TALKS are underway to have a major Chinese broadcaster beam footage of the Scottish capital's world-famous Hogmanay bash to a potential audience of more than 80 million people.
Central China TV is back in the mix for this year’s event, which will feature headliners The nHuman League and Rag’n’Bone Man, having become the first to broadcast the Edinburgh spectacular three years ago.
If is a further example of how Edinburgh has been recognising the value of China and its visitors.
Two years ago a Chinese strand was added to the Blogmanay social media campaign which reached almost 10 million people on Twitter last year. Some 17,400 tweets were generated, along with 3000 images on Instagram.
The flagship Hogmanay celebrations received a huge exposure in China through a Mandarin-language social media campaign, and the flying of half-a-dozen top travel bloggers to the event.
The charm offensive saw them experience all of Edinburgh’s main New Year events and get VIP treatment at a host of the city’s leading visitor attractions and tourism sites.
As part of the China Ready initative developed by the Edinburgh Tourism Action Group, a Chinese-speaking coordinator was recruited to run social media channels on the popular Wiebo and WeChat platforms.
Content created by the bloggers was to be used on official Scottish Government promotional channels in China, six months after a trade mission led by First Minister Nicola Sturgeon.
On December 31, 2015, Hogmanay was trending as the 7th highest travel topic on Chinese social media.
The producers of the Hogmanay spectacle said on launch: "Although [people] might not necessarily be on these Chinese social media platforms themselves, if they know... people are talking about them as part of their trip to Edinburgh there that is a huge potential market.”
The Scottish capital has seen visits from China jump more than a third this year, with what is described as a “dramatic shift” to younger, independent travelers rather than busloads of sightseers tagging along behind umbrella-wielding guides.
An Edinburgh's Hogmanay source said: "We are still in discussions over the [Chinese broadcaster]. I know in previous years CCTV have attended and covered Hogmany but we are still discussing."
She said the bloggers were seen as "influencers and opinion-leaders in China".
The organisers of one of the Edinburgh Tattoo have also seen the value of China.
Negotiations were expected to take place with Chinese government and promoters to hold the tattoo in China in 2020. It would be a co-production with the Chinese government and Chinese promoters.
And in July it emerged what is one of Scotland’s signature events planned to harness China’s biggest social media network WeChat by allowing its tickets to be sold on its fast-growing mobile payment system.
The Tattoo’s Chinese ticket sales rose 89 per cent in 2015-16.
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