Rosslyn Chapel has been awarded a new Chartermark from VisitBritain in recognition of its work to welcome Chinese visitors, including the publication of a souvenir guidebook in Mandarin,
The GREAT China Welcome Charter was launched in 2014 by VisitBritain to help make Britain the destination of choice for the rapidly-growing Chinese market. Visitors from China have doubled in the last five years and tourism bosses believe they will be worth over £1 billion to Britain by 2020.
The Charter – which now has over 300 members – is designed to help Chinese visitors easily identify hotels, attractions, retailers and tour operators that are making themselves ‘China-ready’ by providing information in Chinese and adapting their products for the market.
Ian Gardner, Director of Rosslyn Chapel Trust, said, “We pride ourselves on providing very high standards of service to all our visitors and the Chinese are no exception. We are experiencing increasing interest from China as Chinese visitors seem to particularly enjoy our heritage and culture. We hope that our new guidebook in Mandarin will enhance their visit here even further.’
Jo Leslie, who manages the GREAT China Welcome programme for VisitBritain, said, “There is strong evidence that businesses who go the extra mile in catering for certain nationalities quickly reap the benefits. Rosslyn Chapel is a great example of an attraction which has been quick to recognise the massive potential of the Chinese market and invested accordingly. We’re delighted to be able to count them as one of our first 300 members and hope that many more British tourism and hospitality businesses will follow their example.”
Membership of the GREAT China Welcome Charter is completely free but is only open to organisations which can prove they are ‘China-ready’ by providing evidence of one or more of the following – a product or a service that is of genuine interest to potential Chinese visitors and meets their distinct cultural needs and expectations; first-hand experience of welcoming Chinese visitors within the past two years; Mandarin speaking staff; translated websites, apps or literature; visitor information or signage in Mandarin; visitor-facing staff who have undergone training about Chinese culture and etiquette; facilities for customers to pay using China UnionPay; or some form of formal collaboration with a peer organisation in China.
For more information about the Charter please see www.visitbritain.org/greatchinawelcome