"Sisters, what are your arrangements for May Day?" As early as mid-March, Xiao Wei was asking about the itinerary of the two good friends, "If I don't ask early, I'm afraid I won't be able to make an appointment with you." ”
Since last year, the travel demand of Chinese people has recovered rapidly, and like Xiao Wei's friends, those who used to love to play and those who didn't like to play seem to have begun to go out of the house. According to data from the data center of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, 119 million domestic tourists traveled during the three days of Qingming Festival this year, an increase of 11.5% over the same period in 2019, and domestic tourists spent 53.95 billion yuan, an increase of 12.7% over the same period in 2019.
With the May Day holiday approaching, another round of tourism fever has set off, and it is not only popular in Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing, Xi'an and other "Changhong cities", but also in Zibo, Tianshui, Jingdezhen and other new "Internet celebrity cities". According to Ctrip data, Tianshui, Xuzhou, Hefei, Nanchang, Diqing, Jingdezhen and other cities are the cities with the fastest growth rate in hotel bookings.
In fact, in the past two years, from Zibo, Harbin to Tianshui, "Internet celebrity cities" are one of the "main forces" to accelerate the recovery of the tourism industry. With a picture and a short video, a city can become popular within a week.
It's just that traffic is a "double-edged sword". While giving "magic" can make a city break the circle faster, the rate of traffic transfer is also accelerating. This means that it is not easy for a city to become "long-lasting".
From "Internet celebrity city" to "Changhong city", this is a traffic problem, and it is also a comprehensive problem about content and urban operation.
Rediscover the city
From Jingdezhen, the "thousand-year-old porcelain capital", to Shanghai, the fashion capital, to Quanzhou, which is popular because of hairpins...... In the past two years, many cities have been rediscovered, including the ancient capital, which has long been famous, and the industrial city, which has a slightly less famous reputation, has broken the circle.
Whether it is the new "Internet celebrity" or the new "Internet celebrity" out of the circle, the hidden characteristics of these cities have begun to be seen by the public, such as Quanzhou is suitable for citywalk, and Jingdezhen is suitable for sojourn. As a result, the original reinforced concrete cities have been plated with a layer of humanistic brilliance and glow with their own unique beauty.
In fact, the rediscovery of cities is related to the change of media, the rise of a new generation of consumers, the formation of a new urban culture, etc.
First, the change of media.
With the help of magazines such as "New Weekly", film and television dramas such as "One Meter of Sunshine" and "Blooming Heart", Lijiang has been shaped into the first generation of "Internet celebrity city" in China, and countless literary and young people have taken it as emotional sustenance. In 2016, Zhao Lei performed "Chengdu" in a variety show on Hunan Satellite TV, becoming a representative case of TV shaping "Internet celebrity city".
Since then, the rapidly rising short video platform has seized people's attention, and has therefore become an incubation pool for a new generation of "Internet celebrity cities". After 2018, with the help of the short video platform, Chongqing Liziba Light Rail through the building, Xi'an Yongxingfang Bowl Wine, etc., became popular, and Chongqing and Xi'an have become "Changhong Cities" that dominate the list of travel destinations all year round.
Nowadays, with the help of decentralized social platforms, more niche tourist cities have come into the public eye. At the beginning of 2023, a group of Zhao Liying's hairpin photos caused netizens to imitate it, and on Xiaohongshu, there are 340,000 notes related to hairpins in Python Village. These pictures, texts and videos have once again triggered a new round of ripples and promoted the explosion of Quanzhou.
In 2023, Quanzhou will achieve a total tourism revenue of 100.24 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 68.9%, and receive 86.5297 million domestic and foreign tourists, a year-on-year increase of 53.9%. Moreover, its hot momentum continues unabated, during the Spring Festival this year, Quanzhou received 8.1812 million tourists, and the tourism income was 8.018 billion yuan, compared with the Spring Festival in 2023, the number of people has tripled, and the income has quadrupled.
In the era of mass media, the image of the city is detached from the pale description of the traditional book and centralized media era, and relies more on the construction and dissemination of social platforms. With the participation of hundreds of millions of users, many cities have either been discovered or given a new image.
Second, changes in consumer preferences.
The post-95s and post-00s are gradually becoming mainstream consumers. This group of Internet aborigines, who understand the Internet better and love life more, have become the "main force" to discover the "Internet celebrity city", such as Zibo's fire is inseparable from the "college student special forces";
These young people have both personality and "chasing the wind". They are keen to check in and share "influencer cities", but they are also disenchanted by traditional "influencer cities" and are keen to explore new destinations.
They also pay more attention to the sense of experience, compared with scenic spots, they are more willing to experience the unique local culture and lifestyle, they can travel for barbecue, spicy hot, can travel for the experience of the ice and snow world, hairpin flowers and take pictures: the starting point of tourism is no longer just scenery and things, but rises to life itself.
The change of consumer preferences has given the "Internet celebrity city" a different connotation. In the 1.0 era, it is Lijiang, Dali and other cities famous for their natural scenery, in the 2.0 era, it is Chongqing, Chengdu, Xi'an and other cities with a strong humanistic atmosphere, and in the 3.0 era, it is Zibo, Harbin, Tianshui and other cities that are out of the circle with "eating, drinking and having fun".
Third, the formation of a new urban culture.
Traditionally, travel agencies have developed classic routes that include local scenic spots. However, in recent decades, China's urbanization has accelerated, and many cities have formed new urban cultures and features on the basis of their original natural landscapes and historical accumulation.
Hundreds of millions of social platform users have become the main carriers for discovering and summarizing the new style and culture of the city. Before the blogger shared the "three-piece set" of small cakes, shallots, and sauce, who would have thought that Zibo, an industrial city, would become popular because of barbecue? Before the blogger released the video of Malatang visiting the store, who would have thought that Tianshui, famous for its Maijishan Grottoes and Fuxi Temple, would become a new top tourist destination?
To take another more niche city case, Hengdaohezi, a small town that suddenly became popular on Xiaohongshu last winter, is also inseparable from the excavation of netizens.
This "unknown" town in Mudanjiang has never entered the public eye due to tourism in the past, and the focus of local tourism promotion has always been the Siberian Tiger Forest Park, but the intersection of snow scenery and unique architectural style has made the old railway station a check-in place for "Winter Love Song". At present, there are more than 30,000 user notes on Xiaohongshu, sharing the travel strategy of Hengdao Hezi, including railway stations, railway crossings, Russian style towns, oil painting villages and other scenic spots, and many check-in routes have become popular, and local tourism resources have been "re-excavated" by users. These tourism strategies have not only driven the number of local tourists to increase exponentially, but also the supporting travel photography industry has gradually taken shape.
△ Hengdao Hezi - Promotional Poster (Little Red Book @ Mudanjiang Municipal Bureau of Culture, Radio and Tourism)
However, "A Little Finance" noticed that there is a greater "inevitability" behind the popularity of Hengdao Hezi. When the photographers on Xiaohongshu discovered this "winter check-in location", the Mudanjiang Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism immediately settled in, did a good job in content operation, and launched an ice and snow fairy tale route with Xiaohongshu.
In fact, the case of Hengdao Hezi is not accidental. From Zibo and Harbin last year to Tianshui this year, the component of the "Internet celebrity city" sky-falling traffic is becoming less and less, and the local cultural and tourism department is more and more actively involved in the creation of urban IP, so as to achieve a new image of the city. With the joint participation of hundreds of millions of netizens and local cultural and tourism departments, there are more possibilities to become an "Internet celebrity city".
The city "retention" formula
In this trend of rediscovering cities, with the emergence of one Internet celebrity city after another, compared with Internet celebrities, long-term popularity has become a more important topic.
When a city becomes an Internet celebrity, perhaps a distinct memory point is enough, such as the ice and snow world in Harbin, the spicy tang in Tianshui, and the hairpin in Quanzhou. However, in order to continue to catch the "splashing traffic", more memory points are needed, which come from continuous good content and the continuous upgrading of local service experience.
In the view of "Yidian Finance", the "retention" formula of the city is to touch people's characteristics + good content operation + high-quality experience, all three are indispensable, so as to attract and retain traffic, and amplify it into sustainable economic benefits.
The touching characteristics rely on the original resources and cultural environment of the city, such as the snow scene and characteristic buildings of Harbin, and the Dakaiyuan Temple in Quanzhou, which is the underlying foundation that determines whether a city can become popular.
However, in the era of mass media, no matter how touching people's characteristics are, they also need continuous and interesting content dissemination on social platforms to continuously renew the city's image, and it also needs to be implemented with local high-quality services and experiences to amplify good scenes, good things, and good IPs.
So, how to create a good content operation and high-quality experience?
In this era of co-creation, anyone can blow a whirlwind and turn a certain attraction in the city into a check-in destination. It's just that to retain the heat, what is needed is not only inspiration, but also continuous operation.
In the era of mass media, good content operation first comes from "two-way running" with users. And behind this is inseparable from a good atmosphere of community interaction.
In December last year, the Mudanjiang Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism settled in Xiaohongshu, at first it was mainly based on conventional publicity, and the traffic did not improve much, and then the operation editor ran out of pictures, and when I didn't know what to post, under the suggestion of Xiaohongshu operation, I used the form of memo + handwriting to "ask netizens to send some pictures", which triggered positive comments from Xiaohongshu netizens.
Under this note, some people shared beautiful photos they took, some people shared their travel experiences, and some people sincerely suggested, "Can you set up more heating houses and public toilets?" The Mudanjiang Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism also responded positively, quickly rectified, interviewed taxis, solved the toilet chaos, and even launched taxis in the city to receive tourists at the railway station before New Year's Day.
Through the content operation of "two-way running", it has not only successfully made social accounts, but also shortened the distance with tourists. After using content to attract tourists, the Mudanjiang Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism considered how to retain them and let them experience the local food and beauty in a deeper and higher quality.
Whether it is Zibo or Hengdao Hezi, their popularity has something in common: high-profile content appears on social platforms - multi-channel publicity of local cultural tourism - "tricky pet guests" after tourists arrive. Behind this similar "script" is the determination of the cultural and tourism department to drain and retain traffic, and try to move from Internet celebrity to long-term popularity.
The city business of the content platform
Since last year, the tourism industry has become one of the biggest contributors to accelerating the recovery of domestic demand. Behind this, in addition to the recovery of consumer demand and the efforts of local cultural and tourism departments, it is also inseparable from the boost of Internet content platforms.
In 2023, riding on the recovery of tourism, platforms such as Douyin, Kuaishou, and Xiaohongshu will increase their layout of cultural tourism content. At the end of July 2023, Douyin quietly established a travel agency, and in 2023, Xiaohongshu will successively cooperate with local cultural and tourism departments such as Ganzi in Sichuan Province and Mudanjiang City in Heilongjiang Province......
Unlike OTA platforms such as Ctrip and Fliggy, which start with transactions, their urban business focuses on content and user interaction, and their advantages lie in the shaping and excavation of urban images, such as art exhibitions in Hong Kong and ancient buildings in Shanxi.
For a long time, the image of Shanxi in the minds of tourists is "coal, vinegar, noodles" and Pingyao Ancient City, Yungang Grottoes and other scenic spots. But in fact, Shanxi is also the only province in the country that has preserved the complete architectural system from the Tang Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty, but most of these ancient buildings have been buried in time and are less known.
But there are also users who have discovered the beauty of Shanxi's ancient buildings, and blogger Wang Yuyu is one of them. Through personal visits, she gained an in-depth understanding of the stories of these ancient buildings, and published a number of notes on Xiaohongshu, including the one titled "Shanxi, the most unearthly place in China" which received nearly 15,000 likes and nearly 6,600 collections.
With the efforts of a group of creators represented by her, Shanxi Gujian began to "go out of the circle".
Taking advantage of this, starting in September 2023, the Shanxi cultural and tourism department will cooperate with Xiaohongshu to launch a series of activities such as "Introduction Guide to Ancient Buildings in Shanxi" and "Visiting Temple Keepers", which have an exposure of up to 270 million. The ancient buildings that were once buried in time are free from the shackles of time and continue to shine on the content platform, helping Shanxi form a new tourism culture and label.
△ Visit the ancient buildings of Shanxi (Xiaohongshu user @ Midnight Flight VC)
And these strategies and notes continue to contribute to the long-tail value. Under Wang Yuyu's notes in May last year, there were still user messages in March and April this year, some people sighed "the ancient meaning that came to the face", and some people asked "where is Figure 1, do you want to go", "As a person who goes to Shanxi for the first time, it is more recommended to go to Jinnan or Jinbei"......
Such characteristics give the content platform the confidence to penetrate into the tourism industry. Recently, Xiaohongshu held the first cultural tourism conference in Quanzhou and launched the "New City Business Card Plan". In the future, we will help the city shape a new image through quarterly city exclusive portraits, all-round exposure resources, and targeted operation support guidance.
However, at present, compared with OTA platforms such as Ctrip and Fliggy, the urban business of content platforms is still mainly focused on the creation of content and tourism mind, and they are not so much urban business as urban operation business.
epilogue
Since last year, China's tourism industry has ushered in a fierce recovery, with the shaping of one "Internet celebrity city" after another, and the emergence of Internet celebrity attractions have written the resilience of this industry. This prosperity relies on the tourism resources of various places, and the accumulation is inseparable from the "network sense" of cultural tourism in various places.
It should be noted that to play with the Internet, you need to do two businesses, you must do traffic business and bring people in, and you must also do "retention" business and keep people. The former may be enough for a video to become popular, but the latter requires closer and deeper cooperation between local cultural tourism and platforms around users, listening to the voices of tourists, amplifying the voices of tourists, and then achieving a win-win situation for the three parties with the dual operation of online content and offline services.