For the last ten weeks, famous places, tourist attractions and locations nationwide have been waiting with bated breath for the results of Britain’s largest ever tourism campaign in China. Ahead of Chinese New Year, VisitBritain has released all 101 new names – along with other popular suggestions – provided by the Chinese public, for some of the most famous points of interest across Britain.
Increasing Chinese visitor numbers
China is now the world’s largest outbound market, with visitors to Britain already spending £500 million annually. VisitBritain has ambitious plans to double the value of that market by 2020 and to ensure this growth is spread across the nations and regions. VisitBritain’s £1.6m ‘GREAT names for GREAT Britain’ campaign taps into the existing trend amongst the Chinese to give literal names to favourite celebrities, places and foods.
Since its launch, the campaign has reached nearly 300 million potential Chinese tourists via the national tourism agency’s influential Weibo and WeChat social media platforms in China. Over 2 million people visited the campaign pages and nearly 30 million Chinese watched the launch video, with 13,000 new names suggested throughout the ten weeks.
One die-hard Beatles fan even travelled to Britain in an attempt to be the first to name famous landmarks associated with the band – watch how he got on in our new short campaign video.
Here are some naming highlights:
• The Shard – Zhai Xing Ta (摘星塔) – A tower allowing us to pluck stars from the sky or London cone
• Savile Row – Gao Fu Shuai Zhi Lu (-高富帅之路) – Tall, rich, handsome street (refers to popular “meme” in China to describe the perfect man) or Custom made rich people street
• Blackpool – Le You Yuan – (乐游原)- A place that is happy to visit
• Llanfair-pwllgwyn-gyllgo-gery-chwyrn-drobwll-llanty-silio-gogo-goch – Jian Fei Cun (健肺村)- Healthy-lungvillage
• Loch Ness Monster – Ni Si Hu An Ying – (尼斯湖暗影) – The Loch Ness shadow
• The Kelpies – Kai Po Ju Ma (铠魄巨马) – Glorious armoured giant horses (homophonic with Kelpies)
• Cerne Abbas Giant – Bai Se Da Luo Ben (白色大裸奔) – Big white streaker
• Hadrian’s Wall – Yong Heng Zhi Ji (-永恒之脊) – Wall of eternity
• Brighton Pavilion – Qiao Zhi He Yue Han De Yin Du Gong (乔治和约翰的印度宫) – George and John’s Indian palace
• Stoke-on-Trent – Wan Bo Tao Ci (万博陶瓷) – Diverse ceramics
All 101 points of interest have now been given their three most popular Chinese names. Over the coming weeks, VisitBritain will be working together with all of these attractions to decide how they might use these results and tap into the publicity generated by the campaign.
Sally Balcombe, Chief Executive at VisitBritain said: “Chinese visitors already stay longer in Britain than in our European competitor destinations and are high spenders – every 22 additional Chinese visitors we attract supports an additional job in tourism. We want to ensure that we continue to compete effectively in this, the world’s biggest outbound market and ensure that we deliver growth and jobs across the nations and regions of Britain.
“Digital engagement is one of our strengths and this campaign has been hugely effective at driving this with our potential Chinese visitors. We’re working closely with the industry and hope to see some of Britain’s most popular points of interest use these new Chinese names on their social media channels and websites to amplify that engagement.”
Only last week, VisitBritain announced that 2014 was a record year for both inbound visits and spend. Overseas visitors spent £21.7 billion in Britain last year, 3% and a new record. The number of inbound visits reached a record 34.8 million, up by nearly 2 million – 6% – on 2013.
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