The favorite destinations for Chinese travelers are the US and within the US New York City ranks highest. Here nine out of every ten Chinese visitors spent an average of $10,800 on during their 14 day visit. About 2.2 million tourists from China spent $23.7 billion in the US with 274,400 Chinese students in the US contributing an additional $22 billion to the economy. (2014 data from the China Daily USA).The proportion of luxury items bought by Chinese outside China is growing rapidly compared to luxury items bought in China and is now reaching 80% of all purchases. While foreign luxury companies in China have now a hard time meeting their sales objectives, their shops in the United States and Europe adjust to the steadily growing stream of affluent Chinese customers.

Yet this interest in outbound Chinese travelers neglects the other side of the coin, inbound tourism to China, the world’s biggest tourism market. It has risen to the third place of all countries in tourism income and is expected to become number one in the near future. In 2014 2.1 million Americans went to China the third largest group of foreign visitors. Innovative strategies have been developed by Chinese agencies led by the China International Communication Center (CICC)  which has developed innovative visually tools to attract more tourists from the United States to China which can also be applied to other countries. These strategies incorporate technologies such as 3D immersing the viewer in virtual reality platform. Relatively small portable devices permit the user, the potential tourist to explore what China has to offer. These mobile wearable devices will carry views of China’s contributions in cultural, environmental, natural, culinary, philosophical/Confucian sectors. They permit a soft but effective marketing of China as a tourist destination covering virtual niches of interest to foreign visitors. Exposure through the 3D virtual reality experience is not restricted to the wearable helmet but can also be achieved through other platforms like computers and mobile devices. Further the internet is an obvious portal for the 3D tourism approach. Under the motto seeing is believing application of the virtual reality 3D experience is a new and advanced promotion and marketing approach. This will not only attract tourists but also constitutes an effective instrument of public diplomacy and a transmission belt for international image building. Those interested in China can in the near future tour the country at the local travel agency or at home and select from more than 100 vignettes focusing on the most attractive spots in China to which a large amount of other content can be added covering documentaries, features and educational programs.

The technology is in place since the wearable device, the 2K VR headset, is already produced and used in China. It will be introduced in the United States at an estimated cost of $30 in early 2016. Applications connecting the headset with other devices are already available in China. Content has to be translated accounting for the delay before bringing the helmet to the States.  For consumers there is no plan to charge for downloading the programs.  

Supported by Facebook’s Oculus unit Samsung plans to sell in the United States an upgraded version of its mobile virtual reality headset for $99. It will work with Samsung’s smart phones and offer games, movies, facebook videos, live streaming and a Netflix link. Evidently, Samsung’s approach is not designed for tourism or public diplomacy applications.

The virtual reality strategy embraced by China International Communication Center is so obvious that one wonders why no other major country has embraced it.

Claus Mueller

filmexchange@gmail.com