Event Recap: AdTech Innovation Indonesia x Xiaohongshu Seminar - Attracting Chinese Customers Through Digital Localization

Chinese consumers' interest in travelling to Indonesia continues to grow and gain popularity, with Bali standing out as a top destination  drawing visitors to Indonesia. To truly capture this consumer intent, hotels, tourist attractions, and travel industry players must integrate directly into the apps Chinese travellers already use on the go.

Our seminar that was held in Jakarta (14th July) and Bali (16th July) focused on exactly that: how China marketing can fill the missing puzzle piece connecting Chinese customers' online intent with real-world, offline foot traffic in Indonesia. The session unpacked why Xiaohongshu has become essential ground for reaching Chinese outbound travellers, backed by a real successful campaign case study and actionable takeaways for brands operating in Indonesia.

Real People, Real Influence: Why Xiaohongshu Matters for Indonesia

Xiaohongshu's identity is built on real people sharing real experiences rather than polished advertising, and that authenticity has translated into serious scale, especially in travel, where the platform leads in browsing time and is where Chinese users go first for travel inspiration and decisions.

Indonesia is a rising focus within that ecosystem. Interest is growing steadily, though attention still centers heavily on Bali, leaving destinations like Komodo Island largely untapped for brands willing to move early. The audience driving this interest also skews young, female, and high-spending, with a strong pull toward food, lifestyle, fashion, and travel content.

Turning that interest into consideration comes down to three moves working together:

• A consistently maintained brand account sharing authentic, lifestyle-aligned content rather than one-off promotions.
• The right mix of KOLs, KOCs, and UGC creators, matched by content style and audience fit rather than follower count alone.
• Feeds and Search ads working in tandem, Feeds to spark interest, Search to capture users at the moment they're actively deciding.

Turning Xiaohongshu Presence into Real Bookings

The seminar's campaign showcase featured The Ascott Limited, a global lodging owner-operator managing brands like Ascott, Citadines, lyf, Oakwood, and Somerset.

A key part of the discussion was how COVID reshaped Chinese travel behavior. Pre-pandemic, booking stayed largely local and domestic-first. Post-COVID, that pattern pivoted toward outbound travel into Southeast Asia, opening a new opportunity to capture Chinese travellers actively looking beyond their home market.

Entering the Chinese market starts with understanding this gap, tracking brand awareness and travel intent through OTA data, search trends, and first-party analytics to see where the brand stands against competitors. From there, the campaign activated Xiaohongshu's three core levers together: KOL content for authenticity, continuous Feed content to stay visible, and Search ads bidding on destination and property keywords to capture active searchers.

The results pointed to clear optimization patterns, with engagement concentrated around specific hours and a natural funnel across city tiers. To scale further, Ascott layered on Xiaohongshu's Big Brand Launch Package, combining Splash Ads, In-feed and Search Ads, a Branded Page, Hot Keywords, and a Branded Topic, giving the brand a dominant presence across nearly every touchpoint on the platform.

Key Takeaways

• Chinese interest in Indonesia travel is real and growing, with Bali still capturing most attention, leaving other destinations open for brands that move early.
• COVID reset travel patterns, shifting Chinese demand from domestic-first booking toward outbound Southeast Asia travel, a new opportunity for brands to capture.
• The audience is young, affluent, and travel-hungry, worth targeting deliberately rather than through mass, generic messaging.
• Winning on Xiaohongshu takes all three levers together: brand presence, the right creators, and Feeds plus Search ads in tandem.
• Timing and location targeting sharpen performance, aligning delivery with peak engagement hours and the right city tiers for conversions versus clicks.
• Full-funnel presence compounds results. Layering brand-building content with performance ads, reinforced by a Big Brand Launch Package, turns visibility into booking intent.