Dragon Trail International’s Xiaohongshu/RedNote Rankings Report tracks and analyzes performance for national tourism organizations (NTOs), destination marketing organizations (DMOs), airlines, cruise lines, museums & attractions, and hotels. The quarterly Xiaohongshu report builds industry benchmarks and uncovers best practices in digital marketing in the travel sector.
Across categories, celebrity collaborations and gaming partnerships proved transformative for tourism marketing on RedNote/Xiaohongshu in 2025. NTOs like Tourism Australia and VisitBritain leveraged talent endorsements and interactive mobile game integrations to drive deep emotional resonance with users. DMOs surged through K-pop and C-pop idol content, with concert giveaways and celebrity travel vlogs generating high engagement. Airlines broke from polished advertising by embracing meme culture and deliberately “low-effort” content that resonated with Gen Z audiences. Attractions leveraged IP and AI-generated content, with Hong Kong Disneyland and Disneyland Paris driving visibility through franchise storytelling and construction updates. Cruise lines dominated with themed video series tailored to specific audience segments, while hotels capitalized on screen tourism buzz, with properties like Anantara riding the popularity of The White Lotus. Car rental brands pivoted from transactional messaging to travel inspiration content, proving that authenticity and cultural relevance consistently outperform conventional advertising across all sectors.
NTOs
Tourism Australia continued to lead the NTO category with 19,686 engagements, accounting for 30.65% of the category’s total, and marked a 205.67% year-over-year increase in average engagement per post compared to the previous year. VisitBritain rose from 10th place in 2024 to 4th place in 2025, receiving an average of 102.97 engagements per post – a 54.59% YoY increase. Three of Tourism Authority of Thailand’s accounts (Shanghai, Beijing, and Kunming) all made it into the top 10 for the second consecutive year, together contributing 10.44% of the category’s total engagements. Visit Sweden and the German National Tourist Board both fell in the rankings from 5th and 10th place in 2024, to 12th and 13th, respectively. Visit Norway and the Austrian National Tourist Office moved up to 5th and 7th place for the first time in Dragon Trail’s annual Xiaohongshu ranking.
Australia produced much quality content with high engagement throughout the year. Since Tourism Australia announced Yu Shi as a “Friend of Australia” in August 2025, its content featuring the celebrity has significantly boosted the account’s engagement and visibility for Australian destinations such as Queensland, Tasmania, the Great Barrier Reef, and Richmond. Fans and followers were exposed to broader and deeper knowledge about Australia beyond its already well-known attractions such as Sydney and the Sydney Opera House. The most liked content from Australia in 2025 was a video of Yu Shi introducing a souvenir hat he purchased in Australia, the second episode of a series titled “Yu Shi Unboxing Souvenirs from Australia.” Other popular content featuring Yu Shi shared specific guides and travel routes that he experienced, encouraging fans and followers to book similar itineraries in Australia.
VisitBritain’s rise in the rankings was primarily driven by a single post about its collaboration with the Chinese romance simulation mobile game “Love and Deepspace” and the special “British Experience Seekers” edition launched in May 2024. The game featured a special storyline in which the game’s four main male leads took the player character on a visual tour of Britain. The account’s most popular post is a letter written in-character, directly addressing the game’s players (“Hunters”). It frames the tourism campaign as an in-game event: one of the male leads, Mr. Qin Che, is on a journey through Scotland, from where he sends the player a handwritten love letter sharing his atmospheric experiences. This collaboration is a groundbreaking campaign that moved beyond simple advertising. It embedded the UK travel experience into a beloved narrative, creating an emotional, interactive, and highly effective form of destination marketing that resonated powerfully with a new generation of Chinese travelers and gamers. The male characters in the game can be seen as virtual celebrities, but on a more intimate level, as they are designed for constant, personalized, and reciprocal-feeling interaction. They remember the player’s “birthday,” send “good morning” messages, and express jealousy or concern based on gameplay choices. This parasocial relationship is the core advantage of this marketing campaign, as it creates a level of emotional investment that far exceeds standard fandom. By embedding its destinations into the intimate narrative between player and character, VisitBritain inspires travel desires that are deeply personal, emotionally resonant, and far more powerful than any traditional brochure or ad campaign could achieve.
User-generated content under the hashtag “Love and Deepspace: Global Confession” (#恋与深空环球告白）
DMOs
Looking at the entire DMO category, overall performance in 2025 was much stronger than in 2024. The engagement rate per post per follower was 0.11% in 2025, compared to 0.07% in 2024 – a 40.05% year-over-year increase. As usual, Discover Hong Kong and the Macao Government Tourism Office continued to lead the DMO ranking with the highest total engagements, accounting for 26.67% and 23.97% of the category’s total, respectively. Notably, Macao’s average engagements per post increased from 106.01 in 2024 to 312.68 in 2025, marking a 194.96% YoY rise and a value nearly three times higher than the previous year. Visit Queensland rose from 6th place in 2024 to 3rd place in 2025, reflecting a 336.23% YoY increase in average engagements per post. Abu Dhabi also secured high average engagements of 621.79 per post, earning 4th place in the ranking.
Although Hong Kong received the highest total engagements, the most-liked individual post came from Visit Queensland. This post promotes Queensland through a dreamy itinerary endorsed by “Friend of Australia” Yu Shi, offering fans a “same experience” travel guide to luxury destinations such as Whitehaven Beach and Heart Reef. It also combines actionable travel tips with interactive fan incentives like a giveaway campaign. The second most-liked post, from Abu Dhabi, features a video of tourism ambassador Liu Yifei watching the 2025 F1 Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. The third most-liked post, from Hong Kong, announces the “ultimate New Year’s Eve event” – singer Zhou Shen’s concert, which was a special countdown performance at the Kai Tak Sports Park main arena. It highlights that this is Hong Kong’s first personal midnight countdown concert and that Zhou Shen is the first mainland Chinese singer to perform at the prestigious venue. Macao’s rise in engagements was largely driven by content featuring popular young male idols and singers, including two campaigns giving away concert tickets for Lu Han and Tang Lingshan, as well as a travel vlog starring Hendery Huang in Macao.
Airlines
AirAsia ranked first in 2025 with the highest engagement levels, increasing from an average of 155.98 engagements per post in 2024 to 458.99 in 2025, representing a 194.28% year-over-year growth. Hong Kong Airlines remained the most active account in the category, achieving an average of 87.49 engagements per post. However, this reflects a 34.11% year-over-year decline, decreasing from 132.78 in 2024 to 87.49 in 2025.
Seven of the ten most-liked posts in the category were published by AirAsia. Notably, its two top-performing posts announced singer Bo Yuan as the brand’s “Brand Friend.” One particularly distinctive strategy adopted by AirAsia was the use of deliberately “low-effort” content designed to appear raw, spontaneous, and highly relatable. Rather than relying solely on polished destination advertisements, the brand shared viral memes popular in China, such as a dancing penguin joking about creative burnout and a fainting monkey sticker humorously commenting on travel overspending – both deeply rooted in Chinese internet slang and visual culture. These two posts collectively generated over 10,000 engagements, largely because AirAsia departed from traditional corporate formality and adopted a tone resembling that of a fatigued yet humorously self-aware, chronically online friend. This approach prompted comments such as “Has the account been hacked?” and “Has this account been taken over by Gen Z?”
AirAsia’s “low-effort” posts
Part of this success can also be attributed to Xiaohongshu’s interface design. As users rapidly scroll through a mixed-content feed, engagement is often driven by immediate visual recognition and cover appeal. In this context, a familiar meme, a simple image, or even text-based content can capture attention more effectively than high-production visuals, as it signals familiarity and requires less cognitive effort to process.
Airports
Dragon Trail began tracking airport accounts in early Q2 2024. In 2025, the average engagement rate per post per follower reached 0.17%, exceeding that of DMOs, Attractions & Museums, Hotels, and Car Rental categories. On average, each airport post generated approximately 113 engagements in 2025. Singapore Changi Airport recorded the highest total engagements, accounting for 31.81% of the category’s overall engagement volume. It was followed by London Heathrow Airport and Chubu Centrair International Airport. Notably, seven of the top ten performing airport accounts are based in Asia, with the remaining three located in Western Europe and North America.
Five of the ten most-liked posts in the category were published by Singapore Changi Airport. Its top-performing post announced the official groundbreaking of Terminal 5 (T5), with the first phase scheduled for completion in the mid-2030s and an initial annual passenger capacity of 50 million. The post also highlighted key features of the new terminal, including its futuristic architectural design, seamless transport connectivity via MRT and bus networks, and the implementation of an automated people mover system to reduce walking distances within the terminal. Other high-performing posts from Singapore Changi Airport included promotional campaigns and on-site events, such as the “Millionaire Experience” campaign held in Q3 2025 and the “Magic of Adventure” campaign, organized in collaboration with Disney Cruise Line from 5 November 2025 to 4 January 2026.
The most popular post from London Heathrow Airport was a short, creative video featuring an arrival board that humorously displayed the airline as “Santa Air” and the origin as the “North Pole.” The flight numbers incorporated festive references such as “Ho Ho Ho” and “RUDOLPH,” leveraging seasonal humor to engage audiences.
Cruise Lines
The ranking positions of cruise line accounts remained unchanged in 2025 compared to 2024, with Royal Caribbean International maintaining first place, followed by MSC Cruises and Viking Cruises. Royal Caribbean recorded a substantial increase in engagement, achieving an average of 305.73 engagements per post in 2025, up from 139.86 in 2024. The brand accounted for 73.83% of the category’s total engagements. Despite Royal Caribbean’s strong growth, the overall engagement rate per post per follower for the cruise category declined slightly, decreasing from 0.05% in 2024 to 0.04% in 2025.
In 2025, nine out of the ten most-liked pieces of content came from Royal Caribbean. Among these, the most popular was a short sitcom-style video created by family-oriented influencer “Mr. and Mrs. Victoria” (@维多利亚夫妇), who documented their experience taking their children on a Royal Caribbean cruise. In the video, the journey is portrayed not merely as a vacation, but as an immersion into a “happy planet” – a child-friendly paradise offering abundant dining and entertainment options from morning until night. The remaining top-performing content similarly consists of videos, each organized around a distinct theme, including “family-friendly,” “friends,” “couples,” and “office workers.”
(From left to right) Royal Caribbean’s popular content tailored to families, office workers, and foodies
The use of themed videos serves as an effective marketing strategy for cruise products, as it allows Royal Caribbean to connect with diverse audience segments by tailoring content to specific interests and lifestyles. This approach not only enhances viewer engagement but also fosters emotional resonance, making the cruise experience more relatable and aspirational to potential customers.
Attractions & Museums
Hong Kong Disneyland Resort continued to dominate the rankings, generating 61.98% of the category’s total engagements. Its average engagements per post remained relatively stable, increasing slightly from 609.17 in 2024 to 626.03 in 2025. Meanwhile, the account significantly increased its posting frequency by 49.09%, from 275 posts in 2024 to 410 in 2025. Disneyland Paris ranked second, receiving a total of 42,784 engagements. (Note: Dragon Trail began tracking Disneyland Paris in Q2 2025; therefore, data prior to this period is not included in the database.) The Hong Kong Palace Museum, which was also added in Q2 2025, performed strongly and ranked third in the category despite its shorter tracking period.
The top-performing content on social media was predominantly from Hong Kong Disneyland Resort and Disneyland Paris. Hong Kong Disneyland’s most popular post featured Gary the snake from Zootopia 2, inviting visitors to “find Gary” on one of the park’s rides. Other highly engaging content from the resort included posts celebrating its 20th anniversary, a stop-motion film featuring Duffy and Friends, and highlights from its Christmas celebrations. Notably, the Hong Kong Palace Museum also garnered significant engagement with a post announcing its upcoming exhibition, “Ancient Egypt Unveiled: Treasures from Egyptian Museums.” The post featured an AI-generated video of a cat dressed as a Pharaoh, standing atop Hong Kong’s iconic skyline. For Disneyland Paris, the most popular posts centered on construction progress updates for the World of Frozen, along with the announcement of its official opening in spring 2026.
Hotels
Marina Bay Sands Singapore, which ranked first in 2024, dropped to second place in 2025, experiencing a 35.54% decline in average engagements per post, decreasing from 344.41 in 2024 to 221.95 in 2025. Marriott Bonvoy rose from third place in 2024 to first place in 2025, with only a narrow margin separating it from second place. The brand more than doubled its posting frequency, increasing by 102.29% from 173 posts to 351 posts. Its average engagements per post also increased from 83.16 in 2024 to 130.83 in 2025. Anantara demonstrated significant growth, with average engagements per post rising from 35.78 in 2024 to 161.76 in 2025 – representing approximately a 4.5-fold increase. In 2024, Marina Bay Sands accounted for nearly half of the category’s total engagements, largely driven by content related to singer Cai Xukun. In contrast, no comparable engagement outlier emerged in 2025, resulting in a more evenly distributed performance across brands.
Anantara continues to leverage the popularity of the viral TV series “White Lotus” season 3 by marketing the hotel as a destination where guests can step into the world of the show. Through curated stay packages and cinematic social media content, the brand invites travelers to experience the luxury and intrigue of the series firsthand – transiting screen-based fascination into real-world travel bookings.
Car Rentals
Zuzuche led the chart with the highest engagements, accounting for over one-fifth of the category’s total interactions. It was followed by EZU and Yesaway, with only narrow gaps in their respective engagement figures. Zuzuche’s strategy pivots away from purely functional car rental content, instead focusing on travel experience themes – such as “internet vs. reality” attractions, “most underrated places,” and “must-visit destinations.” This approach contributed significantly to Zuzuche’s high engagement, as users are more inclined to interact with content that offers authentic travel insights. Yesaway also began posting an “internet vs. reality” video series in February 2026 but received low engagement overall. Its most popular post was an “internet vs. reality” video published in June, revealing the contrast between online portrayals and real-life experiences at Japanese attractions.
Q4 Ranking Tables
