Long-term planning + radical action, how can scenic spot marketing anchor summer vacation business?

With the arrival of the summer tourism peak season, major scenic spots and amusement parks have seen a sharp increase in passenger flow. Faced with fierce market competition, scenic spot marketing needs to closely follow the needs of the target population and launch diversified and refined cultural tourism products. Price concessions and diversified choices have become the key to attracting tourists. At the same time, the long-term marketing cycle, multi-channel layout and intensified efforts are helping scenic spots stand out in the summer market.

Summer vacation is undoubtedly the peak tourist season.

In Shanghai Disneyland, there were endless queues in front of all the popular attractions, and the waiting time generally exceeded two hours. The security checkpoint was crowded with people, many of whom held umbrellas and waited patiently, and some even sat on the ground when they were so tired. At the same time, the area around Suzhou's Humble Administrator's Garden was bustling with people from 6 or 7 in the morning. Before noon, the queues had stretched to the side of the road at the end of the alley, and there was no end in sight.

The high temperature did not stop tourists. As summer vacation began, the passenger flow in various scenic spots and amusement parks increased sharply.

According to Tongcheng Travel's "2024 Summer Tourism Consumption Trend Report", the proportion of parent-child travel by civil aviation and railways has begun to rise rapidly since late June, and summer parent-child travel has ushered in the first wave of travel peaks. Meituan data shows that the scale of national cultural and tourism consumption increased by more than 20% month-on-month in early July, and Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu and other places are popular destinations. Since July, the search popularity related to summer vacation on Ctrip's platform has also increased by 150% month-on-month, and the search popularity of domestic hotels and air tickets during the summer has increased by more than 20% year-on-year.

The demand side is fierce, so how can the supply side seize this golden period and do a good job in marketing naturally becomes the top priority.

Of course, the challenges are also obvious: there are a wide variety of tourism products on the market. To attract tourists, scenic spots must come up with unique marketing strategies and products. Tourism is a long-term business, and consumers have a long decision-making cycle. How to accelerate marketing conversion is also a difficulty. In addition, consumers' mentality and willingness preferences are completely different from those in previous years under special circumstances. It can be said that the inherent difficulties are still there, and new changes are coming.

Against this backdrop, we can more clearly see four new changes taking place in destination marketing this summer.

1. Make products based on the needs of the target group

In the context of increasingly diversified and personalized consumer demands, cultural tourism products have long undergone a transformation from simple standardization to diversified and refined design. So when it comes to "summer vacation travel", you will find that many scenic spots recommend various themes such as parent-child travel, summer travel, study tours, and family vacations.

These different themes actually correspond to more segmented target groups. During the summer vacation, the crowd portraits of popular destinations are very clear, which allows scenic spots to be more targeted when setting product themes.

For example, among the target groups, there is a large category of preschool children and their families. Parents want short trips, taking their children out in the suburbs, experiencing some novel experiences, and taking advantage of weekends for family vacations. In response to this, many scenic spots, amusement parks, and resorts around cities design cultural tourism products around the theme of parent-child travel. According to data released by Ctrip, parent-child travel orders around Children's Day have increased by about 80% year-on-year, and local and surrounding travel are more popular, doubling year-on-year.

ClubMed, Xiamen Riyuegu Hot Spring Resort Douyin account

The other category is junior and senior high school students. Parents usually hope to use their vacations to let them experience and understand the humanities and natural knowledge in textbooks more deeply. This is also the reason why research and study projects have continued to be popular in recent years. Many small and medium-sized scenic spots, local attractions and cultural and museum venues will design projects that combine educational elements. For example, Hainan Binlanggu Li and Miao Cultural Tourism Area has activities to experience the Li ethnic minority's intangible cultural heritage projects, and Ningxia Helan Mountain National Forest Park has also launched forest explorers and "I make friends with blue sheep" research and study projects.

Ningxia Helan Mountain National Forest Park Xiaohongshu account

Another group is college students, who prefer to choose cultural and tourism products that are flexible, cost-effective, and oriented towards cultural and entertainment content.

Therefore, many scenic spots will innovate product design and incorporate more cultural and entertainment activities to attract these young tourists. For example, Shanghai Happy Valley will hold multiple electronic music festivals from early July to September, with themes changing every two weeks. In addition, more than 40 museums in Shanghai will open night tours, including the World Expo Museum, which will have open-air movies, outdoor performances, photography and coffee courses, and markets.

Douyin accounts of Shanghai Happy Valley and World Expo Museum

Study tours, music festivals, or other cultural and entertainment activities are essentially using "content", a powerful "traffic grabber". In this era of information explosion, the creativity, quality, and communication power of content can all be key factors in attracting tourists to a destination. The popularity and influence of content will spread rapidly through channels such as social media and video platforms, forming a word-of-mouth effect and increasing the popularity of the destination.

In addition, whether traveling with children or letting them travel in groups, parents have one core demand - saving worry, effort and time.

Therefore, many scenic spots will focus on providing "one-stop solutions". For example, cultural and museum venues and amusement parks will cooperate with nearby hotels, so that people can stay nearby more conveniently after queuing up for the tour. There are also scenic spots that will cooperate with travel agencies to design more comprehensive packages that include air tickets, hotels, transportation, and other nearby scenic spots, providing parents with a more convenient experience, etc.

Overall, destination marketing nowadays has done a very detailed insight into trends and crowds from the very beginning. With crowd demand as the sole guide for making products and services, "insight" has become an indispensable part, which is also guiding scenic spots to create products and services that meet the needs of tourists, as well as a series of subsequent marketing strategy layouts.

2. Better prices, more choices

On the basis of in-depth insight into and satisfaction of the target group's tourism needs, how can scenic spots make themselves more attractive and enable consumers to complete the "critical leap" from selection to ordering as quickly as possible - price is the most core driving force.

During the summer vacation, families traveling with children will have two prominent features when planning their trip:

First, they will pay more attention to prices. Zhao Huanyan, a senior economist in the tourism and hotel industry, mentioned in a media interview that during the summer vacation, the main groups of tourists are students and parents with children. These people are generally price-sensitive and pay more attention to cost-effectiveness and diversified choices.

Second, for family travel, before making consumption decisions, the whole family needs to conduct a more detailed investigation and comparison of many factors such as travel safety, project type, weather and environment, so they will weigh different tourism products, resulting in a longer consumption decision cycle.

In view of the above characteristics, the scenic spot first provides very clear and substantial discounts on the basis of maintaining profits.

For example, ticket prices at Shanghai Disney Resort and Beijing Universal Studios soared this summer, with the highest standard ticket price for a one-day ticket between July and August exceeding 700 yuan. Local theme parks seized the opportunity and maintained normal standard prices, such as the one-day ticket price of Chimelong Park in various places is basically around 350 yuan; at the same time, many theme parks also made special upgrades before the summer vacation, launching more new projects and new ways of playing, with obvious cost-effectiveness advantages.

In addition to amusement parks, everyone is actively participating in group buying activities on major platforms, from well-known national scenic spots to scenic spots around the city. For example, on platforms such as Douyin and Kuaishou, many scenic spots have launched packages with discounts of 50% and 60% off, while on Ctrip, the specific amount of discount is directly displayed. This directly visible price advantage undoubtedly increases the attractiveness of the scenic spot.

Tik Tok, Kuaishou, Ctrip

Of course, blindly offering discounts and low prices is not a good idea. In order to truly attract and retain tourists, scenic spots have found another solution: by providing more choices to reduce tourists' sensitivity to prices.

Therefore, we can see that scenic spots will have more diverse and flexible package plans during the summer vacation. In terms of travel time, scenic spots are no longer limited to standard tickets, but provide a variety of options such as half-day tickets, one-day tickets, and two-day combined tickets to meet the time arrangements and needs of different tourists. Whether it is a tourist who wants to take a short break or a family planning an in-depth tour, they can find suitable ticket options.

In terms of the number and combination of tourists, many scenic spots have launched packages for different family sizes and combinations, such as Zhengzhou Yinji Ice and Snow World has parent-child tickets for one adult and one child, Shanghai Changfeng Ocean World has three-person tickets for two children, etc. Many scenic spots and amusement parks have also launched multi-person reunion tickets and graduate discount tickets for junior and senior high school students, which not only take into account the number of tourists, but also meet the social needs of graduates to travel together during the summer vacation.

It is undeniable that this year's consumption trend of pursuing "cost-effectiveness" has also had a significant impact on the cultural tourism sector. However, the winners cannot rely on continuous low prices. Providing tourists with a variety of choices will be a feasible way to significantly enhance their advantages.

Zhengzhou Yinji Ice and Snow World, Shanghai Changfeng Ocean World, Pop Mart Park Douyin group purchase

3. Long marketing cycle and more sophisticated strategic arrangements

Intuitively, summer marketing seems to be just a matter of providing good products and maximizing the popularity of scenic spots in a short period of time. But now, the marketing of scenic spots has entered a more refined stage of operation, the cycle has been greatly extended, and the strategic arrangements have become more scientific.

Usually parents will start thinking about specific travel plans one month or half a month before their children go on vacation, so the time to go to the scenic spot must be even earlier.

The overall arrangement of the summer vacation marketing strategy actually spans nearly four to five months, which is a fairly long time span. This requires the scenic spot to predict the market competition and consumer preferences, and at the same time, it requires it to have a grasp of the rhythm of the entire marketing process, because once the marketing content is not sufficiently disseminated in a certain link or there are omissions in other aspects such as goods, services, and word of mouth, it is easy to lose consumers and affect the final conversion.

Judging from the rhythm reference given by Xiaohongshu, the marketing of scenic spots at different time nodes will have different focuses: the search growth period begins around the Dragon Boat Festival, and it is necessary to layout and plan search keywords. After the college entrance examination, it will officially enter the summer vacation traffic climbing period. The popularity of content will continue to rise throughout June, and the focus of scenic spots will naturally be on content marketing. When the traffic peaks in mid-August, the scenic spots need to do more advertising.

Image source: Xiaohongshu Business News

From a more detailed perspective, scenic spots will also arrange and adjust their advertising strategies within a week. For example, Wei Meng, the brand new media marketing director of Jiangxi Wangxian Valley Scenic Spot, mentioned that the scenic spot will use a large number of local promotion products to smoothly launch on weekdays, and will increase the intensity of launch from Thursday to Saturday, so that it can focus more on the peak period of tourist flow during the summer weekends and achieve a significant improvement in performance.

In addition to arranging the marketing rhythm, which channels to deploy on is also a key issue.

At present, most scenic spots adopt a comprehensive layout and focus strategy. First of all, they have made achievements on major mainstream platforms such as OTA platforms, Douyin, Kuaishou, Xiaohongshu, WeChat, etc. This layout can ensure that no matter which information acquisition channel tourists prefer, the marketing information of the scenic spot can be reached.

Among these platforms, scenic spots will particularly focus on OTA platforms and Douyin and Kuaishou, which have huge traffic, because these platforms can not only carry out normal operations, but also carry large amounts of traffic during peak seasons and special nodes, becoming an important channel to attract tourists.

Of course, each platform has different functions. OTA platforms represented by Ctrip are mainly responsible for daily operations and peak season traffic, ensuring that tourists can easily book and purchase tickets. Short video platforms such as Douyin and Kuaishou mainly rely on creative content and topic interaction to help scenic spots break through the old influence circle. For example, in recent years, Laojun Mountain, Wugong Mountain and other small and medium-sized regional scenic spots have attracted the attention of tourists from all over the country by relying on short videos.

Image source: Wugong Mountain and Laojun Mountain Douyin accounts

WeChat focuses on building private domain traffic, and public accounts can maintain long-term relationships with tourists through personalized content, irregular activities, etc. Mini programs focus on conversion and providing convenient follow-up services. For example, the mini program of Pingtan Island in Fuzhou includes many service functions such as hotel and homestay reservations, scenic area weather, boutique route guidance, event calendar, etc., which can cover all the needs of tourists in the scenic area.

Through this multi-channel, multi-functional layout, scenic spots can achieve widespread dissemination and precise reach of marketing information, while also providing tourists with a full range of services and support, thereby gaining an advantage in the highly competitive tourism market.

Pingtan Tour WeChat Mini Program

4. Strong marketing efforts, but pay attention to cost performance

Precisely because each platform plays a different role, the marketing methods of scenic spots on different platforms also show corresponding differences.

OTA platform is the first choice for users to travel nowadays. For all scenic spots, the most labor-saving and efficient way is to make themselves seen by those who have clear travel needs, so search advertising is also the basic standard for marketing on this platform.

Take Ctrip as an example. From the traditional search box hot word settings and key words at the top, to more innovative animation easter eggs and brand zone cards, these types of ads can help scenic spots cover multiple scenes on the site, and improve the attraction of scenic spots and user click-through rates through animations, videos and other content. At the same time, searches on Ctrip can also be linked to lists, guide notes, and live group purchases. The expansion of search marketing scenarios provides more traffic entrances for scenic spots to do marketing, further improving user purchase conversions.

Rankings and activities appear after searching for summer vacation and family travel on Ctrip

The "local promotion" products available on content platforms such as Douyin, Kuaishou, and Xiaohongshu allow scenic spots of different sizes to choose to run search advertisements, as well as short videos, expert content, live broadcasts, etc. throughout the entire site.

This type of "standard" advertising promotion is a necessary investment for scenic spots during the summer vacation. Because the industry competition is very fierce at this time, in order to ensure that it can attract more tourists, scenic spots need to increase investment and seek more exposure.

In contrast, the investment of each scenic spot in content marketing is actually more rational and cost-effective.

In terms of short video content, major scenic spots generally set up their own official accounts and regularly publish content to showcase natural beauty, cultural characteristics, and preview summer activities. For example, Wuzhen Tourist Scenic Area recently released promotional activities including "Wuzhen Ancient Town Summer Festival" and "Wu Village Independent Camp" on its official Douyin account.

Douyin Wuzhen Tourist Attraction Official Account

Scenic spots will also cooperate with KOLs, but most of them prefer to cooperate with mid-level influencers and local food, drink and entertainment group purchase accounts. For example, if you search for "Wuzhen" on Douyin, the first thing you see is either a travel guide from an influencer with tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of fans, or a Wuzhen travel package recommendation from a group purchase account. The guide can reduce the bluntness of the advertisement and increase the sense of recommendation, recommendation and interaction. Although the package recommendation is simple and straightforward, it can indeed allow users who search with clear keywords to be more quickly attracted and place orders in the shortest time.

Douyin Wuzhen Guide and Hotel Group Purchase Package

In addition to short video content, live streaming is now also widely used in the promotion of scenic spots.

First of all, the main force of live broadcasting is still group buying accounts. The style of this type of live broadcast is simple and straightforward. The anchor does not need to say much, just directly introduce the package content and price advantages, and reply to users' comments at any time. At the same time, the anchor can also emphasize the discount of the package or the limited-time flash sale, using the sense of urgency of the fleeting discount to motivate users to place orders.

What’s special is that on the Kuaishou platform, you will find that many group buying accounts are using digital people for live broadcasts. Although it may still look a bit stiff, simple live broadcasts are sufficient for recommendations. Moreover, compared with real anchors, they can also broadcast 24 hours a day, which can greatly expand the live broadcast time and effectively reduce labor costs.

Kuaishou Digital Human Live Broadcast

Secondly, many scenic spots will also broadcast themselves. Unlike other categories of goods that require fixed booths for display and explanation, scenic spots can set up live broadcast scenes in the scenic area, with staff walking and talking, doing regular daily live broadcasts and long-term displays, so that tourists can directly see the scenery of the scenic area even remotely. This method does not require real anchors to appear on the screen, there is no threshold and it will be more natural and real.

Kuaishou scenic spot self-broadcast

To sum up, the summer marketing methods of scenic spots are actually a slice of the overall marketing trend in recent years: on the one hand, more content platforms have built an innovative marketing channel, allowing scenic spots to have an integrated marketing strategy that can attract users' attention, stimulate interest and search, and then quickly convert to seize the peak season business. On the other hand, scenic spots are also more forward-looking and innovative, which is why they can present such a diverse range of cultural and tourism products today.

This new marketing idea and new approach is not a temporary change. It also provides more experience references for subsequent destinations to do marketing at other important nodes.