The 90-Day Playbook: How Your Restaurant or Hotel Can Get Found by Chinese Travelers

You've read the market numbers and the case studies. This article is the practical part: a realistic, step-by-step plan to build genuine visibility with Chinese travelers in 90 days — without a China office, Mandarin fluency, or an enterprise budget.

Days 1–14: Audit and fix the foundation

1. Search for yourself the way a Chinese traveler would.Open Dianping (大众点评) and Xiaohongshu (小红书) and search your business name, in both English and Chinese. Then search your street, your suburb, and "[your city] must eat."

Most ANZ businesses discover one of three things: they don't exist on the platform, they exist with wrong information (old hours, missing photos, machine-translated menu), or they exist with reviews they've never read. All three cost you bookings daily.

2. Claim and correct your Dianping listing.This is the single highest-ROI action in this entire article. Ensure your hours, address, phone and price range are accurate, and upload 15–20 genuine, appetizing photos. Dianping has been investing 3 billion RMB in overseas information infrastructure precisely so businesses like yours can be found — but you have to make sure the information is right.

3. Check your Ctrip/Trip.com listing (hotels and attraction-style venues especially). Chinese descriptions matter: listings with proper Chinese-language content convert far better than English-only listings run through auto-translation.

Days 15–45: Build the on-the-ground experience

Chinese travelers reward businesses that signal welcome, and punish those that don't. Low-cost, high-impact moves:

4. One-page Chinese menu. Not the whole menu — just your signature dishes with honest names and descriptions. This alone generates Xiaohongshu posts: "this place has a Chinese menu!" is itself shareable content.

5. A WeChat QR code at the counter. Chinese guests use WeChat the way you use WhatsApp. A card or counter sign with a QR code (even just linking to your Xiaohongshu account) lets them follow, review and return.

6. Train staff on the basics. Two Mandarin phrases ("nǐ hǎo" / "xiè xie") and an awareness that Chinese guests will likely show you a Chinese app screen rather than speak English. patience with translation apps is a service skill now.

7. Design one "camera moment." Every case study that won the Chinese market started with something photogenic: a signature dish, a plating ritual, a view. Audit your space and menu: what does the ideal customer photo look like? Make that easy to take.

Days 46–75: Content and seeding

8. Open an official Xiaohongshu account and post 2–3 times per week: signature dishes, your team, your neighborhood, behind-the-scenes. Native-quality content beats translated ads. Xiaohongshu's 130 million monthly active outbound-travel users are searching right now — 90% of them use search, so use real keywords (city + dish + "must eat").

9. Seed with local Chinese-speaking creators. Australia and New Zealand have large Chinese-speaking student and resident communities — many run genuine Xiaohongshu accounts. Invite a handful for a meal in exchange for honest coverage. This is how the watermelon-cake effect starts: authentic posts from real people, not polished ads.

10. Ask happy Chinese guests to review you on Dianping. Review quality and recency drive your ranking and trust. A table-tent QR code linking directly to your review page measurably lifts review volume — listed restaurants on Dianping's overseas Must-Eat List saw review volumes double after launch, and reviews are the fuel.

Days 76–90: Measure and systematize

11. Track what matters. Monthly: Dianping review count and rating, Xiaohongshu follower growth and saves on your posts, mentions of your business in user posts (search your name on Xiaohongshu monthly), and — if possible — ask guests "how did you find us?" at the counter.

12. Decide your level of ambition. Many businesses can sustain steps 1–11 in-house with a few hours a week. If Chinese guests are becoming a meaningful revenue line — or you want to pursue Dianping's Must-Eat List, which added Sydney in 2025 and rewards review quality and consistency — that's the point where a specialist partner pays for itself.

The honest summary

• Minimum viable China presence (accurate Dianping listing + Chinese menu + WeChat QR): achievable in two weeks, costs almost nothing, and immediately stops you losing bookings you're already earning.

• Compounding visibility (consistent Xiaohongshu content + seeded reviews + review collection): a 90-day effort that keeps working after you stop.

• Market leadership (official accounts done properly, Must-Eat List pursuit, platform partnerships): an ongoing program best run with expert help.

Chinese travelers are arriving in record numbers with the highest spend per trip of any market. The only variable is whether they find you.

Free China Visibility Audit

This playbook starts with knowing where you stand. BridgeReach's Free China Visibility Audit shows you exactly what Chinese travelers see when they search for your business across Xiaohongshu, Dianping, Meituan and Ctrip — what's missing, what's wrong, and the fastest fixes.