Online travel platform to promote China abroad

Qunar announces link with WeChat

Qunar.com, China's leading online travel platform will invest 25 million yuan ($4.1 million) to launch a campaign aimed at promoting Chinese culture and the positive image of Chinese tourists overseas, the company said in a press release on Wednesday.

Chinese tourists abroad who participate in the campaign will be required to upload photos of foreigners with element of Chinese culture on Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter. Each participant will have the chance to win up to 500 yuan in a pool of 25 million yuan offered by Qunar.com, according to the company.

"Every Chinese abroad should be the ambassador of the Chinese culture. We hope that this campaign would encourage our citizens to promote the Chinese culture when they travel abroad and let more people in the world know about real China," said Yang Zi, assistant president of Qunar.com.

China is the fastest-growing market of outbound tourism in the world with an annual growth rate of 18.8 percent, according to Qunar.com. In 2013, the number of outbound Chinese tourists reached 98.2 million.