October Holiday in China: The Golden Week

October Holiday, a time in China when businesses are closed and 1.4 billion people venture to destinations across the world. While netizens travel during these 7 days, the online scene has been bustling with conversation the past 2-3 months and with the increased popularity of social media on Weibo and Wechat, travelers are more keen than ever to share their experiences online with friends and family.

Using an all time search query for “十一长假” (10/1 holiday), which lists every time the phrase has been used in the history of Sina Weibo, you’ll find over 93 million search results on Sina Weibo consisting only of people talking about this topic. You’ll also find plenty of conversations and posts from Chinese people talking about where they will be going and what they will be doing during their trips. This presents an opportunity for destination marketing organizations to be proactive in capturing travelers who will be visiting their destination.

Take for example GoUSA, who encourages travelers to share their travel experiences with them on Weibo through a dedicated hashtag page, #勾拍美国#, which translates to a fun play on words from the English name GoUSA. They ask users, who are specifically traveling to America, to share pictures using this hashtag, a page that already sports over 15 million discussions. For October holiday (also called “Golden Week”), GoUSA plans on building a simple campaign that will reward users for sharing pictures with the hashtag during their travels. By taking a high volume topic and making it relevant to existing travelers visiting their destination, GoUSA is able to capture fun and influential user-generated content that can increase overall brand awareness and serve as brand collateral.

On a final note, it’s important to create campaigns that won’t disrupt people’s lives and to keep it really simple for participation. After all, it is a holiday.

Happy October Holidays!