Direct flight, WeChat pay, get Scotland's tourism China-ready

Edinburgh, which is already the most popular UK destination for Chinese visitors after London, wants to improve its tourism sector to ensure that Edinburgh is positioned as one of the UK's premier China-friendly destinations, according to ETAG.

The figures offered by the tourism promoting agency VisitScotland show that Edinburgh Castle alone welcomed over 170,000 Chinese nationals in 2017, accounting for 10.4 percent of total visits to the Castle.

Total spend by Chinese visitors to Scotland has increased by 414 percent, from 7 million pounds to 36 million pounds since 2007.

Continuous growth of the Chinese visitor market to Edinburgh presents an opportunity for the city's tourism sector.

Chinese visitors in Edinburgh now can see Chinese welcoming signs on doors of many stores. In almost every Scottish wool or Scotch whisky store along the downtown Royal Mile, Chinese customers can seek help from at least one Chinese-speaking sale assistant.

The city's leading visitor attractions, hotels and information centers are offering Mandarin "Welcome to Edinburgh" Guide which was first published last year, and more tourism businesses are considering catching up with Chinese spending and payment trends.

These services are provided based on careful surveys which showed the five most common requests by Chinese tourists are free WiFi, Chinese payment facilities, kettle in room, city map in Chinese and availability of Chinese restaurants and food.

ETAG Chair Robin Worsnop said: "Our research shows that 50 percent of Edinburgh's Chinese visitors also visit the Highlands; and 38 percent head to Glasgow. With numbers like these and the first-ever direct flight arriving from China, there is never been a better time for Scotland's tourism businesses to get China-Ready."