.6% of all article views in the DMO category in 2025, with top posts throughout the year including changing entry rules for Chinese visitors from neighboring cities, live events, and typhoon advisories. In Q4, the top articles were about Christmas celebrations and lights, November performances, and the Macau Food Festival.

Australian DMOs had a strong performance in 2025, with Queensland ranked 4th for the year, with several particularly popular giveaways. Western Australia also moved up to 6th place in Q4, with an announcement that the Chinese basketball player Han Xu had joined Perth Lynx to play in the 2025-2026 WNBL season.

(Left to right) Christmas in Macau; Chinese basketball player Han Xu joins Perth Lynx; top Chinese podcast 三个火呛手 broadcasts from Dubai

Another development to note is the WeChat rankings for the United Arab Emirates. By the end of 2025, all of the emirates with WeChat accounts – Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, and Ras Al Khaimah (which only joined WeChat in November 2024) – ranked in the top 20. The most-read post by an emirate in 2025 came in November 2025, with Dubai’s announcement about the recording of one of China’s biggest podcasts (三个火呛手, Three Fire Chokers) in Dubai

Airlines

Still ranked no. 1, AirAsia’s average views per post on WeChat dropped by nearly 64% in 2025, while the number of articles the account posted rose by close to 74%. The airline’s top posts in 2025 focused more on new flight routes – for example, direct flights from China to Semporna in Malaysia launched in Q4 – than on the big discounts that caught readers’ attention in 2024.

(Left to right) All Nippon Airways’ 11/11 promotion; Japan Airlines partners with Ctrip; AirAsia launches flights from China to Semporna, Malaysia

With nearly no change in posting frequency or views per post, All Nippon Airways had a strong year, particularly with its 11/11 sales promotion in Q4. These posts also came out before China’s travel advisory for Japan in November, as did another very popular article from Japan Airlines, announcing a promotion together with Ctrip. How will these Japanese airlines fare in 2026? While they could be negatively impacted by declining Chinese tourism to Japan, the large-scale cancellation of Japan flights by Chinese carriers might give them more of an advantage, with less competition for the passengers who will still be flying between China and Japan.

Airports

Airports were one of just a few categories tracked that saw increasing average views per post in 2025 – up by 18.9%. The most-read article was a Chinese New Year post from Hong Kong International Airport, with more than 50k views. The next most-viewed article was also Chinese New Year themed, from Changi Airport in Singapore, but with fewer than 14k views. Other top articles of the year included more recommendations from Changi for October’s Golden Week and Chinese New Year.

In the last quarter of the year, posts by Hong Kong International Airport about new rules for tax refunds were particularly popular, alongside a guide to Changi at night, and a Mid-Autumn Festival post from Heathrow Airport – which included a list of all 15 Greater China destinations with direct flights to the London airport.

Cruise Lines

Viking Cruises and Royal Caribbean International dominated the WeChat Rankings for international cruise lines in 2025. Viking promoted river cruises as the best way to explore Europe, with popular promotions for summer sailings published in February, and the launch of 2026’s sales in Q4 2025. Meanwhile, Royal Caribbean focused on sailings from Chinese ports to Korea and Japan, emphasizing that cruses offer a way to travel internationally without a visa. Royal Caribbean’s most-read post of the year was its 618 sale.

Attractions and Museums

Hong Kong Disneyland accounted for 70% of all content views for the attractions and museums category in 2025. And it’s not just the Disneyland brand driving views, but specifically the Hong Kong location – Disneyland Paris received an average of just 363 views per post, compared to Hong Kong Disneyland’s 12,249. Its top articles for the year included Chinese New Year stickers, 20th anniversary celebrations for the park from June, springtime activities with the Duffy and Friends characters, and new characters and experiences launched at the end of the year for Zootopia 2 – a film that has been wildly popular in China.

(Left to right) Zootopia 2 comes to Hong Kong Disneyland; the V&A’s new Chinese studio crafts exhibition; ancient Egyptian artifacts at the Hong Kong Palace Museum

Ranked second in the category is the Hong Kong Palace Museum. All of the museum’s most popular posts throughout the year are about the “Ancient Egypt Unveiled” exhibition, which opened in November and is organized in partnership with Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities.

Q4 was a strong period for international museum content on WeChat, with above-average views for M+’s 2026 exhibition schedule and the V&A’s launch of a new exhibition on contemporary Chinese studio crafts.

Hotels

As a category, hotels saw a 26.4% increase in views per post for WeChat content in 2025 – especially impressive in contrast to most other categories, which plateaued or declined. This was driven to a large extent by Rosewood, which seems to have invested much more in WeChat marketing during the year, with four articles that broke the 100k view mark. Two of these were published in Q4: The announcement of a collaboration between Rosewood and Monocle magazine in October, and a new global pop-up series called Rosewood Travel Desk in December.

(Left to right) Cecilia Yip for Holiday Inn; the new Waldorf Astoria Shanghai Qiantan; Rosewood’s Travel Desk pop-up

Some of the other most-read WeChat content from hotels in 2025 includes brand ambassador Cecilia Yip for Holiday Inn (published by InterContinental’s account), Hilton’s summer promotions with panda characters and travel with pets, and the opening of the Waldorf Astoria Shanghai Qiantan in December.

Car Rentals

62.7% of the article views in the car rental category were for content published by Avis – the company’s top articles were mostly published at the beginning of the year and included a New Year promotion, an article about driving rules in Germany, and two articles about self-driving in Australia.

In the final quarter of the year, the most-read WeChat content from car rental companies included an article on family travel in Thailand by Avis, an overseas driving rules handbook from Sixt, and a promotion for Saipan from Hertz, which recommended the island as the perfect off-season destination – visa-free and where Chinese driver’s licenses are accepted.

Q4 2025 WeChat Rankings Tables