Go City, a global tourist pass company, introduced its Weixin mini program, a lightweight platform within Weixin, one of China’s largest social media networks. This allows users across mainland China to explore, purchase and redeem Go City’s tourist passes for global destinations in over 30 cities around the world.
Once a city is chosen, travelers can choose between the All-Inclusive Pass for unlimited visits to attractions within a specified period or the Explorer Pass for a set number of attractions to explore within 60 days.
Neville Doe, Go City Group Chief Financial Officer, said: “China has always been one of the most dynamic and important markets for us, and in this post-pandemic world, being able to offer our products to a native platform and transacting using Weixin Pay allows us to further improve consumer trust in our Chinese customers. This launch strengthens our ability to introduce our more than 1,500 attraction partners including theme parks, landmarks, museums, tours, activities and hidden gems to Weixin users.
Dawn Jeremiah, Vice President of Marketing and E-Commerce at Go City, added: “Launching an end-to-end service solution within one of the world’s largest social media platforms is unprecedented for Go City. We have been preparing our customer acquisition strategies for Chinese travelers throughout the pandemic, and our launch is timely with our full market recovery. Cities that remain popular include London, New York, Paris, San Diego, with new favorites Singapore, Oahu and Dubai.
Innovating for the Chinese market
Despite being a leading player in the travel industry and a major tourist pass company, creating a technology product specifically tailored to the Chinese market was uncharted territory for Go City.
Preeti Naini, Regional Product Manager for Asia Pacific at Go City, said: “Go City’s Weixin Mini Program has been reimagined to meet the needs of the modern traveler. It is fully integrated with our content management, order management and back-end services systems to provide information, images and availability for thousands of attractions as well as process orders with just one click. We are fully integrated with Weixin Pay to enable instant payments. We plan to build on this experience and introduce similar solutions to expand our reach.
Subscribe to our newsletter below
Weixin, owned by Tencent, is an integral part of Chinese society and Weixin Pay is widely adopted for various daily transactions. Recently, the company announced that travelers entering mainland China can now use Weixin Pay, including those with passports and permits, to link their international bank cards to make purchases at millions of merchants.
Etienne Ng, Regional Director for Southeast Asia at Weixin Pay, said: “Singapore is uniquely positioned for global partners to leverage the Weixin ecosystem and unlock business opportunities in the Chinese traveler market. abroad. »
Sales data highlights Singapore as the most purchased city in the mini-program, cementing it as the top choice for Chinese tourists. Data from the Singapore Tourism Board shows that Chinese visitor arrivals in July 2023 reached 59% of July 2019 figures, showing steady month-on-month growth.
This launch marks the beginning of Go City’s expansion into the Chinese market.
*This story was originally published in Web in Travel.
