Copenhagen racked up a total of 178,000 Chinese traveller room nights in 2015 as a three-year-old scheme begins to bear fruit.
The Chinavia project was set up in 2012 and now features Destination Fyn, Visit Sweden, Goteborg & Co, Malmo Stad, Stockholm Visitor’s Board, Tourism in Skane, Helsinki Marketing and Wonderful Copenhagen.
Senior project manager Philip Kyhl said the aim was to see the different agencies work together to market Scandinavia as a whole to the Chinese market.
He said: “The Chinavia project was set up as a pilot project when we recognised that we were lagging behind the other major European destinations.”
By working together, the different agencies are hoping to better educate the Chinese market about Scandinavia’s attractions and so grow visitor numbers.
Kyhl said: “Scandinavian countries are seen as one destination in China. Travelling in Scandinavia is also quite expensive and that’s one criteria Chinese tourists look at.
"Many Chinese tourists that come to Scandinavia have visited other parts of Europe before, and we are now seeing growing numbers of them coming here.
“If you look at our first time (Chinese) travellers they are fairly experienced tourists which is also why we have focused on the consumers and making sure Scandinavia is available to them.
“When we started the project we took a look at it from the Chinese point of view and what we found is that we were largely invisible in the Chinese market.”
To counter this the Chinavia partners set up a new website to better market the destination and made sure it met the needs of Chinese travellers for quick and easy access to it.
Social media, and particularly Weibo, has become a key part of the strategy, as has showing potential Chinese travellers the real sides of the city as they become increasingly interested in living like a local while travelling.
With the various Scandinavian countries taking part beginning to see an increase in numbers, the scheme will now continue in its current form until the end of 2017.
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