Though I have been working in the technology industry, I always think a professional marketer needs to be able to promote an idea, a product, a service, a city, a state, and even a country. I try to think like a marketer in the tourism industry and think about how to promote this beautiful state to more Asian tourists. Feel free to let me know if I miss anything and comments are always welcome. ;-)

1. Discover the Best of California
Prepared by Kevin Huang
Oct 8, 2015

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You Have Heard of These Famous Places
Come to Discover & Experience them in Person!

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California Facts:
• Capital City: Sacramento
• Size: 158,706 square miles (3rd largest state)
• Population: 38,8M - highest state population
• Nickname: The Golden State
• Motto: Eureka (“I have found it”)
• Statehood: September 9, 1850
• Largest 5 Cities: Los Angeles, San Diego, San
Jose, San Francisco, Fresno
• Border States: Arizona, Nevada, Oregon
• State Animal: California Grizzly Bear
• State Bird: California Valley Quail
• State Flower: Golden Poppy
• The redwood is the official state tree.
• State Song: I Love You, California

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Some Fun Facts about California:
• More turkeys are raised in California than in any other
state in the United States.
• Fallbrook is known as the Avocado Capital of the World
and hosts an annual Avocado Festival. More avocados
are grown in the region than any other county in the
nation.
• Fresno proclaims itself the Raisin Capital of the World
• California is known variously as The Land of Milk and
Honey, The El Dorado State, The Golden State, and
The Grape State.
California has the largest
economy in the states of the union
& Los Angeles is ranked the 4th
largest economy in the United
States compared to other states.
• Totaling nearly three million acres, San Bernardino
County is the largest county in the country.
• Alpine County is the eighth smallest of California's 58
counties. It has no high school, ATMs, dentists, banks,
or traffic lights.
• In 1925 a giant sequoia located in California's Kings
Canyon National Park was named the nation's national
Christmas tree. The tree is over 300 feet in height.

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California: Gateway to the United States

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California is for Everyone
For Family
For Memory
For Meeting
For Us
For Shopping
For Peace of Mind
For Adventure
For Event For Fun
• Seeking adventure
• Cultural discovery
• Unique experience

8. Page  8 http://www.tripadvisor.com/Tourism-g28926-California-Vacations.html

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Top 10 National Parks in California
Death Valley national park
Yosemite national park
Point Reyes national seashore
Joshua Tree national park
Lassen Volcanic national park
Sequoia and Kings Canyon national
parks
Pinnacles national park
Devils Postpile national monument
King Range national conservation area
Redwood national and state parks

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Coronado Beach La Jolla Cove New Port Beach
Beautiful Beaches in California
Coronado Municipal Beach Carlsbad State Beach Laguna Beach
Half Moon Bay Beach Pismo Beach Asilomar Beach Venice Beach

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Major Sports in California
California has over twenty major professional sports
franchises, far more than any other US state.

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Top U.S. Universities in California

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California represents
13% of the gross
domestic product of the
United States: the San
Francisco Bay Area alone
represents a GDP of more than $
500 billion, which is equivalent to
one of the twenty largest world
economies.
The main driving force of the
economy is in Silicon Valley, a
region famous for being the
birthplace or hosting such major
technology players as Hewlett-
Packard, Intel, Apple, Oracle,
Google and Facebook.
Silicon Valley - An Economic Powerhouse

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Economic Impact of Travel in California

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The Top Destinations for Chinese Tourists in 2015
http://www.wsj.com/articles/japan-rises-for-chinese-in-travel-survey-1420445557?mod=e2tw

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Affluent Chinese Travelers Love the United States!
According to Pierre Gervois, the New
York City based Publisher and Editor-
in-Chief of this publication “The new
generation of Chinese business
travelers have clearly chosen the
United States as their strategic country
for their business growth. We have
seen in the past two years a very
strong interest from Chinese
corporations – and wealthy Chinese
individuals- to invest in the United
States. The more they come to the U.S.
for business, the more they tend to
come back with their family for a U.S.
luxury leisure experience”.

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Chinese Tourists are Flooding Into the US Thanks to a
New Visa Rule
In 2014, 72.2 million international visitors came to the US, according to
US Travel Association, and that number is expected to hit 88.3 million in four years.
A huge portion of that growth will come from China, which is expected to send 3.1
million visitors to the States in 2019, a 172% increase over 2013 figures. That will put
China behind only Mexico and Canada in terms of the number of visitors it sends,
according to the US Department of Commerce.
The projected growth is thanks in part to the new extended US-China visa agreement
http://www.businessinsider.com/chinese-tourists-to-us-on-the-rise-2015-1

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How to convince affluent Chinese
tourists to choose a U.S. destination
versus another? Chinese travelers have
their secret weapon in their iPad.
Several digital travel magazines entirely
in Chinese mandarin are now published
for the famous Apple tablet, and have a
tremendous impact on how Chinese
tourists plan their trip to America.
Publications like Luxury Hotels of
America, Niuyue Mag, or the Shanghai
Travelers’ Club, published by
China Elite Focus Magazines LLC, have
gained tens of thousands of new readers
over the last year.
Chinese Shoppers Become More Sophisticated

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“China Daily reported that tourism from China to Los Angeles has
nearly quadrupled over the past four years. Visitors rose from 158,000 in
2009 to 570,000 in 2013. With over a million Chinese visiting California
last year and a projected 2 million by 2020, retailers and restaurants are
thrilled at the reported $6,000 spending-per-visit.”
http://www.breitbart.com/california/2015/03/01/average-chinese-tourist-spends-6000-per-california-visit/
Chinese Tourists Bring Plethora of Riches to US Cities

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Bay Area Tourism Businesses Prepare for Huge Influx of
Chinese Visitors
http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/blog/2015/09/california-tourism-chinese-visitors-bay-area-sf.html
California tourism bureaus are
making a push to educate
businesses about Chinese tourism
as the number of Chinese visitors
to California — and the Bay Area
— continues to rise.
Visit California, the state’s tourism
association, will host the first in a
series of seminars called "China
Ready" that are aimed at helping
businesses prepare for the
growing number of Chinese
tourists visiting the Golden State
every year.
“We are launching this series now because California
is the top U.S. destination for Chinese visitors,” said
Jennifer Sweeney, director of public relations for Visit
California. “We welcomed more than 1 million travelers
in 2014 and by 2018 it’s projected that more than 1.8
million Chinese travelers will visit California — that’s a
78.1 percent increase over 2014.”

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The Top 10 U.S. States Where Chinese Are Investing
in Real Estate
“Chinese investors are
distributing their
investments across the
whole country, not
only focusing on
selecting assets in
prime locations…but
also paying more
attention to cities with
lower prices and
greater potential,” said
James Shepherd,
Cushman & Wakefield’s
head of research for
Greater China.

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California's Drought No Match for Its Tourism Industry
"The drought is affecting California's
tourist attractions in very different ways,
but most tourists are unlikely to be
affected since businesses have merged
water conservation practices with their
overall operations," said Ryan Becker, vice
president of communications at Visit
California.
During 2014, travel and tourism
expenditures in the state totaled $117.5
billion. That meant jobs for more than 1
million people and $9.3 billion in
state and local tax revenues. Given those
numbers, there's plenty of incentive for
California to keep tourism afloat during
http://www.cnbc.com/2015/05/22/californias-drought-no-match-for-its-tourism-industry.html

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Understanding the Wants and Needs of
Chinese Tourists
Catering to the tastes of Chinese visitors can pay big dividends for
businesses in the travel and tourism industry. Hotels, airlines,
restaurants, shops, and attractions are already directing a part
of their marketing efforts toward the Chinese tourists.
The Chinese spend more than US
$6,000 per person, about double
the amount spent by other
international visitors. When the
number of visitors doubles in the next few
years, the impact on the US economy will be
magnified exponentially. Opportunity is just
knocking at the door for many businesses to
reap the benefits of this major travel trend.
Any business that wants to benefit from this
once-in-a-generation trend needs to know
what the Chinese tourists wants and needs.

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Understanding the Wants and Needs of
Chinese Tourists (continued)
Travel preferences depend on age
Traditionally, the Chinese tourists have preferred to travel with family or a
group of close friends. Having friends and family along allows them to share
their experiences while they are exploring a different culture. They like the
security of having a planned itinerary and often choose to be part of a tour
group.
Millennials and members of the younger generation are expressing their desire
to travel individually or with a few friends/family members. Young, wealthy, and
better educated Chinese tourists have more of a sense of adventure.
Technologically savvy and active on social media sites, they want to blend in to
the foreign city they are visiting and create individual experiences.
Data: China Tourism administration

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Understanding the Wants and Needs of
Chinese Tourists (continued)
Why do Chinese want to travel abroad?
Although there are exceptions to every rule, the majority of Chinese tourists
do not look at vacations as a means to relieve the stress in their lives. Unlike
Americans who have a sense of entitlement that they deserve a relaxing
vacation as a reward for working hard, the Chinese see a foreign vacation as
an opportunity to experience different cultures on a first-hand basis and gain
an understanding of how other people live.

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Understanding the Wants and Needs of
Chinese Tourists (continued)
Planning a vacation
While the Chinese tourists may do some research on the Internet about their
upcoming trip, by and large, they do not feel the need to find out everything
there is to see and do when they get to their destination. The Chinese spend
more of their time in the present and enjoy the moment. They have fun
getting a cup of coffee and a donut in the airport and they enjoy the taxi ride
to their hotel.

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Understanding the Wants and Needs of
Chinese Tourists (continued)
A full cultural experience
Whether traveling in large groups or just with a few family members and close
friends, Chinese tourists are anxious to absorb the culture that is all around
them. They want to eat pizza and hamburgers (not Chinese food!) when they
are in New York or California. They want to go to the beach in San Diego. Little
things, like buying a candy bar at a convenience store or watching American
TV, mean almost as much as going to Disneyland or visiting the Metropolitan
Museum of Art.

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Understanding the Wants and Needs of
Chinese Tourists (continued)
Shopping
Chinese tourists bring a lot of money to shop. They may buy a few souvenirs
from the places they visit, but most of their shopping dollars are directed at
upscale goods that they normally do not buy at home. Designer clothing, shoes
and accessories are very popular. They want high-end merchandise such as
Gucci bags and Prada shoes. They are less interested in hand-crafted items
made in the USA than they are in items that are considered status symbols.
The wants and needs of the Chinese tourists are evolving as the middle and
upper-class grows larger in China. While traditional values are still most
important to the majority of this growing group of world travelers, younger
Chinese people, who grew up in the digital age, are venturing out and creating
their own personal travel experiences.

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What Should You Consider in Your Hotel
to Make Chinese Tourists Happy?

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As any good host should know, you should always try
to make your guest feel welcome and at home. You
want to serve them food that they will like and not
discuss subjects that will make them feel ill at ease.
When you run a hotel, the best way to assure that your
guests will be pleased with their stay, is to find out
what they like and what they don’t like.
Chinese people, particularly the younger generation, spend a great deal of
time on social media. They share their opinions and experiences with their
friends and post online reviews. A hotel manager can get great feedback
by having an employee, who is fluent in Mandarin, monitor the popular
Chinese travel and social.
When tourists or business people from China book a room in your hotel, you should
be prepared to give them a proper welcome. While more Chinese tourists are
visiting the United States than ever before and becoming familiar with western
culture, they still retain strong traditional Chinese values.

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A Two-Stage Approach to Making Your Chinese Guests Happy
You are never going to please all of the people all of the time, but, you can do things
that will get you more favorable comments from your Chinese guests. First, you
need to take steps to add the amenities and features that appeal to your Chinese
visitors. Next, and just as important, you need to avoid doing things that have a
negative connotation and may upset your guests.
Symbolism
The Chinese have lucky and unlucky numbers. They believe certain colors are lucky
and others will bring bad luck. They attribute certain characteristics to animals and
flowers. A hotel that wants to cater to the Chinese tourists should know:
• If you place flowers in a guest room, the color of the container should coordinate with the color of
the flowers. Plants are a life force and flowers in bloom should be accompanied by budding flowers
that represent the continuous journey through life.
• The most popular Chinese number is 8. In the Mandarin language, “8” sounds like the Chinese
word for prosperity. If you can put your Chinese guests in a room on the 8th floor, or give them
room 388, hey will consider it good luck. Number “4” is a number that is considered very bad luck.
It sounds like the Mandarin word “death” and should be avoided at all costs. In Las Vegas, the
Encore Hotel does not have any floors in the 40’s, an obvious accommodation to its Chinese
guests.
• Red is considered the luckiest and most popular color. Among the adjectives associated with
this color are good luck, celebration, joy, vitality and life. White is often used during times of
mourning and is associated with death. Reds, yellows, orange and several other colors are good
choices if you decide to decorate a room that will be visually appealing to your Chinese guests.

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A Two-Stage Approach to Making Your Chinese Guests Happy
(continued)
Tea Time
While most Americans can’t go without a cup of coffee to start their day, most Chinese
people incorporate hot tea into their daily routine. Your hotel should always have hot
water in the lobby for tea and it would also be appreciated if the guest rooms had tea
kettles and an assortment of different teas.
Complimentary slippers in every room
Another tradition that is followed in the Chinese culture is to
remove your shoes before entering a room. Hotels should
provide disposable slippers by he bed in each room.
Breakfast menu
Help your Chinese guests get off to a good start each day by
offering them some familiar breakfast staples. While
Westerners might eat cold cereal and scrambled eggs, Asian
tastes may prefer congee (rice porridge) with some hot bean
juice. Noodles and dumplings are also favorites from the
homeland.

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A Two-Stage Approach to Making Your Chinese Guests Happy
(continued)
A staff that speaks Mandarin
Being in a foreign land can be intimidating if you do not understand the
native language. While some Chinese tourists have a good command of
English, others do not. Even if they can speak English, they feel more
welcome and comfortable if they can talk and be understood in their
native tongue. Your hotel should have at least one, if not several, staff
members who can communicate fluently in Mandarin.
Entertain & inform in the Chinese language
Putting up a Chinese version of your hotel’s website is a great way to provide
information to your Asian guests. Subscribe to some Chinese language TV stations or
have movies with Chinese subtitles. Your hotel can order a daily Chinese-language
newspaper and you can have city maps and travel cards printed in Mandarin.
Don’t forget the free toothbrush and toothpaste
Chinese tourists seldomly carry their own toothbrushes or
toothpaste when they go on vacation. They expect that the
hotel will provide those personal items for free. Don’t
disappoint them.

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A Two-Stage Approach to Making Your Chinese Guests Happy
(continued)
Address safety concerns
Every person that travels to a foreign country always has some concerns
about their safety and the safety of their money and important
documents. In surveys, the Chinese express an unusually high concern
about safety issues when traveling to the United States. Reassure
guests by pointing out the many safety features of your hotel. You may
encourage guests to use an in-room safe or leave their valuables in the
hotel’s secured storage area.
What else do Chinese tourists want?
• Free WiFi
• At least one Chinese meal a day. It could be breakfast, lunch, or dinner.
• Food that is not too sweet. They prefer fruit and vegetables instead of
cake and candy bars.
• Clean guest rooms

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How to Attract Chinese Tourists All Year Round
Chinese people will most likely go abroad during the two
big holidays: Chinese New Year and the Golden Week.
• The Golden Week, which takes place this year from the 1st of October to
the 7th of October. It is a public holiday to celebrate the Chinese’s national
day. These are two moments where Chinese people travel the most, in
mainland China or in other countries.
But they are not the only days off they can get!
They have the New Year, from the 1st of January to the 3rd of January.
• The Qingming Festival, a traditional Chinese festival that aim to welcome spring, from the 4th of April to the
6th of April,
• Labor Day, which is the same as a lot of other countries and takes place from the 1st of May to the 3rd of May
• Dragon Boat Festival, or Duanwu Festival, here to welcome summer, from the 20th to the 22nd of June.
These events are all based on the lunar calendar. These are just some days, but people can take a long
weekend to go and visit a foreign country. Even if people are less likely to go on holidays at these periods,
some Chinese like to travel. They usually don’t go very far away and prefer to go on the nearby countries or
cities (Hong Kong and Macau are much appreciated).
• The Chinese New Year, which takes place this year 2015 from the 19th
of February to the 25th of February, also called the Spring Festival is an
important Chinese holiday celebrated at the turn of the Chinese calendar.
It celebrates each year a new animal. This year it welcomes the sheep.

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The Best Strategy To Attract Chinese Tourists
To benefit from that year round opportunity the best would be to put in place
a targeted digital marketing strategy according to the time of the year and
propose adapted tours and services according to the destination.
Besides establishing partnerships with local Chinese travel agencies, these targeted
digital marketing strategies must use the following online marketing tools:
• SEO on Chinese Search Engines to
increase the visibility of your website and
services.
• Be aware that e-tourism represents 70%
of the holiday booking in China and adapt
your strategy accordingly. Popular trip
forums in China are Tuniu or Baidu Tieba.
• Have a strong presence on Chinese tops social networks.

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(SACRAMENTO, CA - April 12, 2013) -
Visit California activated California’s first
direct-to-consumer destination marketing
campaign as part of the Governor’s Trade
and Investment Mission to China April 8-16,
2013. Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. and
Visit California president and CEO Caroline
Beteta also announced the appointment of
the Golden State’s first tourism ambassador
from Mainland China, model-actress Miss
Gao Yuanyuan, during a press conference in
Shanghai.
“California remains the go-to place for
Chinese visitors who cross the Pacific to visit
our country,” said Governor Edmund G.
Brown Jr. “These visitors are honored guests
who carry on a long tradition of friendship
between China and the Golden State.”
Visit California Launches 1st Consumer Marketing Campaign in China
http://media.visitcalifornia.com/Story-Development/Press-
Releases/PR-Item/?id=82746#sthash.dWvD0fhE.dpbs

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Some Great Travel Campaigns
& Social Media Campaigns too!

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Las Vegas: What Happens Here Stays here
(2003-ongoing)
(click to play the video)
“What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.”
This saying has resonated around the
world since being introduced as part of a
Vegas marketing campaign years ago.
Naturally, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors
Authority (LVCVA) continues to use the slogan to
its full advantage after a year that saw Vegas bring
in 41.1 million visitors, a record for the destination.
Las Vegas launched the third and final installment
of the 2014-2015 "What Happens Here, Stays
Here" campaign today with "The Secret."
Vegas now features more than 150,000 hotel rooms and
almost 11 million square feet of meeting and exhibit
space after popular hotels such as The Cromwell, Delano
Las Vegas and SLS Las Vegas opened up in 2014.
There are more experiences than ever to prompt Vegas’
famous slogan.

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In 1969, as the story goes, a
copywriter for Richmond, Va.-
based advertising agency Martin &
Woltz hit upon the idea for an
advertising tagline designed to
bring visitors to the state: “Virginia
is for history lovers.” Thinking it too
limiting, Martin and Woltz dropped
the “history.” Good move, on their
part. Forty years later, the “Virginia
is for lovers” state tourism
campaign is still going strong–and
still ranking as one of the top travel
campaigns in history. Who, after
all, is against love?
Virginia is for Lovers (1969-ongoing)
(click to play the video)

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These spots use stunning
photography to showcase all
that New Zealand has to offer
and welcome visitors to “the
youngest country on earth.”
The campaign, which is in its
16th year, is perfectly in tune
with the green zeitgeist.
New Zealand: 100% Pure (1999-ongoing)
(click to play the video)

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Celebrating 60 years as an
independent state, India’s
Ministry of Tourism uses the
brilliant colors and music of the
Incredible India campaign to
highlight the country’s own
vibrancy. The spots are dialogue-
free, but the photography speaks
for itself. Do they make you
want to visit?
Incredible India (2009)
(click to play the video)

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Jamaica needs great word of mouth to get visitors and the
Jamaican Tourist Board knew it. The “Once you go, you know” spots,
which launched in 2004, capitalize on the whole family travel
experience of Jamaica–complete with bright smiles, fun music and
exotic scenery.
Jamaica: Once You Go, You Know (2004-ongoing)
(click to play the video)

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New Orleans Tourism Marketing Corporation
– Follow Your NOLA
This incredible, award-winning campaign from The New Orleans
Tourism Marketing Corporation (NOTMC) was aimed at tourists
who lived for new experiences and discoveries, and encouraged
them to fulfil these desires in New Orleans. At the heart of the
campaign was an ‘experiential website’ with an interactive map
featuring places of interest that fit into seven different categories:
rhythm, fun, curiosity, flavor, instincts, fire, and spirit.
This campaign was instrumental in
rebranding New Orleans as a cultural
wonderland filled with many diverse
offerings, and having more to offer than just
its famed French Quarter. Like the Tourism
Australia campaign, NOTMC made the most of
digital’s potential by encouraging users to share
stories on social media, using digital PR and online
media, and partnering with the content site
BuzzFeed. The campaign was a resounding
success, with 600 million online impressions
leading to a 20 per cent increase in traffic to
the city’s website, and New Orleans being
touted as, ‘one of the top cities in the US’.
(click to play the video)

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Send Us Your Facebook Profiles Competition
(Cape Town Tourism)
In September 2012, Cape Town
Tourism launched the Send us your
Facebook Profiles competition. The
Facebook campaign urged travelers to
send their profiles for a virtual tour of
Cape Town’s least explored areas.
After sending their Facebook profiles,
entrants could create their own five-
day Cape Town holiday, and watch
their profiles explore the hidden gems
of the Mother City.
After over 150 Point of View (POV) videos, 400 first
person Facebook status updates and 10 000 POV
holiday photos, the campaign registered 5800 page
impressions and 41 000 monthly page visits.
Through the campaign, tourist numbers in Cape
Town rose by 4% and Table Mountain received its
highest volumes in 83 years. The competition
also helped Cape Town Tourism win
the Best Overall Use of Social Media
Award (Convention and Visitors Bureau) at
the 2013 Travel + Leisure Social Media
Awards.
(click to play the video)

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The Best Jobs in the World (Tourism Australia)
After the success of Tourism
Queensland’s 2009, Best Job In The
World campaign, Tourism Australia
launched the reinvented and expanded
Six Best Jobs In The World. By offering
six dream jobs in six incredible
destinations all across the country, this
campaign gave its audience a myriad of
different reasons as to why Australia is
the perfect working holiday destination for
young internationals.
This campaign’s strength was its incredible
integration across multiple channels. On top of the
social media competition promoted across Facebook
and YouTube, Tourism Australia utilised everything
from traditional PR tactics to partnerships with
travel brands and job seeking sites, leading to one of
the most memorable tourism campaigns to date.
The campaign ultimately generated 330,000
expressions of interest and 45,000 video
entries from almost 200 different countries.
(click to play the video)

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Where Happiness Finds You (Tourism Fuji)
Tourism Fiji found a creative way to
show Melbourne commuters exactly
what they were missing. Tourism Fiji
completely transformed a Melbourne
Metro train, decorating its roof, floors,
doors, walls and ends with beautiful,
high-impact Fijian scenery to allow
commuters to immerse themselves in
dreams about where they’d rather be –
probably relaxing on a beach in Fiji.
Tourism Fiji demonstrated how powerful it can be
when a brand understand and connects with
consumers’ actions and behavior. It noted that most
people travelling into Melbourne CBD for work did
so by train and used this to target them when they
undoubtedly dreaming about how to escape the
daily grind. With this campaign, Tourism Fiji
encouraged commuters to find their happiness in
Fiji, as Fiji is where happiness finds you.
(click to play the video)