介绍:
It may sound like a pub, but it's actually British Ambassador Sebastian Wood's Residence in Beijing.
Chinese travel industry partners and local celebrities gathered to celebrate the launch of Visit Britain's largest ever tourism campaign - 'Great Names for Great Britain'. It aims to attract more Chinese tourists to Britain and make Britain the most welcoming destination in Europe for Chinese visitors.
Patricia Yates is the Director of Strategy and Communications of VistiBritain.
"It takes its inspiration from the Chinese love of giving Chinese names to places. So we suggested 101 places for Chinese to use their creativity and innovation to think of names for these places. And we're going to release them over nine weeks with nine categories. The first category that will go out is royal connections. There are places like Hampton Court Palace, beefeaters. So there are great visual places that people could look at the pictures and think what I would like to name them."
Besides royal connections, there are eight other themes to be named, including secret or quirky, shopping and luxury, events, film and literature, countryside, natural wonders, history and castles, and food and drink. The nine themes cover the experiences that people can have in Britain. Instead of only focusing on big cities like London, Manchester, and Edinburgh, the naming campaign chose locations across the whole country, including many beautiful small towns and villages. Patricia Yates said.
"I think what we're seeing from the Chinese market is that maturing of the market very quickly. So for the first visit to come and see London, what a great global city that is, but now Chinese visitors spend much longer than some of the visitors from other markets. So this is an opportunity to show all the experiences there are around the rest of the country and show them the hidden gems and those less known places."
The naming campaign is running for nine weeks. At the end, the final names will be collected and chosen by the expert panel and Chinese visitors themselves. Sebastian Wood, British Ambassador to China, shares his criteria for good names.
"I want to see Chinese people demonstrate their ingenuity, their cleverness and their creativity in choosing names for British places. If they are beautiful names, they are good, if they are very appropriate and descriptive names, that's good, if they are funny names, that's also good, if they have pun or double meanings, that's also good. So I'd like to see Chinese people really show their creativity so that we can come up with good names. It's very important to have good names in Chinese. So if Chinese people can choose good names for places in Britain, that would advantage for them and help them attract Chinese tourists."
To attract more Chinese visitors to the UK, many British tourism agencies have provided customized services for Chinese tourists. In addition, the British government is also working on offering convenient visa policies. Dominique Hardy is the regional manager of UK Visas and Immigration in China and North Korea.
"The UK has been doing a huge amount over the last 18 months. We've listened to our customers and responded with a range of options. For instance, we've introduced the 3-to-5-day priority visa service, and the most recently, in August this year, the 24 hour super priority visa. We already offer long-term multiple entry visas. In addition to our standard service, we offer one-year, two-year, five-year to ten-year multi-entry visa. One of the newest policies here in China is the introduction of British-Irish visa scheme. If you apply for UK visa, then you can travel not only to Scotland, Wales, England, Northern Ireland, but you can also go to the Republic of Ireland on the same visa. "
All the new Chinese names are likely to be unveiled in March 2015. The campaign, 'GREAT Names for GREAT Britain', is an opportunity for Chinese people to make their mark in British history and explore the whole of Britain in new ways.
For Studio+, this is Xiong Siqi.
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