Virtual campaign takes Mandurah's lobsters to Chinese speaking tourists | PHOTOS

The live-stream episodes showcase WA on the Chinese travel website MaFengWo - often hailed as 'the Chinese Trip Advisor'.

LH Global were initially engaged by Tourism WA to create the episodes as part of the state government's Adventure Awaits tourism campaign, but the initiative is now also complementing the Wander out Yonder campaign because it's reaching Chinese-speaking people in WA.

More than 100,000 Chinese viewers have seen the five episodes, featuring Perth City, Mandurah, Fremantle and Rottnest Island.

The virtual Mandurah tour walked the viewers from the Visitor Centre down the Marina to Stingray Point Jetty where a Mandurah Cruises vessel was waiting to take them out for a live-streaming lobster catching session.

More than 22,000 Chinese viewers watched them pull up the lobster pots and then eat a seafood buffet on the boat while watching the sunset over the canal.

The live-streaming route included Mandurah Performing Arts Centre, The Sebel Mandurah, Stingray Point and a sunset sing with guitar performance.

LJ Global chief executive James Clarke speaks Mandarin and says the results show, despite the current temporary pause on international travel, interest in the experiences WA has to offer remain high.

"The campaign is also showcasing WA's attractions to Chinese-speaking residents in WA," he said.

The livestream of their first virtual tour brought in the most views on MaFengWo that day, and the Rottnest Island broadcast broke MaFengWo's records for viewership, with tens of thousands of Chinese speaking viewers watching how to take a 'Quokka Selfie', book their travel to Rottnest and learn about accommodation and cuisine options on the island.

"This is a significant achievement in one of our key markets, and Tourism WA is ahead of the curve compared to other states," Mr Clarke said.

In addition to the virtual tours LH Global is filming short videos of key tourism experiences to use on Tourism WA's social platforms including Douyin (TikTok in China), WeChat and Weibo.

"The last livestreaming session was taking the online Chinese audience through how they can take part in self-driving tours, took them to the Bunbury farmers market, camp sites and how to book and use caravans in Australia," Mr Clarke said.

More than 71,000 people watched the Bunbury session, putting it as as the second highest online viewing on Mafengwo's platform. Importantly, Tourism WA is the only Australian tourism authority that is maintaining this type of a connection with China.

The livestreams compete for air time with tourism authorities from all over the world, such as Holland, Germany, South Korea, New Zealand.

"...and Western Australia has been performing incredibly," Mr Clarke said.