Five years after Brand USA introduced its global USA Discovery Program for the travel trade, the tourism board wanted to bring the new updated and upgraded version to the Chinese market for the first time.
Thousands of Chinese travel agents are now prepared to promote and sell trips to the USA, thanks to incentive promotions by Dragon Trail International to support the USA Discovery Program.
The USA Discovery Program was launched for the Chinese market at an online event on July 18, 2024, with further promotion at training sessions in Hangzhou and Taiyuan on July 22 and 25, and during the US Travel and Tourism Roadshow, “A Journey to America 2024” in Harbin and Changchun on July 30-31.
Following the initial launch of the program in July 2024, we then kicked off a three-month incentive promotion period, starting in October 2024. This included new mini-program functions to track and rank travel agents and travel agencies – with rewards for the top performers, plus additional offline events in Beijing and Shanghai, and online promotion.
Within the first six months, more than 2,000 Chinese travel trade professionals had used the USA Discovery WeChat mini-program, obtaining more than 700 certificates, and close to 18,500 badges within the program – results that significantly exceeded the campaign’s targets.
The Chinese version of the USA Discovery Program is available as a WeChat mini-program, with features tailored for the Chinese market by Dragon Trail. For example, adjustments to the achievements and certification section of the program were introduced to increase the participation and completion rate. Video content is hosted on Tencent rather than YouTube to make it accessible to the Chinese audience, and Dragon Trail also produced a Chinese-language video to introduce the new mini-program (view here). In addition to the training, marketing, and sales resources included in the program, the Chinese version also features an events section with access to webinars and other engagement activities.
As part of the incentive promotion period, we developed an enterprise interface for our China Travel Academy WeChat training platform for travel agencies, allowing them to track their employees’ progress in studying and completing the course. Travel agency and travel agent rankings were both published publicly throughout the promotion period, incentivizing agents to compete as individuals and as travel agency teams, for the chance to win trophies and high-value gifts.
Personalized posters created for travel agents after completing different levels of the course
To start the incentive promotion period, Dragon Trail organized two offline salons in Shanghai and Beijing in October 2024. The afternoon events featured presentations from Brand USA representatives and the US Consulate General in Shanghai, as well as interactive break-out sessions for travel agents to brainstorm promotion strategies for seven major US tourism regions.
Dragon Trail promoted the mini-program, launch event, and incentive promotion activities through our China Tourism Academy and Travel Marketing Watch WeChat Official Accounts, as well as in travel trade groups on WeChat, in WeChat Moments, and through EDM and SMS marketing to travel agents.
We also designed promotional collateral for the mini-program for online use such as posters and web banners, as well as physical branding materials for use at offline and online events, such as table cards, backdrops, and other signage – all with QR codes to access the WeChat mini-program.
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