春暖花开,正是Citywalk好时节。
Invite two or three friends to stroll through the city streets, pat old buildings, visit special shops, order a cup of coffee when you are tired of walking, or eat authentic local snacks...... This spring has become laid-back and lazy.
Citywalk means "city walk", and new routes are being launched in major cities right now. Since its popularity last year, Citywalk, a highly localized "micro-travel" method with a sense of relaxation, has gradually entered the public eye.
In today's era of Internet celebrity cities and the vigorous "special forces" travel, can Citywalk bring fire to a city, and how can it "go" in the long run?
One
Traveling thousands of miles for a meal and queuing up overnight for an attraction...... In the wave of hot waves, people do not hesitate to spend money to "suffer" to witness the "beauty of the distance". Citywalk, known as "city roaming", is no longer satisfied with the "rapid march" of "completing the check-in task", but more of a stroll through the "living area" of the city.
Different from the traditional sense of "rolling road", Citywalk focuses on the urban space beyond the scenic spots, exploring and observing from the perspectives of history, geography, humanity and art, and carefully perceiving and integrating into local life. This change is in line with the new trend of travel consumption - niche and unique, comfortable and relaxed, unknown surprises, and deep in place.
Statistics from the 2023 Tourism Research Report show that Citywalk is popular among young people and ranks first among all kinds of fashionable travel methods, such as Citywalk, lying flat tourism, "special forces" tourism, and participating in senior tour groups.
According to an analysis by a travel industry insider, the popularity of Citywalk is closely related to the changes in young people's travel preferences in recent years. The fast-paced and involuted work life makes some young people reluctant to be burdened by travel anymore and instead pursue a "self-pleasing" way of leisure. In addition, the restrictions on long-distance travel in the past few years have also allowed more people to begin to discover the "little luck" around them, and this method has continued to this day.
The east bank of the Pujiang River in Shanghai is dotted with 22 small wooden houses "Wangjiangyi", providing citizens with a space to rest and stay.
As a popular city for Citywalk, Shanghai has always been a model for the industry to learn.
This year, Shanghai has selected 6 recommended routes of the year from the "good places at the doorstep" of citizens. Among them, along the east bank of the Pujiang River, there are historical buildings such as the shipyard 1862, as well as leisure spots such as Rong Shufang and Wangjiang Station, guiding people to "discover a variety of scenery".
In Shandong Province, Citywalk has also been developed.
Qingdao Sanjiangli
Last year, Qingdao's tourism organizations and travel experts explored a number of popular routes of Citywalk, and special routes such as industrial culture, business culture, wine culture tours, and courtyard culture were continuously discovered.
At the beginning of this year, Jining planned the "My Home Lives on the Shore" New Year Citywalk activity, which was in the form of a movie viewing party on board, a happy cross talk boat, a canal night school, a music bus for the Year of the Dragon, and national tide food, so that citizens and tourists could regain the "memory of the canal" from "watching the scenery" to "entering the scene", and regaining the "canal memory" in the sound of oars and lights.
Yantai Longkou City kicked off the spring tourism curtain with the "Spring Cake Festival", organically connecting flower appreciation, watching the sea, watching traditional houses, tasting local food, etc., inviting citizens and tourists to walk slowly and deeply experience the nourishing life of Jiaodong people.
Two
Like camping, frisbee and tea brewing around the hearth, Citywalk, which is also a new way of life, has made some people smell business opportunities. At present, on major social platforms and e-commerce platforms, a number of Citywalk paid products are gradually emerging.
For example, a travel app has launched a Citywalk area, in Shanghai, Beijing, Chengdu, Nanjing, Xi'an and other cities, some Citywalk routes will be historical districts, cultural and museum venues, special food and other series combination, plus the explanation service of the team leader, the fee ranges from 100 to 500 yuan, and the platform data shows that some team services have been nearly 10,000 times.
Paid walks, in essence, are paying for culture and knowledge, but attitudes towards it are mixed. Proponents believe that the "disappearance of the neighborhood" makes people feel less deeply about the surrounding living environment, and through such a way, they can better return to their own lives, communities and cities.
There is also an opinion that Citywalk is essentially a paid walk after being packaged, and there is nothing new or attractive. Therefore, Citywalk is still a niche activity, especially in small and medium-sized cities, there are not many providers of specialized Citywalk products, and a certain scale system has not yet been formed. However, the scattered business entities, the uneven quality of activities, and the difficulty in unifying product prices and service quality have all made Citywalk temporarily stay in the stage of "small but beautiful".
Citywalk, a new check-in place on Gulou East Avenue in Beijing, is generally favored by people for openness and freedom.
Therefore, many people believe that in the short term, Citywalk is more suitable as a drainage activity than other paid products, or a niche interest activity.
It remains to be seen how far the paid stroll model can go.
However, from the perspective of industry trends, tourism has gradually moved towards life and experience, and Citywalk, which integrates scenes and experiences, is one of the typical representatives of this new consumption model. People may seem to be paying for a walk, but they are actually paying for their own experience, and paying a reasonable amount can help make it better.
From the perspective of consumer groups, today's cultural tourism market is "the one who wins the young people wins the world", whether it is Zibo barbecue, Tianshui Malatang or "Kaifeng Wangpo", almost every wave of traffic frenzy is set off by young people. As the "post-90s" and "post-00s" become the main force of consumption, we have every reason to be optimistic that Citywalk, which is popular among young people, will continue to develop, and it may have different names and forms, but it will go further and further on the road of "experiential consumption".
Three
As an immersive experience consumption, how to "play" the local Citywalk tour to be more attractive, and how to "walk" in the long run? In this regard, industry insiders have different opinions, but it is the general consensus of everyone to innovate the product planning of the route, continue to do a good job in the extension of the consumption format and the guarantee of activity services.
Along the Liangma River in Beijing
Keep up with the demand trend and unlock more "new routes". In March this year, Shanghai's Yangpu District organized a public welfare single young worker dating activity in the form of Citywalk, which was welcomed by the participants and gave people some new inspiration. Organizers must study the preferences of young people, closely follow their needs in social, leisure, fitness, parent-child education, etc., to develop routes and product design, take scenes, needs, and emotions as the origin, create their own home field, and create an activity trajectory that combines exploration and entertainment.
Link the consumer format and implant more "new scenarios". Citywalk is a dialogue between residents and the city, as well as a dialogue between consumers and businesses, and the best embodiment of this dialogue and interaction is the cultural tourism commercial block. To make the event more fun and the organizers to make money, we must do a good job of multi-linking with the cultural tourism consumption format. On the basis of "local characteristics", we can promote the cooperation between offline consumer brands and event parties, and integrate "trendy play" elements such as art, sports, short dramas, and research into the activities, so as to create an "attractive economy" and make more "Generation Z" people willing to participate and share, so as to trigger the "empathy point" of tourism marketing.
Standardize the operation of activities and inject stronger "guarantee power". Due to the immaturity of the Citywalk industry, there is no official unified pricing standard, and the resources, costs and operation methods of the tour leaders are also "separated". Government departments should check operational qualifications and service capabilities, promptly supervise and rectify the chaos of fees, and protect the legitimate rights and interests of consumers.
Optimize urban governance and create a fresh "big environment". Citywalk focuses on long-term operation, urban construction and governance efficiency is the greatest sincerity, and the consumption environment, convenient transportation, civilization, history and culture are the key items of urban friendliness. From the perspective of promoting development and benefiting people's livelihood, we can create a fresh and clean environment, improve infrastructure such as road transportation and public services, enrich consumption formats such as culture and leisure, entertainment and shopping, improve the civilized quality of citizens and businesses, and create a safer, transparent and pleasant strolling environment, so that every citizen and tourist is willing to become a "recommendation officer".
Poetry and distance make people look forward to infinitely, and familiar places also have infinite scenery. On the "wandering line" of Citywalk, which city will break out of the circle? Let's wait and see.