From the "rush to bake" in Zibo at the beginning of last year to the directors of cultural and tourism bureaus in various places, and then to the "Erbin Ice and Snow Culture" at the end of the year, many cities have taken advantage of the network traffic to actively "circle fans".
General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "The cultural industry and the tourism industry are inseparable, and we must adhere to the cultural and plastic tourism and the tourism to promote the integrated development of culture and tourism." Under the logic of urban Internet celebrity, how to change from "starting with popular models to attract 'traffic'" to "finally ensuring 'retention' by culture", from "Internet celebrity" to "long-term red", is a topic worthy of serious consideration in every city. In view of this, the Guangming Daily reporter, together with the research team of Communication University of China, focused on the "Internet celebrity city" of cultural tourism, sorted out its development process and characteristics, selected typical "Internet celebrity city" cases, analyzed the reasons for its success through in-depth interviews, questionnaire surveys and other methods, as well as the potential challenges hidden behind the traffic, and put forward corresponding countermeasures and suggestions on this basis, in order to provide reference and inspiration for more cities to seize the opportunity to shape the city's cultural business card.
Eat a pot of spicy hot food in Tianshui, Gansu Province, which arouses tourists' curiosity and exploration of this thousand-year-old city; Go to Shanghai to follow the footsteps of "Flowers" to roam the city and feel the style and tone of old Shanghai; Come to Rongjiang, Guizhou Province to check in the "village super" and immerse yourself in the "hot and hot" of football...... In recent years, "Internet celebrity cities" have emerged one after another, giving tourists a new and trendy tourism experience, setting off "phenomenal" consumption in various places, and allowing everyone to see the vigorous vitality of each city.
From the 1.0 to 4.0 era, the road of cultural tourism city has changed
From the era of traditional media to the era of mobile Internet, and then to the era of short video traffic, the tourism marketing environment has undergone tremendous changes, and the mode of mass tourism has changed from sightseeing tourism to immersive tourism. "I remember that when I was a child, I followed my parents to Xi'an to catch up with the scenic spots, and this time I wanted to wear ancient costumes to have a journey through time. During the Qingming holiday, Xiao Luo, a "post-00" from Fujian, told the research team.
Nowadays, the direction of people's choice of tourism has gradually shifted from "famous rivers and mountains" and "cultural relics and historic sites" to "fireworks in the world" and "snacks in the market". According to the survey "What kind of tourism experience is the most important?" published by the research team on Guangming Daily's Weibo, "obtaining positive emotional value (accounting for 30%)", "experiencing a different cultural atmosphere (accounting for 23%)" and "experiencing the city's special food (accounting for 21%)" ranked the top three.
Cultural Tourism City "1.0 Era": Natural Endowment "Look at the Mountains, Rivers, and Scenery"
"Guilin's landscape is the best in the world", "If you don't go to the Great Wall, you are not a hero", "Go to the three mountains, visit the five mountains"...... In the eighties and nineties of the twentieth century, without the blessing of the Internet, people's first imagination of tourist destinations came from books, newspapers, radio and television. These first-generation cultural tourism cities themselves have rich and unique tourism resources, and people's expectations for tourism are to pursue happy pastimes and differentiated experiences outside of daily life, focusing on fast-paced sightseeing. The famous cultural and tourism city of the "1.0 era" has distinct characteristics of the times, and you can enjoy the dividends brought by natural endowments without too much brand communication and marketing promotion.
Cultural Tourism City "2.0 Era": The Internet Creates a "Golden Signboard" for Cities
"Chengdu, a city that you don't want to leave when you come"...... In 2003, a five-minute city promotional video vividly showed the comfort of Chengdu's well life. Around 2000, the domestic economic development entered the fast lane, the Golden Week system was officially implemented, and the domestic tourism industry began to blossom everywhere. Urban communication has opened the "2.0 era" of cultural tourism. In 1999, Weihai City filmed China's first city propaganda film, which opened the prelude to China's urban image advertising. Chengdu's image promotional video has sparked heated discussions on the Internet, and it has also aroused more cities to think about their own brand image as a whole. Urban communication focuses on anchoring differentiated positioning, condensing unique humanities, and using "golden signboards" to tell the cultural story of the city.
The "3.0 Era" of Cultural Tourism Cities: "Internet Celebrity Hot Memes" Drive City IP
"Ding Zhen is being invited all over the country" and "Shenyang Cultural Tourism calls you to eat chicken racks"...... Around 2020, all kinds of urban hot stalks have frequently appeared on the hot search, which is the collective burst of the "Internet celebrity economy" model in the integrated development of culture and tourism. The city brand image communication officially opened the "traffic" stage of focusing on attention marketing, and multiple subjects participated in the communication, anyone can become the spokesperson of the city image, and anything can become an Internet celebrity element to attract traffic. The "Little Sister Tumbler" in Xi'an Datang Never Sleeps City, the "Tang Palace Girl" in Henan Satellite TV's "Tang Palace Night Banquet", and Chongqing's "Light Rail Crossing the Building" ...... Behind the explosion of the city is the result of the conspiracy of "social situation + content ontology + platform algorithm", and the "Internet celebrity hot stalk" is inseparable from the multi-party conspiracy and co-creation in the integration of culture and tourism.
Cultural Tourism City "4.0 Era": Decentralized Communication Helps Niche Cities "Get Out of the Circle"
A song, a drama, a ball, and a barbecue can set a city on fire, and Longhui in Hunan, Jiangmen in Guangdong, Rongjiang in Guizhou, and Zibo in Shandong have become the youngest cities among Internet celebrities, attracting a wave of tourists to come. The digital interconnection and the decentralized nature of user-generated content have ushered in opportunities for niche cities to go out of the circle. In the "era of national video", whoever can occupy the mobile phone screen will get the opportunity to become a household name. The highlights of the "Internet celebrity city" are no longer only reflected in the scenic spots, but also the videos related to various novel experiences such as food and pathfinding are easier to attract the attention of "foodies" and "travelers". The research team learned that during the Qingming holiday, Gansu Tianshui received a total of 946,500 tourists, with a comprehensive tourism income of 540 million yuan, and since March, a total of 6.13 million tourists have been received, with a comprehensive tourism income of 3.5 billion yuan.
The traffic password of the "Internet celebrity city".
The iteration of the "Internet celebrity city" is not accidental. In the long term, the explosion of cultural and tourism cities is a vivid footnote to the overall recovery of China's tourism consumption and even the economy, and focusing on the time node of national short video is a vivid practice of cities competing for digital opportunities and taking the initiative in the context of cultural and tourism integration.
Back to basics in the upgrading of consumption quality. Go to Harbin Central Street to watch the Oroqen reindeer performance, go to the Gansu Museum to take away a "horse stepping on Feiyan" cultural and creative products, and experience a "Yellow Crane Tower at Night" immersion light and shadow performance in Wuhan...... The joy of travel is seeing a different world. According to data from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, in 2023, the number of domestic trips will be 4.891 billion, an increase of 2.361 billion over the same period of the previous year, a year-on-year increase of 93.3%. During the Qingming holiday just past, the number of domestic trips was 119 million, and tourists spent 53.95 billion yuan on travel. The tourism industry has shown a high-level recovery and high-quality development trend, and the consumption mode of mass tourism has the characteristics of personalization, verticalization and experience. Young people have gradually become the main force in the domestic tourism consumption market, and they pay more attention to life experience and social sharing in the process of traveling, and some cost-effective, niche and characteristic tourist destinations have become new "Internet celebrities". In 2023, online topics such as "city roaming", "reverse travel" and "downstairs layout" are the best interpretation of the changes in tourism consumption patterns.
A creative race in the traffic game. From "Wuhu Take-off", "Caoxian 666" to "Bengbu Lived", Internet celebrity cities are "out of the circle" for various reasons. In this digital game, city managers need to make good use of short video platforms to shape urban IP and tell urban stories of "big differences and small differences", understand the communication rules of social media to attract netizens to spread spontaneously, and transform online virtual impressions into visible, perceptible and credible real perceptions, so that people "yearn for it" and convert traffic into passenger flow. For example, a week after "college students organized a group to eat barbecue in Zibo" appeared on Douyin's hot list, the Zibo government released a press conference on the "Zibo barbecue" food brand, which quickly accumulated and expanded traffic.
The mobilization of the whole city in the practice of cultural tourism. "I got off the train from Tianshui South Station and got on the Malatang special train, which was very convenient. The volunteers were also very welcoming. Mr. Liu from Chongqing excitedly told the research team. Spontaneously organizing vehicles to pick up and drop off foreign tourists at the railway station, adding free luggage storage rooms for foreign tourists, and caring enterprises providing free drinks for tourists...... "Internet celebrity city" not only has ingenuity in creative content, but also retains the hearts of consumers with sincerity. The continued popularity of phenomenal "Internet celebrity cities" is not accidental, and behind it is the efforts of government guidance, resident participation and industrial integration. The government's online and all-public mobilization has brought consumers a down-to-earth positive experience, which has further stimulated the sense of ownership of urban citizens.
"Urban Internet celebrity" needs to think coldly: "traffic" is not equal to "retention"
Cultural tourism can not only drive the development of catering, transportation, accommodation and other formats, but also enhance the city's popularity and light up the city's fireworks "magnet". However, relying solely on "traffic" to bring fire to urban cultural tourism, the hidden potential challenges and negative impacts behind it also exist. According to the 2023 "Consumer Insurance" platform complaint analysis report, more than 47,000 tourism-related complaints were received in 2023, a year-on-year increase of more than 300%. The top five complaints were refund and change problems (32.30%), overlord clauses (19.20%), false publicity (8.80%), poor service attitude (8.68%), and refund disputes (5.99%). With the modeling, large-scale and commercialization of the practice of "urban Internet celebrity", "Internet celebrity cities" are also facing the prudent thinking and rational actions behind the traffic carnival.
A city's capacity cannot be built overnight. "It's too commercial, and ripping off customers is also serious" "I feel that what I went to is completely a commercial snack street, and I don't feel the beauty of the so-called ancient city at all"...... During the survey, some tourists expressed to the research team that they came to the tourism in a hurry, but what they were waiting for was the contrast between the "seller show" and the "buyer show". Single experience scenes, urban traffic congestion, and price gouging by unscrupulous merchants are the main problems that tourists believe will affect the travel experience. The survey found that the uneven distribution of urban tourism resources, non-standard market supervision, and incomplete cultural and tourism supporting services are the key cruxes restricting the long-term sustainable development of urban cultural tourism. For city managers, how to change "high traffic" to "high long tail" is the proper meaning of urban Internet celebrity.
Blindly chasing heat is not conducive to harmonious coexistence. "Since we became popular, the snack bar at the door of our house has become a live broadcast room, surrounded by tables on three sides, and there are bloggers who are broadcasting live everywhere, which makes it difficult for us to get through. During the survey, residents of "Internet celebrity cities" reported to the research team that after their hometown became popular, their living areas caused many inconveniences due to the surge in exposure. The research team believes that the network traffic is shocking when it comes, but it is accompanied by imbalance, non-standardization and even barbaric growth. The booming cultural and tourism market is prone to bring conflicts such as tight labor markets, competition for land resources, and deviations in capital investment to other industries, and local residents will also face problems such as rising living costs, tight public resources, and damage to the urban environment. When the popularity of "Internet celebrity elements" decreases, the passenger flow falls off a cliff, and the blindness, spontaneity and lag of the market will also bring subversive market impact to many "hot chasing" enterprises. The fundamental goal of urban development is to increase people's well-being, and if there is no rational planning and policy intervention, it is not conducive to the harmonious development of cities.
Marketing isn't a one-day job. In the survey, many respondents said that now "Internet celebrity cities" are emerging in an endless stream, many of which were talked about at the beginning, but by the later stage there has been aesthetic fatigue, and "Internet celebrity cities" should not only rely on soft power, but also rely on hard power to attract people. City brand building is not a day's work, and it is not the excessive marketing of a single element. On the one hand, excessive marketing will raise consumers' imagination and expectations for the city, and the huge psychological gap is not conducive to the evaluation of satisfaction, but also reduces trust and causes negative impact on the city.
Urban cultural tourism IP is always prosperous: it starts with "hot stalks" and ends with "culture"
The success of the "Internet celebrity city" is not only an initiative based on traffic thinking, but also a practice of cultural and tourism integration focusing on the sustainable development of the city. In addition to traffic, the key to maintaining its vitality lies in adhering to the people-oriented, deeply cultivating the urban context, accumulating digital potential energy, conforming to the market to create a consumption combination, and forming a new form of urban cultural tourism where the humanistic atmosphere, industrial atmosphere and fireworks atmosphere are integrated and coexist.
Adhere to intensive cultivation and build an efficient and linked urban governance system. Urban governance and the construction of social order are the "basic skills" necessary to shape a famous cultural and tourism city. As the commander-in-chief of the brand building of the cultural tourism city, the government should uphold the development concept of long-termism and intensive cultivation, improve the top-level design of the city's image, establish cultural tourism, performing arts and entertainment, market supervision, public transportation, urban publicity and other cross-departmental efficient linkage of cultural tourism special classes, provide full-link cultural tourism services, and continue to improve the efficiency of urban tourism public services. Improve the supervision and supervision mechanism, form a clear, safe, and well-served business environment and consumption environment, and continue to transform traffic into the driving force of urban development. Improve the joint emergency response mechanism, build an official social media matrix, and respond quickly to the opportunities for "Internet celebrity cities" to "go out of the circle", receive a large number of tourists during the peak tourist season, and achieve emergency events in the city.
Adhere to the people-oriented and cultivate an urban humanistic atmosphere of emotional resonance. The brand image of the cultural tourism city is not only condensed in the production and life practice of individual citizens, but also shown in the interaction between the city's multiple subjects and tourists. It is necessary to carry out the work of city brand building as the core to meet the people's yearning for a better life, and give full play to the appeal of cultural value in the process of enhancing citizens' sense of participation, gain and happiness. Multi-faceted urban character: Adhere to the people-oriented, grasp the balance of pros and cons brought by the surge of tourists to the lives of local citizens, actively coordinate the interests of all parties, establish a subsidy and transfer payment mechanism, and fully mobilize enterprises, merchants and local residents to participate in the initiative of shaping the city's image; adhere to the talent standard, take advantage of the cultural resonance of Internet socialization and circle-leveling, shape the strong appeal of the city to "retain people" and "develop people", and turn Internet celebrity traffic into talent retention.
Cultivate cultural heritage and show the spiritual characteristics of the city with cultural support. Culture is the spiritual background of a city, and it is the "vitality" of the brand building of a famous cultural and tourism city to deeply grasp the historical context and value of the times, refine and innovate and display the unique cultural identity of the city. It is necessary to deeply excavate urban cultural resources, find the greatest common divisor of the integration of culture and tourism from the perspective of integrated development, and promote the innovative transformation and utilization of cultural resources; refine high-recognition urban cultural IPs, carry out distinctive, social, and highly interactive urban narratives according to the differentiated spiritual needs of different consumer groups, and create symbols that are easy to imitate, disseminate, and remember; precipitate the fireworks of "eating, living, traveling, and traveling" into an in-depth experience of "tasting, enjoying, appreciating, and thinking", and beware of "Internet celebrity check-in" According to the personalized spiritual needs of young people, we will carry out a hierarchical and dynamic promotion, attract the extensive attention and dissemination of multiple subjects, and finally form a virtuous circle of cultural development and dissemination.
Adhere to the user's thinking and create a point-to-point and all-area consumption combination. Cultural tourism products and services are the "catalyst" between tourists and the city, and the supply of new products, high-quality and convenient tourism services and the combination of point and surface consumption scenarios together constitute the "combination punch" of the famous cultural tourism city. It is necessary to anchor the target group, analyze and predict consumption topics and market demand in real time through the integration of full data and information, algorithm decision-making system, etc., drive the city with topic points, and expand the "Internet celebrity effect" to more urban elements, tourist attractions, citizen life and cultural ecology through social media platforms, so as to attract a wider range of consumers to consume on the spot, and deeply cultivate and consolidate the "out of the circle" From product portfolio to scene integration, encourage cultural and tourism enterprises to innovate cultural and tourism products, link rich consumption scenes, and form three-dimensional and diversified cultural and tourism products; coordinate urban cultural resources, tell urban stories well, connect tourist attractions, and radiate a series of all-for-one cultural tourism product portfolios of "stringing points into lines" and "group points as surfaces".
Source: Guangming Daily