France snatch Chinese market share by social network

Screenshot of the homepage of the Louvre on Weibo.com.[Photo/weibo.com]

To attract more Chinese tourists, some French cultural heritage institutions are opening accounts on Chinese social networks and offer information in Chinese.

The Louvre, the world famous museum in central Paris, announced on Tuesday that it has opened accounts on Weibo.com and WeChat, the two most important social networks in China. Both accounts contain information on exhibits and activities and have a guide map in Chinese.

The Palace of Versailles, a royal chateau built in 1664 in a suburb of Paris, also announced Tuesday that it opened a WeChat account. The palace’s history and information are available on WeChat in Chinese.famous site and service information in Chinese.

Le Centre des Monuments Nationaux (French National Center for Monuments), which administrates almost 100 cultural monuments in France, opened accounts on Chinese social networks, as well as Musee d’Orsay, a museum with a huge collection of art works from the period spanniong 1848 to 1914. Both hope a social media presence will expand their popularity in China.

In recent years, Chinese tourists have became the new favorites of French tourism institutes and companies, due to their increasing number and purchasing power. More and more tourist spots in France offer Chinese language service, and devote more effort to publicize China.

According to statistical data released by The Direction of the Museums of France in early 2015, the Louvre received 9.3 million visitors from throughout the world in 2014. Among them, the number of Chinese visitors was 474,000, second only to the number of visitors from the United States.