Social campaign tempts Chinese travellers

A six-day social media campaign run by Tourism Australia on Chinese microblogging website Weibo during Chinese president Xi’s visit to Australia in November 2014 has attracted a readership of 120 million, helping to promote Australia as a top-of-mind destination for Chinese travellers.

Running from 15 to 20 November, the “#Dada’s Visit to Australia” campaign showcased Australian food and culture through a series of stories, articles and infographics around destinations visited by the Presidential couple during their stay.

Dada is a nickname that the Chinese citizens have given to the President, meaning “papa”.

Chinese communities living in Australia and those who have been to Australia before were also invited to take part in the campaign by making travel and food recommendations on the Tourism Australia Weibo page for the Presidential couple as they toured Brisbane, Sydney, Canberra and Tasmania.

Over the six-day campaign period, the Tourism Australia Weibo page attained an increase of 30,000 in its fan base, as well as a 300 per cent increase in traffic reaching more than 13,000 organic visits to http://www.australia.cn at the peak of the campaign on 20 November.

The campaign immediately followed the ‘Invite the World to Dinner’ gala event held in Hobart on 14 November, which put Australia’s unique food and wine offering on the world stage.
Post-campaign activity

Content generated throughout the six-day campaign has since been repackaged into short articles on popular Chinese social application WeChat to provide greater depth of the destinations and experiences. View one of the shared articles.

To learn more about the campaign strategy, please view the case study.