Inbound adventuring

The goal is to understand the market and identify the characteristics of a perfect trip to China. It is expected to be effective in the long run and provide support for academic and professional references.

Besides the survey, social media has also been a popular method for Kuang and his team to reach their target audience.

"One of our main themes is 'Beautiful China - the Ancient Great Wall'. We proactively use social media like Facebook and YouTube to upload related content and offer special promotions, to promote the theme of the Great Wall and Chinese national tourism on overseas websites," Kuang says.

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"We have cooperated with TripAdvisor, the world's largest interactive travel site," he says.

TripAdvisor's site has up to 280 million visitors monthly and covers 140,000 destinations and 450,000 scenic spots globally.

"We asked senior experts from this site to participate in the promotion of Chinese destinations and to release a special report based on the comments and trends of the tourism industry in China."

Kuang says it is important to identify and reinforce the image of China tourism and ensure that the image appeals to the British public traveling to China.

This opinion is echoed by Sacha Smith-Laing, head of marketing at Ampersand Travel, a London-based luxury tour operator that specializes in tailor-made tours of the UK and Ireland.

China's colossal size, lightning-fast development, and language and signage hurdles mean it can be hard knowing where to start as a tourist, she says.

"We give our clients what we call 'the China edit', which means that our sales consultants test everything themselves and work closely with our trusted ground handlers to carefully select the best experiences, hotels and guides," says Smith-Laing.

The travel agent has a portfolio of 34 cherry-picked hotels throughout China - from Beijing to Shanghai, Xi'an, Hangzhou, Kunming, Guilin, Chengdu and Hong Kong.

"Crucially, in such a large country, we also advise clients what to skip based on their interests and length of trip. We provide the right amount of handholding versus self-exploration, and the right combination of ultra-luxury and under-the-skin adventures," she says.

"We also provide a variety of exceptional access options for people who want to witness the destination behind closed doors. Our clients are well heeled and high-spending, but they also tend to be very academic and interested in art, literature and history."

In addition, Kuang and his office invite airline companies to participate in many tourism industry business talks that are organized by tourism companies both in the UK and China.

More direct flights are also considered essential. Ouyang Cili, marketing coordinator of travel agent CTS Horizons in London, says: "If there are more direct flights to China, we are confident that more clients will visit China in the future. We hope that UK customers will explore more offbeat destinations in China like Yangzhou, or cities in the west of China."

This month, China's national tourism body will also attend the huge World Travel Market event in London and seek to embed a Chinese theme in travel professionals' minds as a way of promoting the brand and to increase competitiveness.