On the day of "May Day", Huai'an Xuyi, which sold more than 4,000 kilograms of crayfish, ranked first in county tourism in the country with 1.7 million tourists, and the single-day occupancy rate of Jinxi Ancient Town B&B reached more than 96%, and Nanjing Confucius Temple, which was once again subject to traffic control along the way due to the number of tourists...... In the past "May Day" holiday, Jiangsu harvested the report card of 31.3243 million tourists received by the province and the total consumption of tourists was 14.115 billion yuan, which once again proved the quality of the "Internet celebrity" city in our province. At a time when Zibo barbecue, "Erbin", and Tianshui Malatang have become popular successively, triggering a national tourism boom, the dependence of urban cultural tourism on the "Internet celebrity effect" is also gradually growing. What changes has "Internet celebrity" brought to urban cultural tourism, and what problems need to be solved?
"Internet celebrity" opens up business opportunities in the city
"This year is definitely getting more and more rolled, there are more and more tourists, and the competition among peers is more intense, and many 'big cows' who have changed jobs before have come back to eat this bowl of rice again." Chen Lai, who has been a tour guide in Nanjing for 7 years, told reporters. As a long-established tourist city in Jiangsu, Nanjing has always been a "must-win place" for tourists from all over the world during holidays, as exemplified by the Sanshan Street Station of Nanjing Metro Line 1, which is subject to traffic control on almost every holiday. In recent years, after the marketing of "always come to Nanjing" came out of the circle, the city's popularity has increased unabated. In the past "May Day" holiday, the city's scenic spots, cultural and museum venues, rural tourism and other monitoring points received 10.825 million tourists, of which 69.5% were foreign tourists.
Thanks to the strong communication power of short videos, the "Internet celebrity" of the city has also brought fire to many local snacks and folk customs. Nanjing stall owner Li Qin, who used to sell fried skewers on Shigu Road every morning, has recently started to "follow the trend" and rent a store to sell egg burgers, which are highly sought after on the Internet. "I didn't know about egg burgers before, but now it's different, tourists are watching Douyin and Xiaohongshu to come to eat, although I still don't know where it's delicious, but it sells well." Li Qin said that during the holidays, sometimes customers have to wait in line for more than an hour to buy egg burgers, and there are often long queues in front of the store. The reporter learned that since the beginning of this year, due to the flow of egg burgers, a number of new shops specializing in egg burgers have been opened in Nanjing, and there is no shortage of this old Nanjing snack in various night markets and markets.
It is worth mentioning that in addition to consumer industries such as catering, shopping and accommodation, the "Internet celebrity" of cities has also allowed many industries to find broader business opportunities. For example, on holidays, the "business" of helping tourists queue up to buy snacks in the commercial streets around Confucius Temple, various commercial centers and other places allows Xiao Guo, who is still studying in Nanjing, to earn hundreds of yuan a day; In Zhongshan Scenic Area, electric bicycle rental has become the "main business" of nearby stores, and some stores can earn up to three or four thousand yuan per day during holidays.
Popular destinations "sink" counties
It's not just big cities that are lively, this year's "May Day" holiday, county tourism in our province is also favored, Yixing, Lishui, Kunshan, Liyang's passenger flow increased by 109%, 85%, 74%, 71% year-on-year respectively, and many county-level cities have become popular tourist destinations on the Internet. The earliest "Internet celebrity" cities, such as Chongqing, Xiamen, Changsha, Xi'an, including Nanjing and Suzhou in our province, are all first- and second-tier cities with rich tourism resources, and now there are more and more "small" cities such as Zibo, Xuyi, Kunshan, county seats, and non-traditional hot tourist cities such as Harbin have become phenomenal "Internet celebrities".
Just like Zibo barbecue and Gansu Tianshui Malatang, the charm of food is still a stepping stone for non-traditional well-known hot tourist cities to become "Internet celebrities". For example, during this year's "May Day", Xuyi carried out special activities of the night market, turning the public space of open commercial streets such as business centers into snack night market diversion points, operating crayfish, spicy hot, barbecue and other special snacks, and encouraging the catering industry on both sides of the 7 main and secondary roads in the urban area to operate crayfish and other special restaurants outside the store, crayfish has not only become the "sales champion", but also brought fire to Xuyi's all-for-one tourism. According to the data, during the "May Day" period, the occupancy rate of tourist star hotels in Xuyi County reached 72.54%, and many characteristic homestays continued to be full.
In this regard, Liu Zehua, deputy dean of the School of Business Administration of Nanjing University of Finance and Economics, believes that the sinking of "Internet celebrity" cities is due to the two common advantages of these cities and county-level cities: "The first is the 'sense of relaxation', the population density and building density of small cities and county-level villages are relatively low, and the pace of work and life is relatively slow, which can make people relax and can provide the 'sense of relaxation' that modern people pursue and lack in big cities; The consumption price of entertainment and other types of tourism is relatively low, and the cost of tourists' travel is optimized. ”
"Lively" to turn into income still needs to be tested
Trace the museums, bookstores, and tide shops along the 3.5-kilometer historical and cultural axis of "Pengcheng Qili", feel the vicissitudes and heaviness of the history of Xuzhou City in Xuzhou Museum, Chengxia City Ruins Museum, and Ximatai, and enjoy the live performance of "Pengcheng Fenghua" on the shore of Yunlong Lake, which uses water as the medium and the island as the platform, and appreciates the story of Su Shi's two years in Xuzhou...... During this year's "May Day" holiday, the "Internet celebrity" city of Xuzhou is becoming more and more popular, and the scale of cultural and tourism consumption ranks fifth in the province, and the year-on-year growth rate ranks first in the province. Behind the achievements is that more than 50 local private car owners spontaneously formed a public welfare team to transport tourists from other places for free; The city's party and government organs, enterprises and institutions are open to 5,980 berths free of charge; The local public transport group has launched 22 customized tourism and food special lines, forming a bus travel network covering popular "check-in places" for cultural tourism. All kinds of services make tourists more willing to stay for a long time after coming here.
"Although Jiangsu has not suddenly become a 'net celebrity' like Zibo, Harbin, and Tianshui, the popularity of the cultural tourism network has not been low and has been growing steadily." Liu Zehua said that in terms of the supply side of cultural tourism, the quantity and quality of Jiangsu's cultural and tourism resources are in the leading position in the country, and in recent years, Jiangsu has continued to strengthen the innovation of cultural and tourism products, and actively explore new products, new formats, new scenes and new models of cultural tourism consumption, and the brand awareness and reputation of "Water Charm Jiangsu" cultural tourism have been continuously improved. At the same time, the implementation of Jiangsu's "strong transportation province" strategy has made the comprehensive transportation network more perfect, tourists more convenient to travel, and market supervision and services have also allowed tourists to travel at ease.
"Internet celebrity" is not the end, but the beginning. The blessing of traffic also puts forward higher requirements and challenges for the supply of urban cultural tourism, urban cultural tourism services and management. For example, when the "Internet celebrity" city exploded, a large number of related stores opened, but after just a few months, a large number of stores were closed, resulting in a waste of funds. For example, after more and more small cities have become "Internet celebrities", they are facing the test of insufficient capacity of infrastructure and reception service facilities, and whether the service quality and quality of businesses can be maintained, and whether the supervision of relevant departments can be put in place in a timely manner is also challenged. How to go from "Internet celebrity" to "long-term popularity", from "traffic" to "retention", from "punching in" to "playing money"? Liu Zehua said that first of all, the cause of "Internet celebrity" is information flow, and its essence is word-of-mouth, in order to maintain word-of-mouth and "get better", it is necessary to continue to provide high-quality products and services, so that word-of-mouth continues to "drain"; Secondly, from "flow" to "retention" is the problem of passenger flow, which requires a moderate scale of catering and accommodation, leisure and entertainment and other reception service facilities, and has the ability to catch the "splashing wealth"; Finally, to achieve the transition from "punching in" to "playing money", it is necessary to further introduce and expand other relevant local characteristic products and services on the basis of the "Internet celebrity" explosion, so that the passenger flow can further bring capital flow, continue to spread word of mouth, and achieve a new round of "information flow-passenger flow-capital flow", and finally realize the "lively" into income.
Jiangsu Economic News reporter Sun Weijie