Booming Chinese Tourism
During the last few decades, particularly after China’s entrance into the World Tourism Organization (WTO), more and more people fancied the idea of travelling outside the country. In 1995, the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) predicted that China would generate 100 million outbound travelers by 2020, making it the fourth largest market in the world (UNWTO Tourism 2020 Vision).

In fact, according to ‘Tourism Competitiveness Report in 2011’, the number of China's outbound tourists currently ranks third in the world. COTRI suggests that there will be about 65 million Chinese people travelling abroad in 2011, an increase of 13% over the year before. The expense on outbound tours may also reach the amount of 5.5 billion US dollars. From these statistics, we can clearly see that China’s outbound tourism has enjoyed rapid growth.
 

Creating Strong Verbal Identity for Your Brand
In response to this trend, the tourism departments of many foreign countries designed many activities to attract the attention of Chinese tourists. Some, developed Chinese websites to offer information about visas, hotel accommodations, plane tickets and any other travel related issues. In addition, some countries also request popular celebrities to join in the creation of print advertisements and television commercials. In a word, foreign countries try their best to make large time and financial investments in order to better market themselves.

If the tourism of countries can be considered as brands, countries should highly consider capitalizing on this opportunity. There are many ways in establishing strong brands, and here, we highlight the recent industry trend of creating attractive taglines (verbal identity) in order to communicate each country’s brand messaging effectively with Chinese consumers.

A few examples are as follows:
Australia: Australia created the English tagline “Explore Australia through the eyes of a local”, which, translated into Chinese is “澳大利亚，尽是不同” (Àodàlìyǎ, jìn shì bùtóng). The words to the left of the comma is the name of the country, while the latter part means ‘all things are different’. The tagline lays emphasis on‘difference.’ The tagline, with its broad language, suggests that Australia is abound with different experiences, sights, tastes and sounds through a simple four word phrase.

Malaysia: “Malaysia，truly Asia”, which translated into Chinese is, “马来西亚，亚洲魅力所在.” (Mǎláixīyà, yàzhōu mèilì suǒzài) The meaning of Malaysia’s Chinese tagline is identical to the English one in meaning, and similar to Australia’s tagline, the name of the country is mentioned first, followed by a catchy phrase. This kind of structure mimics traditional Chinese taglines; a name followed by a phrase. Another example is the tagline for Korea “韩国，炫动之旅” (Hánguó, xuàn dòng zhī lǚ)(English one is “Korea, Sparkling” changed from “Fantasy Korea” in 2003).

When utilizing this kind of structure, the latter part of the tagline cannot be too general or lackluster, i.e. it cannot be a description that could be applied to any country. One example of this is the Philippines who created the Chinese tagline, “菲律宾，真美丽” (Fēilǜbīn, zhēn měilì )(Philippines, so beautiful). As a result of the overly general tagline, the president of the country vetoed it.

How to Develop an Attractive Tagline for Your Country
Here are some tips during the verbal identity creation process:

1. The tagline should embody the greatest strengths and the most special aspects of your country. In this function, differentiation from other countries is key; it should portray characteristics. America, for example, may position its tourism through the attraction of ‘modernity’ instead of ‘traditions.’

2. The connotation of the tagline may also connect with existing notions in the mind of potential customers. Though one’s notions may differ from reality, if the content conveyed by the tagline matches in some manner to the intrinsic notion in the mind of the Chinese, there often will be greater recognition and attraction.

3. The words chosen should be relevant and appropriate with Chinese culture. As the Chinese characters sometimes contain hidden meanings and connotations, one should be very careful when choosing the exact words (characters) to represent a country. Moreover, clever rhymes and alliterations are helpful in making phrases stick and fun to say; the effect is greater awareness and consideration.

Tagline (verbal identity) creation for countries require great consideration in both word and content choice as it will greatly affect the way Chinese consumers form the image of experience they will get by traveling to the country. The well crafted tagline will serve to not only promote an aspiring image of your brand, but will also help your brand differentiate and ultimately stand out from the competitive herd.