The Internet is full of foreigners with the name “City”

As the meme "City is not City" becomes popular, we have witnessed more and more foreign bloggers sharing their travel experiences in China on the Internet. These bloggers have not only become the new favorites of traffic, but also reflect the strong appeal of Chinese tourism to foreigners. From "Bao Bao Xiong" to "Hutchinsons Hao Qingsong Family", the rising popularity and content creation of these bloggers have brought new opportunities and challenges to domestic tourism practitioners.

“Is Shanghai a city?” “Yes, it is a city~~~”

"Is the Great Wall a city?" "It's a city~~~"

This summer, if you are not brainwashed by the term “city or not”, then I can only say that you are “out”.

The person who made this meme popular is a foreign blogger with the online name "Bao Bao Xiong". According to the information, Bao Bao Xiong is an American, whose real name is Paul. He has lived in China for many years. In 2020, he began to share his daily life on social platforms.

In June this year, Bao Bao Xiong shared his travel experience with his family. The magical conversation made "city or not city" quickly ferment into a hot Internet meme, triggering the whole network to follow suit.

“City” originally means city, but now it has become the latest synonym for “foreign style”.

Behind the hot topic is the growing attraction of Chinese tourism to foreigners. On social media platforms, many netizens lamented that more and more foreign bloggers have come to China for tourism recently.

Some even lamented, "As a Chinese, I recently followed a foreign blogger on a tour of China."

The popularity of inbound tourism has also brought opportunities to practitioners. A French translator working in Beijing revealed that his orders have nearly tripled since June, and "every day's schedule is almost full."

For domestic tourism practitioners, this is a rare opportunity. Can they seize this overwhelming wealth?

01 Foreign bloggers who are always talking about “city”

Bao Bao Xiong made “city not city” quickly popular on social media, and he himself became a popular traffic blogger, with his accounts on various social platforms seeing a significant increase in followers.

As of July 11, Bao Bao Xiong’s Douyin account has over 760,000 followers, his Xiaohongshu account has over 360,000 followers, and his Bilibili account has over 100,000 followers.

Figure: Bao Bao Xiong’s accounts on Douyin (left) and Xiaohongshu (right)

Source: Screenshot from "Hearing Tech"

Another phrase that has suddenly become popular on Chinese social networks is “The Hutchinsons are such a relaxed family” (hereinafter referred to as “The Hutchinsons are such a relaxed family”).

In March this year, the "Hao Qingsong Family" started a three-month trip in China. The family of five appeared in the streets and alleys of the country, dragging large and small bags. The casualness and "relaxed feeling" during their trip attracted a lot of attention.

After that, netizens would occasionally come across this family, take photos and post them online, which triggered a picture contest across the entire network to see "What a Relaxed Family", making this traveling family instantly famous.

At the same time, the Douyin account of "Hao Qingsong Yijia" also received a boost in traffic. This account only started operating in March this year, and its followers have increased to 500,000 in the past three months, which has amazed many travel bloggers.

Influenced by these bloggers who quickly became popular, many foreign bloggers have been eager to seize this huge traffic and compete to share their travel experiences in China on social platforms since this year.

The Douyin account "Jack & Paige, the Wine Immortal Couple" is one of them. The couple is from the UK. The husband Jack and the wife Paige have been updating travel content on social media since 2023 and officially became full-time travel bloggers in January this year.

Previously, the Jiuxian couple's account was not active. Since May, the number of fans of the Jiuxian couple's account has increased rapidly. Currently, their Douyin account has over 30,000 fans, and the number of fans of their accounts across the entire network has reached 200,000.

There are many other travel bloggers who have quickly become popular, such as "Mi Xue Couple", "Chatting Immortal", "Tall Irish Couple", "American Tasteless Guy", etc., all of whom have become popular on domestic social platforms.

Influenced by this, "China Travel" has recently quickly swept the social platforms at home and abroad, becoming a hot word on the Internet, attracting a large number of foreign tourists to China, starting "special forces-style tourism" and sharing related works on social platforms.

Statistics show that "China Travel" has become a hot topic on social media around the world, with related videos viewed over 1 billion times. Many people attribute this to the 144-hour transit visa exemption policy, calling it China's new top business card.

02 Business boosted by inbound tourism

The craze of foreign bloggers traveling to China has boosted inbound tourism. Especially after the 144-hour transit visa exemption policy, it has become more convenient for foreigners to travel to China. In many tourist cities, netizens have lamented that "the streets are full of foreigners."

Data from the National Immigration Administration showed that in the first half of the year, 14.635 million foreigners entered the country through ports across the country, a year-on-year increase of 152.7%.

Ctrip data also shows that the 72/144-hour transit visa-free policy is continuing to drive the growth of inbound tourism. In the second quarter of 2024, the number of inbound tourism orders from foreign tourists from 54 countries enjoying the 72/144-hour transit visa-free policy increased by 28% compared with the first quarter.

The travel videos and posts of these foreign bloggers not only attracted a large number of overseas audiences, but also brought new opportunities to China's cultural and tourism industry.

Some domestic tourism practitioners have also fully felt the wealth behind this wave of traffic.

Wang Li is a French translator who works in a travel agency in Shanghai. She said that since April this year, her travel agency has received a lot of orders from foreign tourists, and the number is growing rapidly.

"Especially since June, my schedule has been full almost every day. I haven't been this busy in a long time," Wang Li said. Translators of minority languages ​​are in great demand now. "A friend of mine who translates German has orders booked until August."

According to Wang Li, in order to meet the strong demand for foreign "special forces", her company specially launched some targeted products in May this year, simplifying and subdividing some of Shanghai's boutique routes to meet the needs of foreign tourists with 144-hour visa-free travel.

Wang Li said that the one-day tour boutique "city walk" route connecting the Bund and surrounding attractions is very popular. "More and more foreign tourists like to walk through the old streets of Shanghai. They think this is the real Shanghai."

Photo: Foreign tourists on the streets of Shanghai

Source: Screenshot of Xiaohongshu's "Handset Tech"

Yan Zi, the person in charge of a Hanfu photography studio in Xi'an, Shaanxi, has also felt the improvement in business. She said that the number of foreign tourists in her store has increased significantly recently.

Yanzi said, "Nearly half of the current orders are from foreign tourists, and many foreigners do not come alone, but as a family of several people."

It has to be said that the popularity of the topic of "China travel" has allowed Chinese culture to be spread more widely and authentically, and has also made the image of China appear more realistically in the eyes of foreigners.

Before this, many foreign netizens learned about China from foreign media and did not know the real life and overall picture of China. So when travel bloggers came to China, many of them exclaimed, "Wow, this is China, it's different from what I imagined."

From the tourist environment to the infrastructure, to the food and local customs, these Chinese things are extremely novel in the eyes of foreign bloggers. Even the high-speed rail and mobile payment, pancakes and food stalls that are commonplace for Chinese people always refresh the cognition of foreign netizens and make them exclaim in amazement.

However, the rapid growth of inbound tourism has also brought some challenges, such as the relatively backward domestic overseas marketing for inbound tourists, the lack of proactive publicity and effective traffic strategies, etc.

In addition, the sluggish inbound tourism in the past few years has led to a serious loss of inbound tourism practitioners and an insufficient supply of foreign-language tour guides, which may affect the travel experience of foreign tourists to a certain extent.

However, some travel agency practitioners said that as long as there are many foreign tourists and business is good, the tourism industry and related agencies will have many ways to cope with the huge influx of tourists.

03 MCNs optimistic about foreign bloggers’ business opportunities

As more and more foreign bloggers become interested in traveling in China, another new force that has smelled business opportunities is rapidly emerging, that is, MCN agencies.

On social media platforms, many accounts are introducing, "What should foreigners do when visiting China?" or "How to take advantage of this wave of traffic?" after the "China Travel" became popular.

Most of the content of these notes is to teach foreign tourists how to pay in China, how to choose transportation, how to shoot videos, how to "create video hits", etc.

Figure: Related content on social platforms

Source: Screenshot from "Hearing Tech"

"Many of these contents are backed by travel agencies or MCN agencies." Da Zhang, the head of an MCN agency, revealed that with the popularity of foreign bloggers, more and more MCN agencies are beginning to focus on this track.

"In the past, some MCN agencies focused on supporting foreigners living in China, and achieved good results." As Da Zhang said, before this, many foreign bloggers on social platforms had made good profits by operating accounts.

Take the well-known Foreigners Research Association (abbreviated as "Waiyuanhui") as an example. This self-media organization founded by foreigners in China has a strong influence both at home and abroad. It is a well-known UP host on Bilibili, with over 4.46 million fans on Bilibili. It has over 8 million fans on Douyin and over 230,000 fans on Xiaohongshu.

Another example is the Victoria Couple under Wuyou Media, which now has nearly 10 million fans. There is also the well-known "African Li Ziqi" Rose, who also has a great influence on social platforms.

"But these are bloggers living in China, and their perspectives are different from those of foreign bloggers who have 144-hour visa-free access." Da Zhang said that these newly born foreign "special forces" have a new understanding of domestic culture, are easy to resonate with netizens, and have become a new direction for MCN agencies.

Da Zhang has recently been in contact with a foreign blogger who is from Portugal. He can speak fluent Chinese and has a certain understanding of Chinese culture.

In Da Zhang’s opinion, such bloggers are more likely to interact with domestic fans, “which is conducive to commercialization.”

Da Zhang also said that the travel content of these overseas bloggers has natural commercial placement points, "Almost everything from food, clothing, housing and transportation is suitable for advertising placement."

However, Da Zhang also admitted that it is not easy for foreign bloggers to commercialize in China.

"It's easy to create a hit, but it's a test of the blogger's ability to produce content continuously." Da Zhang pointed out that these "special forces" travel bloggers, in particular, are subject to time constraints and face a greater test of continuous content production. "How they produce content after returning to China is a threshold."

In addition, these travel bloggers still do not have a deep enough understanding of domestic culture, and differences in content are inevitable, which is also a problem that needs to be avoided.

What must be faced is that as more and more foreign creators enter the Chinese market, this lively field is gradually being segmented, competition is becoming more intense, and foreign bloggers are becoming more and more "competitive".

Da Zhang sighed, "It's hard to find a hit product, and continuously producing high-quality content is still the biggest test for bloggers and MCN agencies."