The Changing Economic fortunes of mainland China has brought vast benefits to its people and the world in general. China has now become one of the major tourist source countries. Several companies are positioning themselves to take advantage of the surge in luxury travels by the Chinese. These include companies like Taimei group based in Hong Kong and the Ctrip.
A recent study revealed that there are close to 3 million people in China who have personal assets that are worth of 6 million yuan (approximately one million US dollars). Many of these people are taking part in luxury travels or have expressed the willingness to do so.
Taiwan needs to use a proper marketing mix to tap into the opportunities provided by China. The island already enjoys certain advantages such as being in close proximity to China and possessing a similar culture. The marketing mix to be adopted can consist of components such as pricing, promotion, product, place and programming.
Research indicates that Chinese travellers like viewing attractive sites and also prefer popular luxury accommodation facilities. Chinese luxury travellers also crave for safe destinations that offer quality shopping facilities. Taiwan has several tourist attractions and offers quality infrastructure that includes well known luxury hotels.
The country should however improve the services offered at most of its facilities to meet the quality expectations (Global Travel industry, 2012). The improvement should include proper employ training to ensure the provision of quality services. The country should also boost its image as a quality shopping destination to tap into the opportunities provided by China.
Taiwan is located in region prone to natural hazards and therefore should take the necessary steps to ensure safety measures are in place for Chinese luxury travellers.
Proper pricing is required to maximize revenue from the Chinese luxury market. Usually, luxury tourists demand quality and usually ready to pay higher fees to get the desired quality in terms of products and services. Taiwan should therefore adopt a premium pricing strategy that is backed with the desired quality to benefit from the growing Chinese millionaires (Global Travel industry, 2012).
“Place” is one of the most important components of a marketing mix (Mei, 2012). Chinese travellers often book their flights or accommodations through local agents and other professional websites. Taiwan should therefore liaise with such agents or website administrators to ensure that knowledge regarding the services they offer and tourist attraction sites is passed to the Chinese luxury traveller (Want China Times, 2012).
Proper packaging will also be an essential element in ensuring increased revenues from Chinese luxury travellers. Taiwan should package its tourism services in the most appealing manner. For instance, a tour package can consist of accommodation, park viewing, rafting and shopping in the neon lights night market (Understanding the Chinese Travel Market:Articles in Luxury Category, 2012).
Generally, a tourism package should consist of accommodation and a variety of leisure activities. In order to properly position itself as a luxury tourist destination, Taiwan should borrow a leaf from well established tourist destinations such as France.
In summary, the country should improve its services, put in place the necessary infrastructure and conduct aggressive marketing activities. Existing Taiwanese marketing organizations should aggressively seek to enter into partnerships with Chinese travel agents to successfully reach out to the Chinese luxury travellers (Understanding the Chinese Travel Market:Articles in Luxury Category, 2012).
References
Global Travel industry. (2012). Chinese Visitors Spending more in Taiwan. Web.
Mei, Y. (2012). Travel over Tomb Sweeping Holiday. Web.
Understanding the Chinese Travel Market:Articles in Luxury Category. (2012). Web.
Want China Times. (2012). Ctrip targets 50% share of China’s luxury travel market. Web.