Mainland tourists pack Edinburgh

A social media campaign to attract more Chinese visitors to the Scottish capital, Edinburgh, has been hailed a success with tourist numbers shooting up by 40 percent.

The Edinburgh Chinese Social Media Campaign was launched in November 2016 by the Edinburgh Tourism Action Group. It has attracted almost 60,000 followers and received 66 million hits across its channels, according to the country's national tourist board, VisitScotland.

The campaign used influential Chinese social media platforms Weibo and WeChat to push Edinburgh as a must-see destination for visitors from China, offering travel tips, itineraries and promotions in Mandarin, from the city's most popular tourism businesses. It also recommended key points of interest for Chinese travelers, such as history, architecture, film locations and shopping.