VisitBritain: GREAT China Welcome Chartermark

• New mark will help Chinese visitors find ‘China-friendly’ businesses

• Campaign to make Britain the most welcoming destination for Chinese visitors

• Target to secure 650,000 Chinese visitors – spending £1.1 billion – by 2020

Hospitality businesses throughout Britain will start using a new mark to show the world that they are ready for China.

‘GREAT China Welcome’ is VisitBritain’s initiative to make Britain the most welcoming destination in Europe for Chinese visitors. Supported by Government Ministers, it aims to encourage UK tourism and hospitality businesses to sign up to a Charter which proves that their products and services are right for Chinese visitors.

China is now the world’s largest outbound tourism market and provisional data for 2013 suggests that the number of visitors to Britain from China hit 200,000 for the first time. Spend figures are even more remarkable, with Chinese visitors parting with over £400 million during the first nine months of 2013 alone.

The new GREAT China Welcome Chartermark will help Chinese visitors to easily find hotels, attractions and tour operators which offer information in mandarin and other tailored services. VisitBritain hopes it will also encourage more British tourism providers to invest in making their products more suitable for the Chinese market.

One hundred businesses have so far signed the Charter, which is free and open to any UK business which meets the necessary criteria.

Today VisitBritain CEO Sandie Dawe visited Blenheim Palace – one of the Charter’s founder members – to unveil the Chartermark with the Palace’s Lady Henrietta Spencer-Churchill and Cultural Minister Counsellor Mr Xiang Xiaowei, to an audience of top Chinese travel trade and media. Keith Williams, Executive Chairman of British Airways – another founder member of the Charter and the carrier for the Chinese delegation – was also present at the launch.

Sandie Dawe, CEO of VisitBritain said: “Record numbers of Chinese visitors are already coming to Britain and we want to ensure we continue to compete in the world’s biggest outbound market. Improving our welcome is key to continuing this growth. The GREAT China Welcome Charter will help differentiate Britain from its European neighbours and work towards our target of welcoming 650,000 Chinese visits a year by 2020 – worth nearly £1.1 billion annually to the UK economy.”

After flying the flag for the GREAT China Welcome, the party planted a special Friendship Tree in the grounds of Blenheim Palace to create a lasting legacy of the event and commemorate Arbor Day, a popular public holiday in China celebrated by planting trees.

Cultural Minister Counsellor Mr Xiang Xiaowei commented: “Britain is an increasingly popular destination for people across China. The GREAT China Welcome Chartermark will help Chinese visitors enjoy their visits more with quality services by the British practitioners. We appreciate Britain’s commitment to welcoming Chinese visitors to enjoy this great country.”