Washington, Dc Expands Its Partnership with WeChat to Cater to the Chinese Tourist Market

Destination DC (DDC), the official marketing organization for Washington, DC, expands its partnership with WeChat by launching the first City Experience Mini Program in the United States to support Chinese travelers when they arrive in the city. Through Tencent's instant messaging platform, DDC continues its expansion into Washington, DC's top overseas market with the immersive new program built for the 963 million monthly active users on WeChat.

"One of the biggest challenges for Chinese travelers in any western city is knowing where to go and what to do," says Elliott L. Ferguson, II, President and CEO of DDC. "We are thrilled to partner with WeChat to enhance the visitor experience for the 304,000 Chinese travelers who visit Washington, DC every year, especially as we hope to grow Chinese visitation."

The new DDC City Experience Mini Program is designed to be an interactive guide that helps tourists make the most of their visit to Washington. The map driven layout of the top attractions and places to eat and shop has an explorative style which is aimed at the growing number of FIT visitors. The city's top attractions also have audio tours included in Mandarin to make it easy for Chinese tourists to understand the historical and cultural significance of the places they are visiting without a tour guide.

Mini Program features include:

-Top attractions

-Details including opening and closing times, contact information and admission fees

-Audio tours in Mandarin

-Walking directions

Social share functionality on WeChat

The Mini Program will have new attractions and content added every week and will soon feature top dining, shopping and tour offers that tourists can take advantage of.

Over the past year, DDC has been building a strong following on its Official Service account (account ID: visitdc), achieving the highest traffic growth among U.S. cities on WeChat in 2016. With the Tencent expanded partnership, DDC continues to grow Welcome China (the organization's certification program for its members) by catering to Chinese travelers before, during and after they arrive in Washington, DC.

DDC has partnered with The Momentum Group, a WeChat marketing and solutions provider, to manage the Service Account and build the WeChat Mini Program. DDC recently ran a successful Golden Week contest in partnership with its members to fly a winner to Washington, DC to enjoy the U.S capital during the Golden Week holiday.

Long Island's Stony Brook Community is First in the United States to Accept Alipay and WeChat Pay

Stony Brook Hamlet is located in New York, on the North Shore of Long Island, just 60 miles from Manhattan. Stony Brook Village Center, created in 1941, is considered the first planned business community in the United States, and will make its mark on December 1 as the first community in the country to accept China's leading mobile payment platforms. Alipay and WeChat Pay account for 90% of the Chinese mobile payment market share with over 1 billion active users.

The majority of establishments in this quaint, historic village, as well as its environs, have partnered with CITCON, a cross-border mobile payment leader to accept Alipay and WeChat via CITCON's smart mobile point-of-sale (mPOS), easy-to-integrate API and software products to provide the most preferred payment options for Chinese consumers. "We are thrilled to partner with Stony Brook Village and make it the first community in the U.S. to accept Alipay and WeChat Pay" said Chuck Huang, Founder and CEO of CITCON, "Mobile payment is the future of commerce, and by accepting the most preferred payment options for Chinese travelers makes it easy for businesses to provide a delightful experience and engage with millions of Chinese consumers."

Alipay, the world's largest mobile and online payment platform, provides in-store payment service in more than 30 countries across the world; and WeChat Pay, a fully integrated payment solution within WeChat, the world's most popular mobile social communications service with 980 million active users envisions and innovates new ways for people to connect, communicate and share. CITCON's payment solutions enable cross-border payments for Chinese consumers to purchase goods and services overseas in Chinese Yuan and for merchants to be settled in local currencies. Adding these payment options allows merchants to gain the opportunity to better service the Chinese traveler, and tap into an even larger revenue stream from one billion Chinese consumers who are the largest spenders, and the fastest growing traveler segment to North America.

China is the largest market for U.S. travel and tourism goods and services and astronomical growth is anticipated in the next few years. Six million Chinese tourists are expected to visit the U.S. by the year 2020.

Discover Long Island's President and CEO, Kristen Jarnagin says, "Chinese travelers are changing the scope of the international tourism market and Long Island is not only excited to welcome them but prepared to provide them with an experience steeped in convenience and ease that they are accustomed to. This new advancement, combined with our destination's diverse assets and proximity to New York City, gives Long Island an unmatched competitive edge in luring the lucrative Chinese visitor."

WMHO has spearheaded this effort with ALON Marketing Group to bring together 30 organizations including restaurants, hotels, retail services, attractions and transportation to offer these services. In addition, through the purchase of a Stony Brook Village Center Gift Certificate at WMHO's Educational & Cultural Center or their Management Office, 111 Main Street in Stony Brook, Asian customers can also make purchases at: Staller Center for the Arts at Stony Brook University, Chico's, LOFT, Crabtree & Evelyn, Brew Cheese, Wish, Roseland School of Dance, MensRoom Barber, Village Coffee Market, Lake Side Emotions Wine Boutique and WMHO Heritage Gift Shop. This will accommodate Asian Long Island residents and Stony Brook University faculty and students. The Asian population, as it stands today, is 16% in a one mile radius of the Stony Brook Village Center. Gloria Rocchio, President of The Ward Melville Heritage Organization says, "Stony Brook is an international community. Partnering with Ali Pay and WeChat Pay provides the Asian resident and visitor with a familiar way of payment and makes the area Asian-friendly."