Abstract:
This paper examines a social media campaign initiated by Tourism New Zealand (NZ) using Chinese actress Yao Chen as a brand ambassador to promote NZ as a tourism destination in China. Yao Chen shared her travel experience in NZ, including her wedding in Queenstown, on her Sina Weibo microblog with more than 10.9 million followers, raising awareness of NZ as a tourism destination in China. This article analyses the reach of the social media campaign, and explores key success factors of the campaign. It also investigates implications of the campaign for the tourism firms involved, suggesting ways how firms can capture value from such initiatives.
