A Chinese customer visits the shoe museum at Clarks in Somerset, UK. [Photo Provided to China Daily]

"There was a strong surge of social media engagement through VisitBritain's Weibo feed on Sina," says Qian. "VisitBritain's Weibo account has over 150,000 active followers, the most of all government official accounts." Weibo is the Chinese equivalent of Twitter; and Sina is a leading Chinese web portal.

VisitBritain also works closely with British companies involved in the travel sector to promote both their brands and Britain as a whole. A delegation organized by VisitBritain in November took 33 UK suppliers to China including retail outlets, tourist attractions, local tourist boards and hotels.

"This is the biggest supplier delegation we have organized since 2006, which shows the high interest from the UK travel industry in China at the moment. Major brands are keen to promote in China because of the strong spending capacity of Chinese tourists. Chinese in the UK spend an average of 1,678 pounds per visit which is three times the world average," adds Qian.

"China is one of the fastest growing and most economically important countries in the world. It is a vital market for VisitBritain, offering long-term growth potential for UK inbound tourism. Chinese rank the UK very high as an aspirational destination. It is our ambition to turn these positive perceptions into new arrivals."

Despite some encouraging successes, there are still hurdles the VisitBritain team face. As well as the visa situation, a shortage of airport capacity is limiting the amount of inbound flights from China.

That is not to say Britain's weakness is not an opportunity elsewhere on the continent. Finland's national airline, Finnair, has become a European hub for Chinese tourists after a strong push in China.

"Finnair offers the shortest route to Europe from China, and we offer connections to over 50 European cities," says Mikko Rautio, sales director for the airline. "In the past it was more about European business travelers flying to China, but it is now more and more a question of Chinese travellers - business or leisure - travelling to Europe."

Part of Finnair's China strategy is to expand services beyond the traditional hubs of Beijing, Hong Kong and Shanghai. The airline will open a new route next May to Chongqing, becoming the first airline to connect the Southwest China city directly to Europe.

"Our intention is to double our Asian traffic by 2020, and China is a very important part of this strategy. With rapidly growing outbound tourism along with the internationalization of Chinese companies, second-tier cities are becoming very interesting to Finnair."

It is hoped that the links built by such connections will also have knock-on effects for Finland's tourist economy.

"The vast majority of Finnair's Chinese passengers use Helsinki to transfer only, but we do see more Chinese tourists making a stopover before they travel onward to other European destinations. Lapland and Santa Claus, of course, also attract tourists from China."