Dragon Trail Promotes USA Discovery Program to Chinese Travel Agents

Launch of the incentive program for Chinese travel agents to complete the USA Discovery Program in Shanghai

Thousands of Chinese travel agents are now prepared to promote and sell trips to the USA, thanks to incentive promotions by Dragon Trail International to support Brand USA’s new USA Discovery Program for the Chinese market.

Brand USA launched the new version of their USA Discovery Program for the Chinese market in July 2024, with technical and promotional support provided by Dragon Trail International.

The USA Discovery Program is a digital resource for the travel trade, with learning modules, marketing materials, and sales tools. To commemorate the 5th anniversary of the global program, Brand USA launched an updated and upgraded version in 2024, bringing it to the Chinese market for the first time.

Following the launch of the program in July 2024, we achieved outstanding results for Brand USA with a three-month incentive promotion period starting in October 2024. During this time, more than 1,000 Chinese travel trade professionals registered for the course, with close to 600 completing the Foundation course and receiving a Brand USA certificate – results that significantly exceeded the campaign’s targets. During the promotional period, travel agents also earned more than 14,500 badges within the mini-program for completed modules.

The Program

The new USA Discovery Program is the one-stop training and travel resources platform of the USA, created specifically for the Chinese market as a WeChat mini-program, with features tailored for the Chinese market by Dragon Trail. For example, adjustments to the achievements and certification section of the program were introduced to increase the participation and completion rate. Video content is hosted on Tencent rather than YouTube to make it accessible to the Chinese audience, and Dragon Trail also produced a Chinese-language video to introduce the new mini-program. In addition to the training, marketing, and sales resources included in the program, the Chinese version also features an events section with access to webinars and other engagement activities.

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Users who complete the full Foundation section – which introduces essentials like geography, air gateways, climate and time zones, major cities, and top attractions – achieve bronze status and earn a Certified USA Specialist diploma. As travel agents continue to complete additional chapters on experiences and Brand USA partners, they earn badges for each content theme. It takes 20 badges to upgrade to silver status, 20 more to reach gold, and another 20 to achieve full platinum status.

More than just a training tool, the USA Discovery mini-program functions as an encyclopedia of US travel, helping Chinese travel agents who have completed the course to easily answer customer questions, with access to review what they’ve learned at any time.

When travel agents are creating promotional materials or product brochures, the Promote section of the mini-program is their largest media resource library. Manuals, pictures, videos are all available to download, share or save at any time.

The Sell section offers all the essentials to design itineraries for customers and use local services, including links to sources of additional first-hand information and contact details for the U.S. National Travel and Tourism Administration in China.

Launch

Brand USA launched its Discovery Program for the Chinese market with a webinar organized by Dragon Trail on July 18, with further promotion at training sessions in Hangzhou and Taiyuan on July 22 and 25, and during the US Travel and Tourism Roadshow, “A Journey to America 2024” in Harbin and Changchun on July 30-31.

Dragon Trail promoted the mini-program and launch event through our China Tourism Academy and Travel Marketing Watch WeChat Official Accounts, as well as in travel trade groups on WeChat, on WeChat Moments, and through EDM and SMS marketing. Brand USA also provides access to and promotion for the mini-program through its own B2B account on WeChat and its Fliggy flagship store.

Starting with the launch period, Dragon Trail has designed promotional collateral for the mini-program for online use such as posters and web banners, as well as physical branding materials for use at offline and online events, such as table cards, backdrops, and other signage – all with QR codes to access the WeChat mini-program.

Incentive Program and Offline Salons

Following the initial launch of the program in July 2024, we then kicked off a three-month incentive promotion period starting in October 2024. This included new mini-program functions to track and rank travel agencies and travel agents – with rewards for the top performers, plus additional offline events in Beijing and Shanghai, and online promotion.

The incentive promotion started with two offline salons held in Shanghai and Beijing in October 2024. The afternoon events featured presentations from Brand USA representatives and the US Consulate General in Shanghai, as well as interactive break-out sessions for travel agents to brainstorm promotion strategies for seven major US tourism regions. Organized and promoted by Dragon Trail, these events kick-started the promotion period by introducing the incentive program and engaging face to face with the travel trade.

Chinese travel agents brainstormed ways to promote different regions of the US at salons organized by Dragon Trail in Shanghai and Beijing in October 2024

As part of the incentive promotion period, we also developed an enterprise interface for our China Travel Academy WeChat training platform for travel agencies, allowing them to track their employees’ progress in studying and completing the course. Travel agency and travel agent rankings were both published publicly throughout the promotion period, incentivizing agents to compete as individuals and as travel agency teams, for the chance to win trophies and high-value gifts.

Results

In less than three weeks, more than 500 Chinese travel trade professionals had used the USA Discovery WeChat mini-program, obtaining more than 2,500 badges within the program. By the end of the first sixth months, the mini-program had achieved extraordinary results, surpassing 2,000 travel trade professionals obtaining more than 700 certificates, and close to 18,500 badges. The number of mini-program users and certificates earned during the incentive period was more than double the initial target.

As Chinese outbound travel to the US recovers, the USA Discovery Program will provide the Chinese travel trade with the most systematic and comprehensive collection of US travel information and marketing resources there is, ready to use anytime, anywhere.

Dragon Trail’s B2B marketing services include offline and online events, training programs on China’s biggest e-learning platform for travel agents, WeChat marketing, travel trade research, full market representation services including sales calls, and more. Contact us today to find out how we can help your brand to connect to thousands of Chinese travel trade professionals.