Q3 2026 Weibo Rankings Report

Dragon Trail International’s Weibo Rankings Report tracks and analyzes performance for national tourism organizations (NTOs), destination marketing organizations (DMOs), airlines, airports, cruise lines, museums & attractions, and hotels. Our quarterly Weibo reports build industry benchmarks and uncover best practices in digital marketing in the travel sector.

Have a question about the report, want to check your brand’s ranking, or let us know about an account we might not be tracking yet? Please get in touch at communications@dragontrail.com

Our analysis of the most popular international travel content on Weibo in Q3 2026 highlights how media coverage such as travel and food TV series, magazine photo shoots, and travel influencer content can all boost the official accounts of travel destinations and businesses. Trending topics from tennis to perler beads to school textbooks all delivered strong results, while celebrity partnerships continue to stand out as the most surefire engagement boosters on Weibo.

NTOs

The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) topped the NTO rankings for total number of engagements in Q3, while also boasting a high engagement rate of 4.26%. However, high engagement on Weibo isn’t always a good thing – with more than 23,000 engagements, the tourism board’s biggest post of the quarter was a statement and apology about a Chinese tourist who was mistreated by event staff at a Bangkok book fair in July. Other top Weibo posts from the TAT include photos from the 2026 Weibo Gala, and tourism promotion videos featuring Chinese and Thai celebrities He Changxi and Apo Nattawin.

France ranked 4th by total engagements this quarter, up from 20th in Q2. This was driven by two posts relating to the Chinese travel TV show Wow the World (地球超新鲜), which came to Paris for its second season. The show also visited New Zealand, contributing to the tourism board’s rise from 16th in Q2 to 5th in Q3.

(Left to right) Apo Nattawin works with the Tourism Authority of Thailand, and TV program Wow the World’s second season touches down in France and New Zealand

Other standout celebrity-driven content included photos and video of Yu Shi at the Tourism Australia office, posts about table tennis star Fan Zhendong by the German National Tourist Board, and actress Sun Yi in Georgia as part of a campaign with Lifestyle magazine.

DMOs

Hong Kong leads the DMOs by a significant margin, with more than 10 times as many engagements as the Vienna tourism board, in 2nd place. The most popular post shared tips for finding locations in Hong Kong featured in a cinematic photo shoot featured in the July 2026 issue of W Magazine China. Another top Weibo post shared locations from actor Zhang Linhe’s film shoot. Pop star Silence Wang performed in Hong Kong in early September, and this was the topic for several other popular posts.

(Left to right) Dining recommendations and giveaway from Tourism Tasmania; Hong Kong’s photographic locales; and the Vienna Museum of Applied Arts

Vienna’s tourism board rose from 16th in Q2 to 2nd this quarter, with top content including a summer competition, recommendations for classic Austrian cuisine at the restaurant Meierei, and images from the Museum of Applied Arts.

In 3rd place, Tourism Tasmania ran giveaways for Qi Xi (Chinese Valentine’s Day) and with an F&B theme, and shared a seven-day itinerary as featured in a Tourism Australia campaign with four Chinese travel influencers.

Airlines

The leading international airlines on Weibo in Q3 all took radically different approaches to content marketing, showing that there isn’t one right way to stimulate user engagement or build brand image. AirAsia continued to work with its musician “brand friends” – Bo Yuan promoted the airline’s updated WeChat Mini Program and starred in a live streaming series featuring AirAsia destinations around Southeast Asia, while AirAsia also hosted a concert in Zhuhai, featuring three different musicians. Meanwhile, All Nippon Airways worked with travel influencers to create content on ANA’s business class and traveling to Japan for an exhibit on Ancient Egypt, alongside engaging giveaways: One featured a very on-trend perler bead kit as the prize, while another called for UGC of ANA’s blue turtle livery.

(Left to right) Bo Yuan promotes AirAsia’s new Mini Program; Turkish Airways celebrates Zheng Qinwen’s China Open win; and All Nippon Airways taps into the perler bead trend

Turkish Airways is benefiting more than ever from their partnership with Chinese tennis star Zheng Qinwen. The Olympic champion made history this October by being the first Chinese player to win the China Open in Beijing, and Turkish Airways’ post congratulating “Queen Wen” received more than 1,700 engagements. Finally, Cathay Pacific is celebrating its 80th anniversary this year, posting a nostalgic video looking back at Hong Kong and the airline in the 1980s and 90s.

Airports

Nine of the top 10 most engaging airport posts on Weibo in Q3 2026 came from Hong Kong International Airport, and these all featured AI-generated artwork with the airport’s mascot, “Sky”, who is designed to look like a cute boarding gate number pillar. With 230 likes, the most popular of these picked up on the “textbook tourism” trend – where Chinese travelers visit sites around the world that are featured on the cover of their old school textbooks and leave textbooks there for others to find. The post called attention to the number of overseas destinations connected by direct flight to Hong Kong International Airport.

(Left to right) Kansai Airport’s guide to new tax-free shopping rules; Hong Kong International Airport joins the textbook travel trend; beach recommendations from Sihanoukville Airport

Up from 5th place in Q2 to 2nd in Q3, Kansai Airport in Osaka shared information on new rules for tax free shopping in Japan from November, and a travel blogger’s recommendation for an airport hotel. Sihanoukville Airport in Cambodia rose from 8th to 3rd place, with content recommending the best local beaches and sunset views.

Cruise Lines

Top-ranked cruise lines Royal Caribbean International and Viking Cruises both increased their total engagements significantly from Q2 to Q3. Royal Caribbean International went from 30 engagements to 937 this quarter, and most of these can all be attributed to just one post: A video of Brunei singer and actor Wu Chun visiting Royal Caribbean’s indoor tennis center in Shanghai – related to the cruise line’s sponsorship of the Shanghai Rolex Masters tournament.

Wu Chun at Royal Caribbean International’s Shanghai tennis center, and a Mid-Autumn Festival gift box from Viking Cruises

Viking received nearly all of its 109 engagements – up from 16 in Q2 – for a Mid-Autumn Festival giveaway of a music box topped with a crystal ball featuring a rabbit looking at the moon over the Norwegian fjords.

Attractions

From 13th place in Q2, Hong Kong’s Ocean Park tops the rankings for attractions and museums in Q3, with its most popular posts about its “Under the Castle” Halloween experience, created by musician Jackson Wang.

Hong Kong Disneyland shared information on signing up for a running event it’s hosting in November, as well as posts about summer at the park and Goofy’s birthday.

(Left to right) Background story for a Louvre painting; Halloween celebrations at Ocean Park; and a fun run at Hong Kong Disneyland

The top museum was the Louvre, which shared interesting background stories for pieces of art in its collection, and posted video content at times when the museum was closed because of extreme heat and regular Tuesday closures – a throwback to the “cloud travel” trend of the pandemic days.

Hotels

Holiday Inn received more than 46 times the number of average engagements in the hotel category, all thanks to its long-standing brand collaboration with Hong Kong actress Cecilia Yip. Yip decided to launch a new career as a singer this year, and her first music video features Holiday Inn – the video received nearly 11,500 likes, with an incredible 135% engagement rate.

(Left to right) Stills from Cecilia Yip’s music video; Zhang Xincheng at Bulgari Hotel Beijing; and Shanghai Bites at a Radisson hotel

Bulgari Hotel continued to rely on a content strategy featuring various celebrities at its Chinese properties – two posts about Zhang Xincheng in Beijing performed especially well. Radisson boasts a fairly strong engagement rate and total engagements by focusing on dining in Shanghai, with content from the Shanghai Bites TV show, sponsored by Radisson owner Jin Jiang International.