The
Maritim Hotels group had made an announcement during the global travel tradw
show ITB Berlin 2018 four days ago. It teams up with the most used Chinese
instant communication application “Wechat” to develop its first Mini program,
with the objective to satisfy the increasing Chinese travelers’ need. Nowadays,
guests of the Maritim hotel can scan the Mini program’s QR code at the front
desk, rooms and restaurants in all the 47 properties. They can not only have
access to all the information about the hotel, but also some selected local
city tour including attractions, local cuisine, entertainment and other
contents. The collaboration allows the group to improve the Chinese guests’
experience, by avoiding the language barriers and misleading travel
information.
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| source:http://press.maritim.com |
In
9th January 2017, the Vice President of Tencent Zhang Xiaolong
announced the release of the Mini program. It is a kind of application that can
be used without downloading and installing. It realizes the dream of “touching”
the application. The user can open the application by scanning or searching.
After the application is fully opened, the developers whose main body types are
companies, governments, media, other organizations or individuals may apply for
registration of small programs. The applet, subscription number, service
number, and enterprise number are parallel systems.
The purpose of wechat mini-programs
To meet with raised quality travel expectations form the Chinese
outbound tourists, Wechat mini program is a bigger move. With solutions ranging
from flight-booking, hotels, car service, attractions searching, Wechat mini
program no doubt helps the global travel industry to target and welcome more Chinses
travelers. CLSA Limited (CLSA), Asia’s leading and longest-running independent
brokerage and investment group, remains bullish on Chinese tourism maintaining
forecast of 200 million by 2020. As the market matures there will be a
continued demand to travel independently and away from original tour groups.it
is compulsory to provide instant and convenient services for the growing FIT
and millennial market of outbound Chinese tourist to make higher revenue.
The future of Wechat
mini program in our view
With
monthly active users of nearly one billion, WeChat certainly has the audience
numbers to make a serious impact in the travel industry and beyond.
-Accessibility: Users can access mini-programs by
scanning a QR code, searching for their service name on WeChat, or by clicking
on a link shared by friends. Once opened, mini-programs will be automatically
saved to the users WeChat account. It means this service is easy accessible and
takes up less space on the phone for travelers.
-Low cost
compared with Apps: As we know, no matter the development cost or the
advertisement or promotion cost for the Apps are very high. Even it is
unaffordable for some new start-ups or small companies in travel industry.
Besides, there are already a mass of hotels groups, tourism administrations,
tour operators and travel agencies owning an official account in Wechat.
Therefore, advertising and directly attracting followers on Wechat could reduce
the budget and even get more feedback.
With the above-mentioned benefits, we are looking forward to
see the shape of Wechat mini program and its effects in the global travel
industry. However, as the favor of Chinese travels is based on user generated
content, which is a key aspect in a Chinese’s traveler’s decision making and
planning procedure. We are considering it is crucial for Tencent to develop the
reviews part for the Wechat mini program in the upcoming years.
Harriet Eversmeye,2018 March, Maritim lanuched Wechat Mini program for Chinese travelers. Retrieved from:http://press.maritim.com/news/maritim-launched-wechat-mini-program-for-chinese-travelers-296817
Post by Yi GU &Eryi LI
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