New Chinese names for Scottish landmarks revealed

After ten weeks of voting across China, the results of VisitBritain’s £1.6 million ‘GREAT Names for GREAT Britain’ campaign are in. Ahead of Chinese New Year celebrations, the national tourism agency has revealed the new Mandarin names for twenty-three points of interest across Scotland, as chosen by the Chinese public.

VisitBritain’s biggest ever marketing campaign in China builds on the existing trend of giving relatable Mandarin names to favourite celebrities, places and foods. The campaign reached nearly 300 million potential Chinese tourists via the national tourism agency’s influential Weibo and WeChat social media platforms across China. Over two million people visited the campaign pages and nearly 30 million Chinese people watched the launch video, with 13,000 new names suggested throughout the ten weeks.

Glen Coe received the third highest number of votes overall -24,505 – in the whole campaign, whilst The Highland Games was the most popular Scottish point of interest to name, with a total of 235 suggestions.

All 101 points of interest have now been given their three most popular Chinese names. Over the coming days, VisitBritain will be working together with all of these attractions to decide which name to go for and how they might use these results.