New website, app open a window to Chengdu tourism

Cometochengdu.com, the Chengdu government’s first English-language website to promote tourism, provides information on attractions and services in the city and nearby. Huang Yibing / for China Daily

After a yearlong trial, the official English-language website for visitors to Chengdu — Cometochengdu.com — was officially launched on Oct. 15 in the United States’ Silicon Valley.

The website, created by Chengdu Tourism Bureau and Chengdu Culture and Tourism Group, has an international vision and is aimed at catering to overseas tourists’ browsing habits and requirements. It provides information on attractions and services in Chengdu and surrounding areas.

It is the Chengdu government’s first English-language website to promote tourism, marking major progress in the city’s online promotion of tourism overseas.

According to the tourism bureau, a survey of 1,000 international tourists found that many foreigners are interested in visiting Chengdu, but they generally lack the means to conveniently access detailed information about the area.

The survey showed most overseas get the information they need from third-party websites, but these often fail to meet their requirements, which prompted the idea to create Cometochengdu.com, the bureau said.

The website was built to help foreign tourists gain better knowledge of Chengdu, the capital of southwestern Sichuan province. Developers distributed questionnaires among tourists outside China to help design the layout, functions and content of the site. They also invited advisers and designers from other countries to participate in constructing the website to make it more accessible for foreigners rather than a mere translation from Chinese to English.

One strength of the website is that it is connected with the TripAdvisor database, one of the world’s biggest websites for tourist reviews. Users of the website have access to comments posted on TripAdvisor so they can judge for themselves.

Cometochengdu.com is available in English and traditional Chinese. It consists of four major sections — Discover Chengdu, Event Calendar, Things to Do, and Traveler Information. These enable users to find the information they are looking for easily.

“We aim to turn cometochengdu.com into an encyclopedia on tourism in Chengdu that includes every detail, so every foreign visitor can become a Chengdu expert,” according to Chengdu Culture and Tourism Group.

A mobile app for cometochengdu.com is also available for Apple and Android devices.

The website provides information services before and during trips, and encourages visitors to share their experiences on the Internet.

The website targets potential customers on media platforms such as TripAdvisor, Facebook and YouTube and directs them to cometochengdu.com content. Tourists can use the site to draw up a detailed travel plan using the information available.

During their trip, visitors can check for updated information on the app on mobile devices. They can also log on to Facebook and YouTube after their trip to share their experiences with others and interact with Chengdu Tourism Bureau’s official account.

“The website is very helpful and easy to operate. It made me feel as if I were in Chengdu,” David Lane, a partner of Founder Space, said at the launch ceremony for the website. “I will definitely visit Chengdu to enjoy the hotpot there.”

Many others from Silicon Valley also showed great interest in the website.