How Hotels Can Capture the Chinese Market Overseas

Photo by Cloris Ying for Unsplash

How can hotels effectively market and sell to Chinese international travelers? Following Dragon Trail’s March 2025 webinar, “Hotel Marketing for Chinese Outbound Tourists”, we’ve identified the three essentials for any international hotel’s marketing and sales strategy for China.

1) For hotels marketing to China, social media is both necessary and constantly evolving

“If you don’t have media exposure, it’s very difficult, especially if your hotel is unknown in the China market,” says leading Chinese travel influencer Xiao Dan of Dandan Around the World. She names promotion and media exposure as the most important factor for Chinese travelers booking a hotel overseas in 2025, explaining that they will check Xiaohongshu (also known as RedNote) to read posts and comments about a hotel before booking.

Xiao Dan’s RedNote account

In 2025, RedNote is a vital tool for Chinese travelers when planning overseas travel, but the Chinese social media landscape is extremely dynamic and can change quickly. Janet Bao from Small Luxury Hotels of the World, sees social media marketing as one of the biggest changes she’s experienced in her 13 years with the hotel group. Xiao Dan agrees: “I started with Sina Weibo, posting nine photos and a few words. Later on, we moved to Mafengwo, and I needed to write 5,000 words for one article to introduce in detail about how I choose this hotel, how I choose my flight. Then later on, around 2017, Douyin started to be very popular, and people moved on to video. By 2021 live streaming became really popular.” Both webinar speakers highlight the current popularity of RedNote.

Founded the same year as Weibo, Dragon Trail has 15 years of experience helping travel brands to stand out on Chinese social media platforms – including Weibo, WeChat and WeChat Channels, RedNote, and Douyin – through content creation and adaption, influencer marketing, and media buy. Read more about our services in Chinese social media marketing or contact us directly to discuss how we can help you with your social media strategy for China.

2) To effectively capture the Chinese market, hotels need to establish multiple sales channels

How do Chinese travelers book hotels overseas? OTAs dominate, says Janet Bao from Small Luxury Hotels of the World. “But for travelers who travel more frequently, they would like to have the official brand website to book, because they have the loyalty program, so they can get more benefits. Also, long-haul travelers would like to have a high-end travel agency to help them book the whole trip … rather than booking piece by piece by themselves.” This means that hotels need to be established on Chinese OTAs – particularly market leader Ctrip, have their own website and booking channels optimized for Chinese guests, and maintain good relationships with Chinese travel agents.

Small Luxury Hotels of the World’s Chinese website (www.slhhotels.cn), fully localized for the China market by Dragon Trail

Xiao Dan names multiple sales channels as one of the most important pieces of advice she’d give a hotel entering the Chinese market. She agrees that hotels need to be set up on Ctrip, but also highlights a new trend where Chinese travelers book hotels overseas through her directly. “From 2017-2020, people don’t ask me to help them to book – it’s only promotion. They think it’s pretty, they learn from you. But since 2020, my fans have asked me, ‘Can you help me to book, because I trust you.’” She says including a sales link under one video can sell up to RMB1 million in hotel bookings, and shares examples of booking 200 room nights for a hotel in the French ski resort of Courchevel, as well as 50 room nights in Andorra. In addition to KOLs (Key Opinion Leaders) and KOCs (Key Opinion Consumers), brands engaged in influencer marketing may want to work with KOSs (Key Opinion Sales) who specialize in helping clients to sell directly to Chinese consumers.

Dragon Trail has extensive experience in helping international hotels to build China-optimized websites and localized booking systems. We also offer comprehensive trade marketing services, and we have a database of more than 400 influencers. Click here to read our case study on boosting ticket sales through a RedNote influencer campaign for Disneyland Resort.

3) The value of Chinese-speaking staff and local Chinese expertise is immense

In Dragon Trail’s spring 2023 Chinese Traveler Sentiment Survey, we asked Chinese travelers about how they would choose a hotel overseas. After convenient location, the most important factor was Chinese-speaking staff, chosen by 51%. Our December 2024 Chinese Travel Trade Survey revealed that Chinese-language services are also one of the most important factors for Chinese travel agents when choosing partner hotels – 46% said they took this into consideration, and 25% said it was a decisive factor. Xiao Dan illustrates how Chinese-language services can help hotels to stand out: Club Med has 11 ski resorts in France, and they’re all very similar, she says. So Chinese travelers will contact her to find out which properties can offer Chinese-speaking ski instructors, and this will decide which property they book.

Dragon Trail represented Baglioni Hotels and Resorts at COTTM in Beijing in 2024

When it comes to marketing and working with the Chinese travel trade, language skills and local expertise are also important. Janet Bao advises chain hotels to ask their local teams in China for help. “If you are an independent hotel and have no support in China, then you could think about [working with] a GSA in China.”

Dragon Trail offers full market representation services in China, including sales calls, representation at travel trade events, and media relations. We’re also highly experienced at website and mini-program development, social media and influencer marketing, PR and events, and travel agent training and communications. Contact us today to discuss how we can help establish and improve your hotel’s business with the Chinese outbound travel market.