Observations on the "Camping Economy" Series (9)
An unexpected natural disaster has made "net red punch card place/camp" once again become a hot topic of public discussion. On August 13, localized rainfall occurred in the mountainous area of Longmenshan Town, Pengzhou City, Sichuan Province, triggering a sudden flash flood in the Longcaogou area, trapping some people who were playing in the ditch for leisure. According to the official news of "Pengzhou Release", the sudden flash flood disaster caused a total of 7 people to die and 8 people to be slightly injured.
It is reported that the "Longcaogou" where the incident occurred was once the "wild internet celebrity punch card" of "Amway" by some platform bloggers, which attracted many tourists to camp in tents. Before the accident, on some tourist grass planting platforms, Longcaogou became popular with keywords such as "close to Chengdu", "forest niche hiking", "cool water play", "summer escape", and was even listed as "Chengdu City Scenic Spot Grass Planting List". However, the reporter of Nanduwan Finance Agency once again searched for "Longcaogou" on the Internet and found that a number of tourism grass planting platforms have launched safety warnings, and related grass planting notes have disappeared.
This year's camping continues to be hot, and more and more niche campgrounds on the outskirts of the city have been continuously excavated and emerged, and have been packaged by online bloggers and transformed into "wild Internet celebrity punch points". A number of industry insiders said in an interview with the Nanduwan Finance Agency reporter that tourists were "planted grass" by bloggers to a certain destination, encountered accidents in the local area, and it is difficult to pursue civil liability for the platform or blogger afterwards, and tourists should have sufficient risk awareness when identifying similar blog posts. The flood of "wild camping" also reflects that the business situation is wrapped up in the traffic economy, and it is urgent to regulate it from various links such as platforms and practitioners, and tourists participating in outdoor camping should build a solid sense of safety.
Why does the geological disaster point become a "net red punch card"
Nandu reporter inquired about public information and learned that Longmenshan Town, which belongs to Pengzhou City, Chengdu City, Sichuan Province, is located in the Longmen Mountains, and the main natural disasters are earthquakes, mudslides, and low temperatures. Longcaogou belongs to the undeveloped scenic spot, and belongs to the geological disaster point, the supporting facilities are not perfect, there are certain safety hazards, every July and August, Longmen Mountain into the flood season, forbidden tourists to play in the river.
In 2021, the People's Government of Longmenshan Town once issued an article mentioning, "Since the beginning of summer, Longmenshan Town has become a summer resort for the majority of tourists, due to the hot discussion of short video platforms such as Douyin and Xiaohongshu, geological disaster points such as Longmenshan Town such as Longcaogou and Houba have become 'net red punching places' for splashing in the water." "Although our town has repeatedly issued proposals to ban the river, prohibit 'wild swimming', set up warning signs, etc., tourists who go to the 'net red' punch card are still in an endless stream." In March this year, Longmenshan Town also organized the addition of about 10 kilometers of purse seines in key river sections such as Longcaogou and more than 130 warning signs that read "It is strictly forbidden to play under the river".
The image comes from the Internet
Some platform users said that they were in the Little Red Book search for a place to play water, recommended Dragon Caogou is still more, because it is close, it went, all the way are all kinds of fences and warning signs prohibiting the use of water to play, but did not walk for a few minutes to see that there are fences destroyed, obviously there are many traces of people who have been there. According to reports, some local residents said that there has always been a barbed wire fence around Longcaogou, and the road in the ditch is difficult to walk, and locals will not go to play.
Before the incident, the scenic spot "planted grass" notes on the online platform. The image comes from the Internet
But out-of-town tourists are not aware of this. Nandu reporter noted that before the accident, on some tourism grass planting platforms, Longcaogou became popular with keywords such as "close to Chengdu", "forest niche hiking", "cool water play", "summer escape", etc. Some bloggers posted photos of green mountains and clear water to attract attention, describing it as "a penny can experience the gifts of nature without spending". Longcaogou has also been listed by some platforms as the "Chengdu City Scenic Spot Planting List", which has attracted the attention of many parent-child families and camping enthusiasts. However, the planting notes related to the search platform have disappeared and are replaced by safety warnings.
On the evening of August 13, the Office of the Sichuan Provincial Flood Control and Drought Control Headquarters issued an emergency notice, requiring all localities to urgently check the wading scenic spots that are prone to frequent dangers in their jurisdictions, as well as wild scenic areas such as tidal flats and canyons, organize multi-departmental joint dynamic patrols, implement special personnel to keep an eye on inspections at important points, do a good job of warning tips, strictly prohibit any outdoor adventures and wading activities under extreme weather conditions, and promptly discourage wild tours and camping in mountain valleys and shoal waters, and resolutely ensure the safety of personnel.
According to the latest news, the mouth of Longcaogou has been sealed and managed on the afternoon of August 13, and Longmenshan Town has persuaded the people who entered the river channel throughout the town to leave on August 14, and it is forbidden to enter the river to play. Some local photographers said that after the incident, the camping tourists of the No. 3 Bridge Camp, which is about 6 kilometers away from longcaogou in a straight line, have decreased significantly, and according to the latest requirements, the camp does not allow tourists to go down the river for the time being, and most of them are playing in the woods.
Should bloggers be held accountable for "planting grass"?
Since the beginning of this year, as the public's enthusiasm for walking into nature has continued, camping has continued to be popular. As a tourism category with strong social attributes, "grass marketing" has become an indispensable means for camping brands or camping games to "go out of the circle". Content planting platforms such as Douyin and Xiaohongshu have become the main exposure and customer acquisition entrance for camping-related products and scenes because they gather a large number of young users.
Nandu reporter noted that at present, the amount of notes related to the Little Red Book camping has exceeded 4.22 million, a net increase of more than 1.6 million in more than 3 months. At the same time, little red books continue to add heat to camping from the content side. Since April, the official launch of "Little Red Book Camping Season", "Little Red Book Camping Amusement Park", "Summer Camping Plan" and other official content topics, through traffic support, division bonuses and other ways to encourage users to participate in camping content creation, has become the main entrance for many young people to "plant grass" camping sites.
For camping brand owners, Little Red Book is also the main channel for customer acquisition. Some camp practitioners told Nandu reporters that camping belongs to the surrounding tour, the decision-making link is short, the format can be superimposed, it is suitable for parent-child travel, and it is convenient for strangers to socialize, which is very suitable for delivery on the content planting platform, or through the cooperation of talents to do content planting, it is easier to form active communication. As a result, a large number of bloggers or content creators with the label of "camping" have been spawned. According to third-party data platform statistics, among the talents of the Little Red Book camping vertical category, the note delivery quotation of the waist master reaches 30,000 to 60,000 / article.
After the flash flood incident, many netizens pointed the spearhead at the note publisher and platform, believing that in order to attract attention and obtain traffic, they blindly beautified the camp scene and downplayed the safety risks of wild activities, causing a certain degree of misleading to tourists, and did not fulfill the audit or the minimum reminder awareness.
In this regard, Zhao Zhanzhang, a lawyer at Beijing Yunjia Law Firm and a special researcher of the Intellectual Property Research Center of China University of Political Science and Law, told Nandu reporters, "Whether it is the anchor who recommends the 'net red punch card', or the Douyin or Xiaohongshu platform, it generally does not bear infringement liability for this situation, the main reason is to determine that infringement is constituted, and one of the elements is that there is a legal causal relationship between the infringement and the damage result." In fact, the main reason for tourists to be killed is the sudden encounter with flash floods, not the promotion of others. "It's not illegal for an anchor or blogger to recommend such a place in itself, unless there's something false in the content it's posted, but it's hard for the platform to review it."
Ding Haijun, a professor at the Law School of Beihang University, believes that this is a legal issue under the new format, and to judge whether the blogger is responsible, it is necessary to consider whether the other party has obtained direct economic benefits because of the relevant recommendations. If the blogger does not directly profit from this, even if the victim did suffer damages because of the blogger's recommendation to travel, it is difficult to pursue civil liability against the blogger unless it can be proved that the blogger has the intention to know the risk.
How should wild camps that are trapped by traffic be regulated?
The "2022 China Camping Market Insights" released by Analysys expects that the size of China's camping market will reach 52.8 billion yuan in 2022, and the number of people participating in pan-camping is expected to reach 210 million in 2030. At present, there are constantly enterprises chasing camping "outlets", opening up camps, more and more suburban niche campgrounds continue to be excavated, emerging, with "mountains and water", "taking photos", "summer and water" as the main selling points, which do not send a number of informal scenic spots such as Longcaogou.
Nandu reporter to "niche campsite" as a keyword search found that the relevant notes recommended camps, are "far from the outskirts of the city", "wild", "original ecology", "hidden in the mountains" and "close to the stream" as the characteristics, neither in the scenic area, nor lack of professional camp personnel maintenance and management, once suddenly bad weather, the consequences are unimaginable. For example, a note recommending a niche camping camp in Hangzhou has a comment below: "Pay attention to safety, don't camp here after a rainstorm, it was almost washed away upstream a few years ago." ”
But such venues attract some adventurous camping enthusiasts. "Generally we camping like to go to the kind of deep mountain old forest, more pristine, no one, barbecue, singing no one cares, more comfortable." Especially at night, the stars in the sky can be seen clearly. Some camping enthusiasts told Nandu reporters, "But this kind of place is generally sparsely populated, and wolfhounds will be heard in the distance late at night, considering safety, we are all together." ”
At the same time, some reservoirs around the city, because of the clear water quality and far from people, have also become campgrounds for bloggers to "plant grass". For example, Nandu reporters checked public reports and noticed that the Xiashui Reservoir, located in Xinzhou Town, Yangdong District, Yangjiang City, is favored by camping enthusiasts because of its unique natural beauty, and some citizens bring cooking utensils to cook, camp and barbecue on the edge of the reservoir. However, the location of the reservoir belongs to the first-level protected area of drinking water sources and is an important source of drinking water in Yangjiang City. According to the regulations, activities such as camping, cooking, barbecue or swimming in the Xiashui Reservoir may pollute the water source and thus violate the law. In April this year, the local government launched a special rectification operation for environmental protection in drinking water sources, and law enforcement officers persuaded the tourists to leave.
A number of camp practitioners also mentioned to the Nandu reporter that at this stage, the camping industry is still facing many problems in construction and operation, such as uneven camping products, lack of standards, a large number of wild camps lack of safety and security, easy to produce noise disturbance, pollution of the environment, use of fire and electricity and other issues, camping consumption "cheating" phenomenon emerges in an endless stream.
Wang Di, vice president of the Guangdong Tourism Association and president of the RV Camping Branch of the Guangdong Tourism Association, pointed out in an exclusive interview with Nandu reporter that many camping sites are now spontaneously gathered together, and most of them do not meet the requirements of national standards in terms of safety facilities, in fact, they belong to the gray area, and then the cultural and tourism department must keep up with the corresponding supervision of this format.
In response to the above problems, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Chengdu and other regions have issued relevant regulations, recommending that citizens go to designated green areas and parks to set up tents and camp, and incorporate them into daily standardized management. According to reports, Zhejiang issued the "Opinions on Improving the Standardized Management of Camping Tourism" in June, proposing that all localities should set up camps in accordance with the designated management norms, clean up non-designated camps, and put an end to market entities and individual tourists from setting up private and illegal camping. It is also required that cultural and tourism departments at all levels should publicize and inform the safety risks and legal risks of camping activities through various channels such as the media and government announcements, and recommend camping camps that meet safety standards.
Yang Yanfeng, director of the Online Tourism Research Center of Beijing Union University, told Nandu reporters that the safety, environmental protection and fire prevention problems brought about by camping have been properly reflected in the policies of various places, reflecting that the camping market is developing in the direction of "demand emergence - problem exposure - unified guidance and norms", which is a gradual process, and the relevant standards will continue to improve. As a tourism platform with a large amount of traffic, it aggregates many destination information, and when recommending information flow, it should be combined with the actual risk situation and tourist comments/complaints to make dynamic risk tips to avoid being misled by excessive commercialization.
Written by Fu Xiaoling, reporter of Nandu Bay Finance Agency