Mentioning Chinese and Chinese-speaking tourists to businesses in Vietnam elicits a number of assumptions and misconceptions. Large tour groups consisting of matching shirts following a leader-raised flag to pre-approved and Chinese-owned businesses are largely a disappearing relic of previous generations. Mainland tourists, particularly younger ones, are much more likely to travel independently as couples, families, friend groups or solo and do all their planning themselves. In this way, they are similar to the western tourists that Vietnamese restaurants, resorts, and spas are familiar with.
China is, of course, a massive country, and the travel preferences and requirements of its citizens are diverse. But if one narrows the focus to educated millennials and older Gen Z at a certain income level, typically dwelling in tier 1 and 2 cities, there emerge enough similarities to market towards them effectively. Some of the 50 tier 1 and 2 cities have populations equal that of Hong Kong and the segment coincides with Chinese-speaking tourists from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, and diaspora communities from around the world.
Food, shopping, selfies, and cultural activities are amongst the top activities of this segment
Vietnam welcomes over five million Chinese-speaking tourists per year, and the nation is the top travel destination for mainland Chinese. These numbers are consistently increasing and represent a large market for local businesses, particularly in hospitality, F&B, and retail. However, various cultural and logistical barriers make it difficult for small and even large businesses to truly tap into this group. Within this context, locally-tailored services and strategies are emerging to bridge the gap.
To learn more about this group and how businesses in Vietnam can reach them, Saigoneer spoke with Hồ Chí Minh City-based Beast Group, a marketing agency specializing in connecting local brands with the Chinese-speaking market. The group’s founder, Denzel Zhang, explained that modern Chinese-speaking tourists from this middle and upper-class group are generally very appealing to local businesses. They tend to spend, on average, 1.5 times as much as other tourists. Moreover, motivated by FOMO, they particularly gravitate towards special-menu or limited items.
Photos that attact attention should be high-quality but feel authentic.
“Photos,” Denzel responded immediately and emphatically when asked what attracts the attention of these Chinese-speaking travelers. The photos have to be high quality, but not so professional as to appear commercial. This typically comes down to images of meals, resort views, luxurious spa interiors, and chic city hotels that are captured on phones by someone who knows what angles and minimal prep will be flattering and how to do minor in-app editing, but isn’t using a lighting setup, extensive post-production, or a DSLR camera.
Having the photos is only the first step. Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, the platforms most Vietnam-based businesses rely on, are inaccessible to users in mainland China. Instead, they have domestic alternatives, including RedNote (Xiaohongshu), which Denzel explained as a hybrid of Instagram and TripAdvisor. These are the places where Chinese speakers go to share about and discover travel destinations. Chinese speakers in countries without app restrictions use them as well because they are optimized for the Chinese language and foster communities that share cultural values that manifest in dining preferences and resort requirements.
Pictures say a lot, but businesses that succeed find a way to speak Chinese as well.
In addition to appearing on these apps, Chinese menus and Chinese-speaking staff are important for attracting this powerful group of tourists. Denzel says their English fluency is somewhat limited, and thus, they are hesitant to go anywhere that cannot accommodate their language at least a bit. Moreover, they are shy to make reservations or ask questions over the phone and prefer to text for communication.
If a local business can deliver its message with impressive but authentic photos via these particular Chinese-language apps, such as RedNote, it can tap into a powerful market. However, Denzel cautions against trying to do so without intimate knowledge of the communities and the rules and norms of the platforms. Going alone can ultimately cause more harm than good. Such a reality is why agencies like Beast Group exist. Founded by Chinese speakers in Vietnam and having developed relationships in mainland and diaspora communities as well as local Vietnamese and Western businesses, they understand the landscape and what is needed to navigate it fluently.
As Chinese-speaking tourists continue to arrive in record numbers, Beast Group will play an important role in ensuring restaurants, retail shops, resorts, hotels, spas, and service providers can take advantage.
Denzel Zhang, Beast Group's Founderc.
In a forthcoming article, Saigoneer will explain exactly how Beast Group targets Chinese-speaking tourists successfully as well as the dangers of going alone with a few case studies.
