Chinese embassy in Finland releases animation videos offering valuable traveling tips
"When people travel with groups, it is easier to provide the information regarding the travel destination, but for individual travelers it is a big challenge," said Virkkunen. "Therefore the initiative of providing information for individual travelers via video is very, very good," he added.
Virkkunen noted that the smart phone usage by Chinese has developed to an extent that the instant access to digital information becomes more valuable and necessary.
The first episode of the video series "Arriving at the Airport" had already been aired for one month on board Finnair flights from China to Finland, said Piia Karhu, Senior Vice President in charge of Customer Experience of Finnair. She said the feedback from customers was great.
Questions regarding shopping, staying in a hotel and transportation are "typically asked by our customers", said Karhu, adding that these questions are answered by the video before the travelers arrive in Finland. She told
Xinhua that it is a very unique practice according to Finnair's experience, as no other partners of Finnair in the world has done this before.
The travelling tips given by the videos were mostly based on true lessons learned by the Chinese tourists in the past few years, sources told Xinhua.
For example, a group of Chinese tourists were said to be in dispute with local tour guides in northern Finland about the failure to see northern lights last year. Based on the incident, the videos tell viewers that seeing northern lights is not a sure thing and "any agency promising the tourists can see the aurora 100 percent for sure is definitely a liar."
The full edition video series will be aired on in-flight entertainment video players of Finnair flights by February 2018, when the Chinese celebrate the week-long Spring Festival, the country's most important festival for family reunion, said the embassy.