"Who is in Beijing?" Check out the three most popular ways to market cultural tourism in the first half of 2024

This article takes you to review the three most popular cultural tourism marketing in the first half of 2024. At the same time, this article is recommended for companies engaged in the cultural industry to read and learn the marketing methods in the article.

"Then why do you insist on going to Beijing? Who is there in Beijing?" This line is really unpopular in the play, but it is very popular outside the play. I believe that friends who have not watched "The Story of Rose" must have seen this clip on the short video platform. Official accounts of cultural and tourism bureaus in various places have started with this clip as transition material.

Yes, it is everywhere, not just Beijing. Shanxi Tourism: "Who is in Beijing? Beijing has Fengtai Station, you can take a train to Shanxi, Shanxi has..." Chongqing Tourism: "Who is in Beijing? Beijing has Daxing Airport, you can take a plane to Chongqing, Chongqing has..." Netizens commented: "I didn't dare to force it when I wrote an essay."

Watching the official accounts of local cultural and tourism bureaus doing things has become one of the pleasures of contemporary netizens. From Zibo and Harbin last year to Altay, Tianshui, and Heze this year, almost no city wants to use traffic to achieve soaring and boost offline revenue. According to the "2024 Department Budget of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism" issued by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the total budget is 10.33 billion yuan. As the cultural and tourism industry continues to heat up, the marketing strategies of different cities are becoming more mature. We have glimpsed some of the tricks in the hottest cases this year.

1. Short plays: a new approach for tourist cities

"Above is the sky, deep blue and clear; below is the grassland, boundless and green; the forest is vast on the right, and the mountains are undulating on the left; beside me is the gurgling river, running endlessly; in front is the end of the valley, and behind is the other end of the valley; my own horses, my own cattle and sheep, my own camels, are silent not far away... Is there a more wonderful banquet than this? Everyone talked loudly, and bursts of songs soared into the sky, and then fell to the ground one by one, and sighed one by one."

This is the Altay described by Li Juan, and it is the utopia created by Teng Congcong through her lens. Li Juan is always good at using spiritual words to outline a world where reality and fantasy are intertwined, and Teng Congcong restores this pure beauty without any gaze. Good content can always resonate, especially for workers who often tease themselves with "class flavor". "My Altay", a short 8 episodes, which adds up to only 5 hours of mini-series, makes them feel the long-lost vitality and freedom .

Altay has gone from being an unknown small town to becoming a popular tourist city. The number of searches on Xiaohongshu for "Altay" has reached more than 1.65 million, and the number of searches for "Altay tourism" has also reached more than 160,000. Data from the Altay Municipal Bureau of Culture, Sports, Radio, Television and Tourism shows that during the Eid al-Adha holiday, Altay received 135,800 tourists, a year-on-year increase of 15.11%, and realized tourism revenue of 87.0478 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 17.09%.

The film itself will beautify the scenery, and with the blessing of the plot, the audience will have a deeper bond with the place where the plot takes place. The 2023 "China Film and Television Comprehensive Film Location Report" shows that people born in the 1990s and 2000s are becoming the main consumers of filming location tourism, accounting for more than 57%, and residents of first-tier and new first-tier cities are more fond of chasing film and television and variety show check-ins.

Although "My Altay" is difficult to replicate, it is worth referring to. Its appearance has put more cultural tourism short plays in the spotlight, and local cultural tourism is trying to bring cities to the fore in a more cost-effective way. On January 12 this year, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television issued the "Travel with Micro Short Plays" creation plan, planning to create and broadcast 100 high-quality cultural tourism short plays a year, with the aim of using the traffic of short plays to leverage offline customer traffic and form a new consumption model of "micro short plays + cultural tourism".

Market demand plus policy support, so we see a large number of short cultural tourism dramas taking advantage of the situation. "My Way Home Is Windy" continues the style of "Go Where the Wind Is" and revolves around Leshan. After being launched on Douyin, it quickly created more than 190 million views; "I Wait for the Sea Breeze to Embrace You" shows the scenery and customs of Quanzhou, and the number of views exceeded 140 million in 17 days after its launch; "Flying Youth" is based on the real story of Caocun Town, Zhejiang Province, and tells the story of the male and female college students returning to their hometown to start a business. After it was launched, the total exposure on the Internet exceeded 110 million, and the total number of tourists received in the whole region was nearly 200,000, an increase of more than 30% over the same period last year.

However, it should be noted that the most important thing for using short dramas to enter the cultural tourism market is actually quality. The initial popularity of short dramas actually relied on the "cool culture" and used fast-paced plots to mobilize the audience's emotions. However, the essence of cultural tourism short dramas is to show the local customs and people. It is a slow-paced product and it is difficult to produce strong conflicts. This requires the producers to balance the dissemination characteristics of short dramas and the core needs of cultural tourism.

2. Hot IP, traffic "god" brings fire offline

Of course, each city has its own characteristics. Can the tourism industry of cities that are not known for their natural scenery and cultural heritage not be popular? In fact, not really. There are many cities that have become popular due to traffic and hot events, such as Heze Guo Youcai, Kaifeng Wang Po, and Xuchang Pang Donglai.

On May 9, a video went viral online. In the video, Guo Youcai wore a 90s-style suit and combed his hair back, singing the nostalgic Hong Kong song "Promise", which looked like Brother Shu in "Hello! Mr. Tree". In the following three days, Guo Youcai's number of fans jumped from 190,000 to 2.54 million, and soon exceeded 10 million. At the same time, netizens flocked to offline, and the Heze South Station where he live-broadcasted was crowded with netizens who came with their devices. From May 10 to 12, Heze's Douyin life service orders increased by 215% year-on-year, and catering and leisure and entertainment orders increased by more than 2 times year-on-year. On May 17, Guo Youcai was hired as the cultural tourism recommendation officer of Heze City. Following Cao County, the "center of the universe", Heze is popular again.

Similar to this is Wang Po, the matchmaker in Kaifeng. "Wang Po Matchmaker" is a blind date show in the Great Song Dynasty Wuxia City Tourist Scenic Area in Kaifeng, Henan. The host appears as "Wang Po" to provide a blind date platform for tourists. At first, this program may have been just an incidental cultural activity in the scenic area, providing tourists with entertainment and opportunities to experience ancient market culture. But as Wang Po quickly became popular on the Internet, more and more people came to the scenic area for "Wang Po Matchmaker". Tongcheng Travel data shows that the tourism search popularity of Kaifeng Wansui Mountain Wuxia City Scenic Area, where "Wang Po" is located, increased by more than 7 times month-on-month in the week after the explosion, and the ticket booking volume increased by more than 2 times month-on-month.

Whether it is Guo Youcai or Wang Po, they are both hot topics created by short videos, but the characteristic of this kind of hot topic is that the traffic comes too quickly and disappears too quickly. The popularity of the two is itself an accidental event. If the Cultural and Tourism Bureau wants to seize the hot topics for marketing, it should perhaps choose IPs that are extremely popular but have long-term dissemination characteristics, such as Pang Donglai.

Looking back at the first half of the year, one of the most popular companies is none other than Pang Donglai. With keywords such as "conscience" and "reality", Pang Donglai has attracted the attention of netizens across the country. Because it is only open in Xuchang and Xinxiang, this scarcity has turned the supermarket into a scenic spot, and netizens have named it a "6A" tourist attraction. As a result, the topic of "checking in a city because of a supermarket" has become popular online, and the traffic brought by Pang Donglai has successfully made people pay attention to Xuchang, the "ancient capital of Cao Wei" again.

To this end, many travel groups have opened special Pangdonglai tourist lines. Xinxiang Tourism Company has launched a "super value" tour route of "scenic spot + Pangdonglai"; Jiaoyun Company has opened the "Jiaozuo Passenger Transport Terminal-Xinxiang Pangdonglai Shopping Mall" tourist line; travel groups in Shandong, Hebei and other places have also opened Pangdonglai's "0 attractions + pure shopping" line.

Unlike Wang Po and Guo Youcai, the popularity of Pang Donglai can be more accurately described as a qualitative change caused by quantitative changes. It is a long-lasting IP. How to understand it? After the explosion, on the one hand, it can have a long-tail effect and continue the traffic; on the other hand, it can take over the offline customer flow, making tourists feel that the visit is worthwhile. Such an IP may be more meaningful for cultural tourism.

3. Brands: Cross-border collaborations provide more trust

In addition, cross-border collaborations between brands and cultural tourism are also a popular strategy nowadays.

During the cherry blossom season in March, Wuhan Culture and Tourism Group and Bestore set up stalls in multiple scenic spots in Wuhan. In addition to a variety of pink snacks and peripherals, the stalls also had signs for one-day tours of Wuhan, and the collaboration with snacks enhanced the fun of the culture and tourism.

In April, during the spring tea season, many local cultural tourism companies joined hands with Heytea, Fliggy Travel, and the China Tea Circulation Association to jointly release six "New Tea Drinking Cultural Tourism Route Guides", including the Fujian Anxi Line, Zhejiang Anji Line, Yunnan Lancang Line, Guangxi Zhaoping Line, Anhui Qimen Line, and Hunan Anhua Line. Tourists can not only visit tea mountains and tea gardens, but also experience tea picking and tea making, new tea tasting, visit old state-owned tea factories, and study tea making intangible cultural heritage skills.

There are many cases of tea brands co-branding with cultural tourism. Gansu Cultural Tourism cooperated with the local tea brand Lanyucha to launch the "Cultural Tourism Card" activity, which covers multiple Gansu tourist attractions, experience attractions and cinemas, with a total free ticket value of more than 15,000 yuan; Anhui Cultural Tourism and Anhui tea brand Kawangka launched the "Summer Limited Coupon"; Yihetang incorporated Luoyang cultural tourism elements into tea products and IP cultural and creative peripherals, and launched the "Peony Fragrance Light Milk Tea" co-branded with Luoyang Cultural Tourism...

Joining forces with these new consumer brands is undoubtedly one of the fastest ways to penetrate young people. Introducing cultural tourism with brands that young people are familiar with will make tourists trust and connect with the city more quickly, and it will also be more conducive to tourists' local consumption, because they are attracted by new consumer brands. Take the city that has joined forces with Heytea as an example. Tourists themselves have a certain interest in tea drinks, and there is a high probability that they will buy local tea products and make tea-related consumption.

Local cultural and tourism industries leverage consumer brands' extensive sales channels and large consumer groups to promote tourism products and services to more potential tourists. Consumer brands can enhance their local voice and consumer trust through localized marketing, which is a 1+1>2 cooperation model.

IV. Conclusion

In general, after experiencing the freezing point, the cultural tourism market has taken on a different look, and cultural tourism marketing is no longer just about posting a few beautiful pictures and shouting a few slogans. Analyzing recent successful cases, we can find that the cities that are popular often grasp a very specific point for marketing, and by constantly hitting this point, they eventually detonate the entire network, thus making the city popular.

The marketing ideas and methods mentioned above are actually universal, but the specific point is that every city has its own advantages and characteristics. In fact, it all comes down to the city's own advantages and characteristics. Now many cultural tourism companies focus on how to attract people, but in fact, how to keep people is a more worthy issue to think about. After all, cultural tourism is ultimately to drive economic growth for the city. If you want to make a living from this for a long time, you can't rely on one-time traffic. Naturally, the more repeat customers a city has, the better. Cultivating internal strength is a necessary preparation before becoming popular.

Author: Tiana

Source public account: Morketing (ID: 1083455)