In the information age, cultural tourism marketing has become an indispensable core link to shape the city's brand image and enhance the city's cultural soft power. With the successive emergence of Internet celebrity cities, the connotation of cultural tourism marketing has not only been reflected in the repackaging and promotion of existing well-known scenic spots, but also in discovering and excavating the hidden charm corners of the city, and creating unique urban IP and cultural symbols. When the local cultural and tourism authorities feel confused in the upsurge of "volume" traffic, and when netizens' interest and discussion in fancy "shouting microphone" and "earthy" videos gradually cools down, how should the cultural tourism industry, which has returned to rationality, realize the transformation from Internet celebrity to long-term popularity?
Visit the temple keepers in Shanxi (Xiaohongshu user @ director Luo Nana)
Confusion The silence after the involution of cultural tourism
A city's "out of the circle" has triggered an "involution" of cultural tourism with the participation of the whole people.
In March 2023, Shandong Zibo barbecue will be "out of the circle". According to data, under the craze of "entering Zibo to catch up with the roast", in March of that year alone, Zibo, Shandong Province received more than 4.8 million foreign tourists, a year-on-year increase of 134%, and tourism revenue increased by 60% year-on-year.
At the beginning of 2024, Harbin, Heilongjiang Province will become the "top stream" of the network. During the New Year's Day holiday, a total of 3.0479 million tourists were received, and the tourism revenue reached 5.914 billion yuan, both hitting a record high.
On February 13 this year, a video introducing Gansu Tianshui Malatang became popular on the Internet. In less than a month, the number of clicks on the relevant information of "Gansu Tianshui Malatang" and "Gansu Cultural Tourism" on the whole network exceeded 20 billion. According to official data, in March, Tianshui received a total of 4.64 million tourists and achieved a comprehensive tourism income of 2.7 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 64.8% and 67.2% respectively.
Set off to visit Jingdezhen promotional posters
From Zibo to Harbin, and then to Tianshui, one Internet celebrity city after another has earned "sky-high wealth". Local authorities are increasingly aware that the tourist crowd is changing, and if you want to win the favor of new people, the important premise is to attract attention on social media. Therefore, many cities are riveting their efforts in cultural tourism marketing, just to strive for an opportunity to "be seen".
If Zibo's "out of the circle" has not made the local cultural and tourism authorities "nervous", then the popularity of Harbin has ignited an "involution". Since January 9, the official account of Henan Cultural Tourism has released 112 videos for 4 consecutive days, continuing to show local cultural and tourism resources, Shanxi Cultural Tourism has kept up with the pace overnight, releasing 57 videos in 10 hours, and Hebei Cultural Tourism has updated 75 videos in one day. These accounts all have varying degrees of followers.
In the front, there is the main "quantitative change will always cause qualitative change" tactics, and then there is a bold opening microphone that lowers its profile and makes people smile. On January 12, the official account of Shandong Cultural Tourism released a rap video of "My surname is East", attracting netizens to watch. Immediately afterwards, the official accounts of Shanxi, Henan, Jiangsu, Qinghai, and Gansu cultural tourism joined the "shouting microphone". Three days later, the topic related to the incident ranked first on the hot search list on Weibo, with more than 200 million views on the topic.
The rise of the Internet has made the city's popularity more diverse and unpredictable. In addition to traffic, the competent departments of culture and tourism also have more thoughts: how to make marketing down-to-earth but not sensational? How to make cultural and tourism marketing content popular but not vulgar and grotesque? How to let netizens "just go" after watching, instead of just "joining in the fun"? How to let the netizens who "say go" continue to come to them? After the explosion of Tianshui, the local cultural and tourism authorities seem to be more cautious, not overly pursuing the sound of online fancy marketing, and while competing for the attention of the Internet, they also pay more attention to the long-tail effect brought by traffic.
Visiting the Ancient Buildings of Shanxi (Xiaohongshu User @Midnight Flight VC)
"It's easy to be an 'Internet celebrity', but it's hard to be an 'Internet celebrity' all the time. From the perspective of the competent department of culture and tourism, what we hope is not a flash in the pan and a short period of 'out of the circle', not just staying in a certain scenic spot, a certain city, and a certain food, but to be able to leave a brand in the hearts of consumers and profoundly 'get out of the circle', and we hope that every 'out of the circle' will become a seed and take root in the hearts of every consumer. The relevant person in charge of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region Tourism Promotion Center said.
According to Xiong Haifeng, an associate professor at the School of Cultural Industry Management of Communication University of China, the cultural tourism industry has returned to rationality and attaches more importance to content than excessive pursuit of fancy marketing, which is worthy of praise. Everything has its origins and ends, and everything has its own end. The "root" of tourism is always high-quality products and services, and it is always how to better enhance people's travel experience and sense of value, which is also the starting point and foothold of marketing.
Tourism is not a one-shot deal, through the superficial liveliness, it is worth exploring where the development of urban cultural tourism should "break through".
Explore the diverse expressions of the city
Since 2023, many cultural and tourism authorities have focused on content platforms such as Xiaohongshu, hoping to achieve results in creating a new business card for urban tourism.
When the attraction of a city is no longer limited to natural scenery, places of interest and traditional landmarks, new ways of playing have gradually become the main factors affecting people's travel consumption decisions, and "experience" and "participation" have become the tourism value pursued by tourists.
"I play in the mud in Jingdezhen", "No one can walk out of Jingdezhen empty-handed", "A city of art without walls", ...... In the summer of 2023, tourists put various new labels on Xiaohongshu for this ancient town in Jiangxi. Observing the focus of "Jingdezhen Sojourn Craftsmen", Xiaohongshu has joined forces with Jingdezhen and local artists to launch online recruitment activities such as "Stay to Be a Craftsman", inviting visitors to experience a day in the life of a craftsman. During the event, the total number of views of related topic content was nearly 30 million, and the search rate of Jingdezhen increased by nearly 60% year-on-year. The number of registrations for the offline event of "Visiting Jingdezhen" was nearly 10 times that of the original plan.
A new business card for urban tourism may be the key to activating the "retention" of offline tourists. Xiaohongshu, which started as a content community, can gain insight into users' preferred travel trends, capture and amplify new features of tourist destinations, and attract tourists to deeply participate in the discovery process.
In the past, when Shanxi was mentioned, it was either coal or vinegar, and most of the trips to Shanxi were also group visits to the grottoes. But in the autumn of 2023, more and more young people are finding interesting ways to visit the ancient buildings in Shanxi on Xiaohongshu, learning about the culture behind the ancient buildings through collecting stamps, restoring oriental aesthetics with brushes, taking photos with the "conspicuous bags" in the temple, and chatting with local "temple keepers......
Hengdao Hezi - Check-in Old Railway Station (Xiaohongshu user @ Totuo Tuo~)
In September 2023, the Shanxi Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism, the Shanxi Provincial Bureau of Cultural Relics and Xiaohongshu jointly launched the "Introductory Guide to Ancient Buildings in Shanxi". The activity takes the Shanxi Jinbei Line as the entry route of Shanxi's ancient buildings, and prepares ancient building card books and 44 Shanxi ancient construction seals for tourists along the way, so that exploring ancient buildings can be a new way to open a trip to Shanxi. At the same time, 12 episodes of "I am a temple keeper in Shanxi" were launched, telling tourists about the national treasures scattered in the countryside from the perspective of temple keepers. During the event, the search exposure of Shanxi destinations increased by nearly 400% year-on-year.
Where does the city's new business card come from? The head of Xiaohongshu's tourism operations said: "In fact, we focus on trends, not absolute volumes. For example, the ancient building in Shanxi Province was not necessarily the largest at that time, but we will pay more attention to whether more and more people are interested in it. It's not just about data, it's about people. ”
From relying on short-term traffic in the past to focusing on long-term development, it is more and more important to grasp the trend. Xiaohongshu uses trend insights to capture new strategies and ways to play, allowing people to discover a new side of the city, and also making niche tourist destinations active in front of the public.
Courtesy of China Tourism News Photo Library
In the winter of 2023, Hengdao Hezi, a small town in Mudanjiang City, Heilongjiang Province, will become popular on Xiaohongshu. The patchwork of Russian-style buildings, quiet streets and old railway stations have made this place a "winter film check-in place" that has begun to attract the attention of users and platforms.
Insight into the user's enthusiasm for Hengdao Hezi and the huge potential of Hengdao Hezi tourism, Xiaohongshu responded quickly and connected with the Mudanjiang Municipal Bureau of Culture, Radio, Television and Tourism. The two sides launched Hengdao Hezi related topics and Hengdao Hezi ice and snow fairy tale routes, pushing this tourism boom to a higher point. Thanks to this craze, the local "old railway station", which was not originally a tourist attraction, has become a popular check-in landmark. In addition to the "super film", other tourism features here have also begun to be seen by more people, such as the ski resort of the alpine cable car, the Siberian tiger forest park where more than 1,000 Siberian tigers live, and local specialty cakes.
Courtesy of China Tourism News Photo Library
At the same time, there are also a large number of tourists who have left their real thoughts in the official comment section. In response to tourists' suggestions, the Mudanjiang Municipal Bureau of Culture, Radio, Television and Tourism actively "listened to persuasion", built new toilets, provided shuttle buses for tourists, etc., so as to respond to everything. During the event, the total number of searches in Hengdaohezi Station increased by nearly 1,000% year-on-year, and the average number of tourists received increased significantly. "This activity was launched in Xiaohongshu, users actively interacted, and the competent departments of culture and tourism responded in a timely manner, and the three parties stimulated the development potential of tourist attractions in an atmosphere of mutual assistance, fully demonstrating the value of users, cultural and tourism authorities, and the platform. The person in charge of Xiaohongshu tourism operations said.
Cultural tourism marketing is not a "hot head", if you want to go from Internet celebrity to long-term popularity, you must see the real needs of tourists, and external marketing and promotion must be basically combined with internal hard work. Through interaction within the community, destinations can better understand the needs and expectations of users, adjust and improve their products and services in a timely manner, and form a virtuous cycle of interaction, thereby promoting the city from an internet celebrity to a long-term popularity.
With the rise in popularity of the word "listen to persuasion" on Xiaohongshu, many cultural and tourism authorities have regarded it as a new traffic password. "Xiaohongshu users are very active in interacting with us, and the comments are very pertinent. We have set up a special operation team to collect the opinions and suggestions of users of the Xiaohongshu platform. At its busiest, our team was on duty for 72 hours a day. The person in charge of the new media of the Jilin Provincial Culture and Tourism Information Center said, "We are not only collecting problems, but also doing our best to solve and implement them as quickly as possible, and then give feedback to netizens." Some users wrote us a heart-warming essay of more than 1,000 words, and put forward a lot of suggestions about the landing of Jilin cultural tourism, and we were really moved. ”
"The core behind 'listening to persuasion' is actually to serve consumers. The local cultural and tourism authorities 'listened to the persuasion' and let it find its role on the platform. The person in charge of Xiaohongshu tourism operations said.
Demystifying the password for traffic to become "retention".
"Little Red Book is undecided", this sentence brought Little Red Book into the public eye. This is not just an Internet buzzword used for ridicule, its logical core lies in the fact that Xiaohongshu can provide users with a useful basis for decision-making.
As a platform that integrates content sharing, social interaction and consumption decision-making, Xiaohongshu has 300 million users across the country, covering all ages and consumption levels, forming a rich and diverse user ecosystem. It's this broad user base that gives any type of destination the opportunity to find a potential group of visitors here. The community atmosphere shared by the grass and the massive graphic strategy notes can promote the discovery of new characteristics and new gameplay of the city, and continue to precipitate new routes and new ways to play for tourist destinations in the form of pictures and texts.
Xiong Haifeng believes that Xiaohongshu is essentially a lifestyle community, a communication and interactive platform for users to share experiences, life guides and decision-making references. In terms of cultural tourism marketing, its core advantages are word-of-mouth marketing and decision-making influence. Through their own experience sharing, authentic graphic recommendations and detailed travel strategies, community bloggers provide strong word-of-mouth effect and tourist decision-making influence for tourist destinations. Since the main users of Xiaohongshu are young, fashionable and spendable people in first- and second-tier cities, who are keen to pursue unusual travel experiences and quality of life, the platform has a good promotion effect on personalized and characteristic tourist destinations, and has a strong long-tail effect.
"Each user uses their own content preferences, location information, search intent, consumption history, and social sharing to link the interests of other users and destinations, providing us with a steady stream of inspiration. Taking Quanzhou in Fujian Province as an example, it can be inferred from the consumption behavior of users that 'Quanzhou is a very suitable city for City Walk', and as long as there is a continuous derivation of theme routes, there are groups of users who repeatedly visit it within a year. The person in charge of Xiaohongshu tourism operations said. When operating travel content, officials are also more willing to seize the new trends and destinations that pioneer users have gained insight into, and push users to publish more relevant strategies, so that these new trends can really be "played" by every ordinary user.
Check-in Shanxi Ancient Buildings (Xiaohongshu user @ Lili Shanhe)
Every time a new attraction, a new route, or a new way of playing is explored, created, shared, and widely disseminated by users on Xiaohongshu, it invisibly injects vitality and freshness into the destination, allowing it to continue to attract new tourists. By capturing and amplifying this trend, Xiaohongshu continues to precipitate new ways to play and bring more long-term value to urban tourism.
In the context of the gradual recovery of the cultural and tourism industry, Xiaohongshu, as a social content sharing platform, has keenly captured market trends and changes in user needs, and continues to increase its strategic layout in the field of culture and tourism. On April 10, the Quanzhou Municipal Bureau of Culture, Radio, Television and Tourism and Xiaohongshu jointly held the Xiaohongshu Community Cultural Tourism Development Conference in Quanzhou, discussing the development proposition of the industry with more than 100 representatives of the competent departments of culture and tourism, and exploring more possibilities for the development of cultural tourism.
Based on the real user travel experience on the Xiaohongshu platform, the conference aims to cooperate with all sectors of the industry to discuss and explore new directions for the integration of culture and tourism, and to gain insight into more opportunities and collide with more possibilities. By exploring how to use new trends, new content and new methods, we will focus on the city's characteristic culture, open up the city's diversified face, release the city's greater potential, and usher in new development of the cultural tourism industry.
In terms of helping the city become popular, Xiaohongshu has prepared a set of marketing strategies and practical methods for local cultural and tourism authorities, and named it the "New City Business Card Plan". "We will help create a new side of urban tourism through a quarterly city-specific portrait, all-round exposure resources, targeted operation support guidance, etc. The person in charge of Xiaohongshu tourism operations said.
At present, more than 10 cultural and tourism authorities in Shanxi, Xinjiang, Chongqing, Hong Kong and Quanzhou have signed strategic cooperation agreements with Xiaohongshu. In view of the upcoming May Day holiday, Xiaohongshu will launch the "Advanced Guide to Ancient Architecture" topic activity in Shanxi, Fujian, Henan and other places, and implement 3 advanced ancient exploration routes and supporting stamp collection check-in activities, so as to reuse the promotion experience of ancient buildings in Shanxi last year to more cities.
In addition to the "renewal" of traditional attractions and the discovery of "new" attractions, the "newness" of the city's new business card plan is also reflected in the "new perspective" and "new meaning" of tourism resources, and the "new cycle" of cultural and tourism information dissemination. "We have never created new landscapes out of thin air, but have helped the city renew its tourism resources and give it new meaning with new perspectives," said the head of Xiaohongshu's tourism operations. When a fun way appears, we also hope to play a role in information transmission, so that the cycle of cultural tourism information dissemination becomes a little shorter. ”
Hengdao Hezi Promotional Poster (Little Red Book@Mudanjiang Municipal Bureau of Culture, Radio, and Tourism)
New things never come out of nowhere, and new inspirations must be relied upon. In the era of scarce tourism resources, everyone is only looking forward to "a visit here" and "a feast for the eyes", but now, they hope to immerse themselves in the details of the city, explore the corners of the city full of fireworks and human touch, and capture the beauty that is growing. On Xiaohongshu, we see not only the whole city, but also the vivid life in the city, where the city can be compressed to open, renew itself and become long-lasting.
Close-up of the case
Shanxi
The "new side" of Shanxi's cultural tourism is the ancient building, and there were not many people who visited it before, but since last year, there have been more tourists taking high-speed trains and driving to Shanxi. On September 6, 2023, Xiaohongshu, together with the Shanxi Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism and the Shanxi Provincial Bureau of Cultural Relics, launched the topic activity of "Introduction Guide to Ancient Construction in Shanxi", and from September 10th to September 20th, it cooperated with Shanxi Cultural Tourism to release 12 issues of "Visiting the Temple Keepers" content interview series, telling the national treasures scattered in the countryside from the perspective of temple keepers with different identities, with a total exposure of 270 million times, allowing people to see the temple keepers who have been guarding the national treasures on the ground for decades, and also see the historical relics hidden in the depths of the mountains.
Listening to the narration of the temple keepers, tourists re-understand Shanxi in the history of ancient cultural relics, and also discover a new Shanxi travel route. From September 30th to October 31st, Xiaohongshu, together with the Shanxi Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism and the Shanxi Provincial Bureau of Cultural Relics, launched an ancient building check-in activity, taking the Shanxi Jinbei Line as the entry route, including 4 cities, 5 popular scenic spots, and 8 "niche treasure places". This activity brought the content of ancient buildings from books into life, into the hearts of users, recognized and valued the existence of temple keepers, and promoted more than 10,000 tourists to start their journey of ancient buildings in Shanxi.
Hong Kong
Is it a shopping trip to Hong Kong? no, it's an art trip. This change happened last year. On January 8, 2023, Xiaohongshu launched the "Hong Kong Travel Time Machine" topic activity, allowing visitors to "walk" into Hong Kong in different eras, shuttle through different scenes, sometimes lingering in the art exhibition in Basel, and sometimes strolling in the breezy Victoria Harbor. With the dubbing of artist Miriam Yeung in the official video, it brought a wealth of real-time strategies to the first batch of tourists visiting Hong Kong. 10,000 travel notes were released and 300 million activities were exposed, witnessing the new development of Hong Kong's tourism.
In March of the same year, Art Basel returned to Hong Kong's art and culture season, and Xiaohongshu launched a topic activity called "Art in Hong Kong", bringing 50 million event exposures and nearly 3,000 art travel notes, setting off a new trend of art tourism in Hong Kong. In September, Xiaohongshu brought City Walk out of the circle, and the platform launched the "Hong Kong Walking Guide" topic activity. 7 Hong Kong artists unlocked 5 themed routes, making Hong Kong tours more in-depth and authentic. During the event, more than 3,000 user notes on related topics were published, with a total of more than 100 million impressions, and more unique and innovative travel methods were constantly discovered, allowing travelers to feel more and more unique and diverse about Hong Kong's tourism experience.
Yokomichi Kawako
Hengdao Hezi is a small town in Mudanjiang City, Heilongjiang Province, which was once a niche tourist destination, because of the Xiaohongshu "Ice and Snow Fairy Tale" topic event welcomed a large number of tourists. In the face of this situation, on December 7, 2023, the Mudanjiang Municipal Bureau of Culture, Radio, Television and Tourism released a note titled "Go to see the snow in a fairy tale" on Xiaohongshu. Subsequently, the Mudanjiang Municipal Bureau of Culture, Radio, Television and Tourism released a note on Xiaohongshu "Listen to Xiaohongshu Say, Our Mudanjiang Hengdao Hezi is on Fire", which attracted thousands of likes and collections, and in the praise of "really beautiful", there is no shortage of pertinent suggestions for the official "Suggestions".
The Mudanjiang Municipal Bureau of Culture, Radio, Television and Tourism is very "persuasive", not only releasing the note "Skiing in a Small Town as Long as 79", but also introducing preferential skiing prices to tourists. On December 18, after hearing the suggestions of tourists, a rectification notice was quickly issued, and the taxi driver was interviewed and the toilet chaos was solved, so that everything was responded to and everything was settled. Even in the approaching New Year's Day, the city's taxis are mobilized to pick up tourists at the train station, giving tourists a full sense of security and comfort. This event made the local high-quality service and the "winter love song"-like scenery popular on the Internet, and also made Hengdao Hezi continue to "go out of the circle" and become a "must-visit attraction" for foreign tourists in winter. (Editor: Song Yuqiu)