Source: People's Daily Overseas Edition
Gansu Tianshui "Food Festival" live performance of traditional folk customs on stilts. Photo by Chen Kun (People's Pictures)
Tourists enjoy the night view and taste food at the Chenghuangmiao Night Market in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province. Photo by Hu Xuejun (People's Pictures)
The First Culinary Arts Skills Competition was held in Beijing recently, and the audience watched the participating dishes at the competition site. Photo by Chen Xiaogen (People's Pictures)
The 11th Weishan Snack Festival in Dali, China was held recently, and actors dressed in national costumes welcomed visitors at the banquet on Niutou Long Street in the ancient city of Weishan. Photo by Liang Zhiqiang (People's Pictures)
Recently, Malatang in Tianshui City, Gansu Province has frequently appeared on social platforms. A bowl of spicy tang made the northwest town out of the circle. Diners become tourists, food brings prosperity to tourism, and food tourism has become a new trend of consumption, bringing new opportunities to local development.
Spicy hot day swimming
Recently, the popularity of "Tianshui Malatang" has continued to rise. The reporter learned from Meituan and Dianping that since March, the number of dine-in orders for Tianshui Malatang has increased by more than 140% compared with the previous two months. In the past week, the search volume of "Tianshui Malatang" on Dianping has increased by more than 13 times month-on-month. In the past month, the number of new Malatang restaurants on Meituan in Gansu increased by more than 51% compared with the previous month, and the number of Malatang merchants in Tianshui with transactions such as Meituan group purchase packages increased by more than 90% compared with the previous month.
The steaming Malatang quickly brings fire to the water tour. Recently, Tianshui City, Gansu Province held a Malatang "Food Festival" activity, inviting tourists from all over the world to eat food, see beautiful scenery, and visit Longcheng, and continue to launch the cultural tourism brand of "Thousands of Mountains and Thousands of Rivers Love Tianshui". During the "Food Festival", activities such as Malatang food exhibition, special product exhibition, food experience, Malatang food competition, boutique tourism route promotion, Tianshui specialty product gift, local characteristic cultural program exhibition and other activities were held, attracting many tourists.
Tianshui has a profound historical and cultural heritage, rich tourism resources, is the hometown of Fuxi, the ancestor of humanities, with one of the four major grottoes in China, Maiji Mountain, and the 8,000-year-old Dadiwan site. The popularity of Malatang has brought rare opportunities for the development of Tianshui tourism.
According to data from the Tongcheng Travel platform, the search popularity of Tianshui tourism has increased by nearly 200% recently, and it has shown a continuous and rapid upward trend. Mafengwo big data shows that in the past week, the tourism popularity of Tianshui has increased by 266% month-on-month, and the tourism popularity of Maijishan has increased by 300%, followed by Tianshui Ancient City and Fuxi Temple.
On the Qunar platform, the number of bookings for Tianshui Hotel in March increased by 50% year-on-year. According to the data of Tujia B&B, the booking of Tianshui B&B grew rapidly in March, with post-90s and post-00s tourists as the main booking group, and tourists from Beijing, Lanzhou, Mianyang, Shijiazhuang and Xining booked the most. According to the data of Little Pig B&B, the occupancy rate of Tianshui B&B in March increased by 800% compared with the same period last year, and the number of B&B orders in Maiji District increased by nearly 10 times compared with the same period last year.
"This week, we have received many inquiries from Lanzhou citizens who want to travel to Tianshui, an increase of more than 200% compared with last week. Sun Yu, general manager of Gansu Shanghai Spring and Autumn International Travel Service Co., Ltd., introduced, "Experiencing food is one of the mainstream play modes for young people. As the popularity of Tianshui Malatang continues to rise, we have designed a number of food experience products suitable for tourists of all ages, covering a richer variety of Gansu specialties. Sun Yu said.
Raise awareness of your destination
Food is an important experience in people's travel. In recent years, food has become a favorite travel theme for many tourists. Gastronomic tourism not only enhances the popularity and reputation of the destination, but also stimulates local consumption.
Wu Fenglin, director of the Planning and Leisure Research Institute of the China Tourism Academy, said that food tourism has a strong human fireworks, which is more likely to resonate with the public. To some extent, food tours are also social trips, especially among young tourists, who have a strong stickiness to the use of the Internet and new media, and are the main promoters of cultural tourism innovation.
Last year, Zibo barbecue became popular, making Zibo one of the most popular tourist destinations. In addition, on the Meituan platform, cities such as Jiangmen, Taizhou, Liuzhou, Zigong, Chaozhou, Shantou, Yanji, and Yibin featuring food are generally very popular, and the number of accommodation bookings has increased significantly compared with previous years. During last year's National Day holiday, accommodation bookings in Yanji, Taizhou, Shantou, Liuzhou and other cities increased by more than 400% compared with 2019.
Chen Qiang, Secretary-General of the Cultural Tourism Specialty Food Development Working Committee of the China Cuisine Association, said: "At present, tourists mainly prefer local specialties, including special snacks, traditional famous dishes, rural cuisine, etc. Food tourism has a variety of forms and rich contents, and everyone often falls in love with a city because of a dish and gets a sense of happiness because of fireworks. ”
The reporter learned that Dianping launched the "Chaozhou Tourism and Food Map" at the beginning of this year, and citizens and tourists can search for "Chaozhou" to browse the city walking map, notes and guides, local activities, treasure food merchants, real user evaluations and other content in one stop, and get travel route recommendations and online booking services such as hotels and restaurants. During the Spring Festival holiday, the number of views using the map increased by 287% month-on-month.
Tell the story of food culture
Food, housing, transportation, travel, shopping and entertainment are the six elements of tourism. With the transformation of tourism space from scenery to scene, the status of catering and food in the construction and development of tourist destinations has become more and more prominent.
Recently, Beijing held the 4th Snack Food Culture Festival, and a number of well-known catering companies and time-honored brands launched new seasonal products in spring, inviting consumers to go to the "spring on the tip of the tongue" while enjoying the spring.
At present, the Resource Development Department of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism has carried out the collection and promotion activities of "Seeking a Beautiful China, Tasting the Mountains and Rivers" of the National 24 Solar Terms Tourism Food and Food Tourism Routes. Chen Qiang believes that the event is a major innovation to enhance the lasting attractiveness of gastronomic tourism, integrating solar term culture with food, folk customs and scenic spots, and helping the gastronomic tourism industry to flourish.
The people live on food. Food tourism is gaining more and more tourists, and it is imperative to build a food tourism brand. Chen Qiang said that the quality of food tourism should be strictly controlled, the differentiation and richness of food tourism routes should be maintained, and a better sense of experience should be created for tourists.
Zhejiang's "Delicious Zhejiang, 100 Counties and 1000 Bowls", Hunan's "Taste Hunan, Go to Xiangdang Delicious Place", Anhui's "Anhui Beautiful Taste, Famous Snacks in 100 Counties", Guangzhou Asian Food Festival, Jinan Shandong Food Festival and other food promotion cases show that food has become a new driving force to promote consumption and promote the high-quality development of tourism in many places.
It may become a new highlight of inbound tourism
From the dietary concept of 'harmony of five flavors' and 'food in the four seasons, the pursuit of balance', to the rich and colorful ingredients and the exquisite skills of frying and cooking, Chinese cuisine has a different presentation form from other countries' cuisines. Chen Qiang told reporters.
Recently, inbound tourism has continued to pick up. Wu Fenglin believes that gastronomic tourism has the conditions to become a new highlight to attract overseas tourists and a new breakthrough to boost inbound tourism. For overseas tourists, how to promote and what should be the focus of attention, it is recommended to plan as a whole, systematically promote, and innovate brands, focusing on the promotion of local food landmarks with distinctive cultural characteristics and clear and systematic food tourism routes.
Chen Qiang believes that food tourism should form an industrial chain integrating culture, tourism and food as soon as possible, and go abroad to communicate with food culture from all over the world through festivals, exhibitions and events. Food tourism can also be linked with overseas Chinese restaurants to better showcase the wonderful content of Chinese food tourism. In addition, for overseas tourists who love Chinese food, an integrated consumption experience of food tourism should be provided, such as compiling the national 24 solar terms tourism food and food tourism routes of "Taste of Beautiful China, Tasting Thousands of Miles of Rivers and Mountains" as a consumption guide, and provide multiple language versions to facilitate more overseas tourists to follow the map.