Chinese pop star Jane Zhang recruited for US tourism campaign

LAS VEGAS, Aug 29, 2019, Reuters. Chinese pop star Jane Zhang will front Brand USA’s biggest ever campaign on China’s Twitter-like social media platform Weibo next month, as it attempts to turn around a drop in Chinese tourists during an increasingly acrimonious trade war, reported the South China Morning Post.

Mandopop star Zhang, who is nicknamed the “Dolphin Princess” for her high vocal register, has been filming in Las Vegas, New York and San Francisco for the campaign, set to be called “Feel the USA”, the organisation said.

During her career as a pop star, Jane Zhang has won a number of awards including eight Beijing Pop Music Awards for best female singer, two China Gold Record Awards and an MTV Europe Music Award.

She signed with Sony Music in 2014 and the following year contributed the song Fighting Shadows to the soundtrack of the US film Terminator Genisys.

Brand USA, which markets the United States as a travel destination, hopes the move will lead some of her 42 million Weibo followers to visit after a year marked by falling Chinese tourist numbers that has alarmed hoteliers and retailers.

“[It is] the biggest consumer initiative we’ve had with Weibo since we began working together five years ago,” marketing chief Tom Garzilli says.

Brand USA declined to say how much it was investing in the campaign, but the most recent numbers show Zhang’s task is daunting.

After growing 16 per cent or more annually in recent years, Chinese arrivals to the United States fell 6 per cent in 2018 and another 3 per cent in the first six months of this year as changes in visa policy, government warnings on gun violence and the trade conflict discouraged travellers.

San Francisco Travel, one of the industry-funded bodies involved in the campaign, says US firms and agencies were working harder to understand how to target China’s increasingly prosperous middle class.
It will spend about 10 per cent to 15 per cent more on marketing the city’s attractions such as the Golden Gate Bridge in China this year, marketing chief Howard Pickett says.