ACCESSIBILITY

We looked at all factors affecting accessibility, including search visibility in Baidu, social connectivity, mobile friendliness and site speed.

With Google, Facebook and other tools blocked in China, it is essential to use local search engines and social media connections to draw travellers to your site. After all, how will Chinese users find and visit NTO websites unless they are integrated into the platforms that they are already using. Not only should websites be searchable on Baidu, the most popular search engine in China and used by 80% of its population³, but they should be at the top of the ranked results. The 1^st position on the 1^st page of search engines gets 1/3 of all clicks. This number decreases significantly the farther down the page you go, with less than 6% of users clicking on 2^nd page results⁴. Therefore, if you’re not first on Chinese engines, you may as well be last.

Just as importantly, websites geared towards Chinese users should function quickly and flawlessly in China, not just in their country of origin. The average homepage loading speed for the NTO websites we tested was 43 seconds, however, most Chinese users will abandon a website if it takes longer than 3⁵. With only 4 country websites meeting this standard, we can assume that the majority of these sites are losing their audience to slow loading speeds. Ensure that your site doesn’t fall into this category by developing and hosting directly in China.

Accessibility was found to be weakest area for the majority of NTOs, with 71% of those tested having their lowest individual score in this section. This is mainly due to slow website speeds and low Baidu visibility.

USABILITY

Our analysis of usability includes such factors as Mandarin language use and quality, as well as clear information hierarchies. With less than 1/5 of independent Chinese travellers and even less group travellers able to understand written English⁶, an English language website is of little use when trying to attract these tourists. Poorly written Mandarin discredits your organization and confuses users. Moreover, due to cultural differences, Chinese travellers have a slightly different mindset and set of references when it comes to travel. It is therefore vital to not only translate the information, but also contextualize and present it specifically for your Chinese audience.

PRACTICALITY

If the main objective of the NTO website is to inform and prepare travellers for their visit, then extensive and usable information is key. For this reason, we reviewed the sites from a practical point of view, looking for such information as visa requirements, travel options both into and throughout the country, weather, food & drink, accommodations, activities and more to ensure that every part of the trip is communicated to travellers. We also looked for signs of booking recommendations and 3^rd party integration that allow potential visitors to book through the website. Succinctly explained booking options and clickable links to OTAs are extremely important on NTO sites, as they encourage faster booking and lessen the possibility of lost consumers to added steps.

EXCITABILITY

No matter how accessible, usable and practical a website is, if it’s not excitable, users will quickly click away. Moreover, websites that fail to engage consumers will also fail to open them up to the unique experiences that their country has to offer. With this in mind, we evaluated aspects such as image quality, consistency of design, user interaction and more to determine how well they enjoyed the site.

In this section we also analyzed the social engagement of NTOs, including their WeChat and Weibo accounts and user interaction on these platforms. Social media is an extremely important link to the Chinese people that allows organizations to communicate with them directly. With more than 1/3 of all time on mobile spent on WeChat⁷ and 1/8 of each 24 hour day spent using mobile apps⁸, building a strong presence on social platforms should be a top priority of every NTO. It was therefore surprising to discover that 7, or 1/3, of the tourist organizations that we looked at did not have a WeChat account and 6 of the 21 did not have an active Weibo account used within the last year.

Note: Though WeChat and Weibo were both analyzed in this review, the main focus is websites. A separate WeChat and Weibo review is available upon request; please contact us for more details.