Pasadena launches "China Ready" to attract Chinese tourists
Pasadena has launched its "China Ready" programme, to encourage Chinese tourists to visit the city. &nbsp;China Luxury Advisors' co-founder, Sage Brennan, has created the China Ready programme to counsel luxury brands, retailers and destinations on how to perform better in attracting Chinese consumers. &nbsp;He believes that most of China's luxury spenders are aged 30 years or below, so one of his goals is to reach out to them via profiles on Weibo and WeChat on their smartphones. &nbsp;
PASADENA >> Hoping to capture business from the world’s top-spending tourists, Pasadena announced the launch of its “China Ready” program Tuesday to brand the city as a premier destination with an “authentic American lifestyle.”

Mayor Terry Tornek called the move a no-brainer and said it’s about time a city that “relies on its diversity to find strength” has a program to attract, attain and make it easy for people in China to visit.

“Over the recent times, change has been coming to Pasadena in a very aggressive and dramatic way — and the change is really for the good,” Tornek said. “The fastest growing population in Pasadena is, in fact, Asian-Americans, and so we welcome them. We embrace them.”

Sage Brennan, co-founder of China Luxury Advisors, developed the China Ready program to counsel luxury brands, retailers and destinations how to perform better by attracting Chinese consumers. His Redondo Beach-based business has about 25 clients, including some in Los Angeles, New York, Paris and Spain, Brennan said.

China Luxury Advisors is working with the Pasadena Convention & Visitors Bureau to roll out the China Ready program.

Chinese visitors to America grew by more than 83 percent from 2010 to 2012, and there has been a 20 percent growth in this group’s arrivals in Los Angeles, Brennan said.

In November, the United States launched a new 10-year visa program for Chinese tourists, likely increasing the number of visits and repeat visits, Brennan said.

Brennan has been working with Pasadena for several months on a strategy, he said. Chinese luxury spenders are often younger than the norm, so one of the goals is to reach young Chinese people on their home turf — smartphones.

Pasadena will eventually create profiles on Weibo, the “Chinese Twitter,” and WeChat, a free messaging and calling app popular in China, Brennan said.

“Branding in China is very important, and the brand of Pasadena needs to be enhanced,” said Brennan, who lived in Beijing and Shanghai for about a decade. “It’s obvious Pasadena needs something. They have the Rose Parade, which is awesome. People don’t get that in China as much. That’s part of an issue.”

Brennan was vague about Pasadena-specific China Ready strategies but mentioned information on Web pages such as visitpasadena.com will be translated into Chinese. His team will entice the average Chinese citizen into caring about the Rose Parade. Having more floats from Chinese businesses is definitely a first step, he said.

Rep. Judy Chu, D-Pasadena, said President Barack Obama’s upcoming White House dinner with Chinese President Xi Jinping demonstrates the relationship between the two nations is growing and each country’s economy is affected by the other’s.

When Chu was a councilwoman in Monterey Park in the 1980s, the city and even some city council members said they “were against the Chinese,” Chu said. She doesn’t think the same racial tension will happen as Pasadena increases efforts to attract Chinese tourists.

“Certainly we have the best Chinese restaurants in Monterey Park, Alhambra, San Gabriel and Rosemead,” Chu said. “Pasadena also has many world-class American restaurants …. The Chinese don’t just come here to eat Chinese food. Obviously they want to eat all kinds of food, and I think (Pasadena) provides a diversity of experiences that I think they would want.”