A short drama made a city popular. Is it a real trend or a false concept?

Cultural tourism and short plays have been hot tracks in the past two years. So, as a combination of the two tracks, what kind of splash has the cultural tourism short play made in the market? This article attempts to explore the present and future of cultural tourism short plays. Let's take a look.

"There isn't a single decent cultural and tourism short play out there," said a short play practitioner.

Since the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television released the "Travel with Micro-Short Dramas" creation plan on January 12, cultural and tourism short dramas have become a "hot topic" and are expected by practitioners to be the next content trend. Cultural and tourism departments in many places including Henan, Zhejiang, and Sichuan have also followed up and introduced various support measures.

There is no doubt that culture and tourism is one of the hottest topics in the past two years. From Zibo to Harbin and then to Tianshui in Gansu, one internet celebrity city after another has long occupied the hot search list; short dramas are also the most "promising" business in the past two years. Mini-program short dramas have created the myth of getting rich overnight, and brand-customized short dramas have set off a commercialization boom.

As a combination of the two hottest tracks at the moment, four months have passed, but the cultural and tourism short drama has not made much splash in the market.

The State Administration of Radio, Film and Television plans to create and broadcast 100 high-quality cultural and tourism short dramas a year. It has now announced two batches of 28 recommended works, which is one-third of the goal. However, there are no big hits among them. The popular "There's Wind on My Way Home" has nearly 200 million views, which is far from the level of going viral.

Especially at a time when the short drama market is becoming increasingly quiet, there are reports that 90% of entrants have lost all their money. Many people who were eager to try out cultural tourism short dramas have decided to continue to wait and see. Some pessimists even told the editorial department of New List: "Cultural tourism short dramas may just be a pseudo-concept."

However, there are also optimists who believe that the development of a new thing requires a period of time, and that cultural and tourism short dramas "have everything ready, only the east wind is missing."

How far has the cultural tourism short drama developed? Is it a pseudo-concept or a real outlet for the future? We talked to several short drama practitioners to discuss the present and future of cultural tourism short drama.

1. Can a short play really make a city popular?

It has been proven that short videos can make a city popular. Zibo, which became popular last year, Harbin, which became popular at the beginning of the year, and Tianshui, Gansu, which has recently become popular, have all achieved breakthroughs through short videos. It is also feasible for a long drama to make a city popular. Not to mention the distant past, in the past two years, "Go Where the Wind Is" has once again made Dali, Yunnan popular. The number of tourists on the Fengyangyi Tea Horse Road has increased from 50-100 people per day to 500-1000 people, more than 10 times. During the Spring Festival that year, Dali's tourism revenue hit a new high. The Cultural and Tourism Bureau also gave "Go Where the Wind Is" a 2 million yuan subsidy to show its recognition.

Can a short play make a city popular? At present, this is still a question mark, at least no short cultural and tourism play can give a definite answer. So far, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television has announced two batches of recommended catalogs for "Traveling with Micro Short Plays", with a total of 28 works, covering cultural and tourism attractions in Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Shaanxi, Hunan, Guangxi, Anhui, Beijing, Shandong, Chongqing and other places.

Image from: Short Play Study Room

Among these 28 recommended short dramas, about 10 have not been broadcast online on the mainstream short drama platforms in the market (such as Youku, iQiyi, Tencent Video, Mango TV, Douyin, Kuaishou, etc.).

An operator familiar with cultural and tourism short dramas revealed that many of them are officially led, and the broadcasting platforms are chosen to be CCTV Video or the Xinhua News Agency’s website. Compared with mainstream short drama platforms, their audience is limited and the playback data is not public.

In this case, it is not easy to break the circle, after all, the channels are limited and the audience is limited. However, the trader also pointed out that many cultural and tourism departments have expressed their willingness to try more market-oriented platforms and gameplay.

Apart from these 10 short dramas, some of the remaining short dramas have already determined the online platforms, and some have been broadcast. However, judging from the data, most of them have received mediocre responses. The most popular one is "There is Wind on My Way Home", with 190 million views on Douyin, and currently only this included work has exceeded 100 million public views.

According to reports, "My Homeward Journey Is Windy" is a derivative short drama of the TV series "Go Where There Is Wind". It is jointly produced by Huace and Douyin and is set in Leshan, Sichuan. It tells the story of a white-collar girl from a first-tier city who returns to her hometown in Leshan and meets the male protagonist, the owner of a century-old Sichuan restaurant, and begins a romantic love affair, and together they inherit the intangible cultural heritage of Leshan.

The short play presents many local characteristics of Leshan, such as boiled cabbage, Mao roast duck, Pixian bean paste and other delicacies, as well as traditional culture such as face changing and tie-dyeing. Producer Liu Zifan said in an interview that after the broadcast of "My Way Home Has Wind", many cultural and tourism departments approached Huace to discuss cooperation, and the second part of the short play is also in preparation.

However, from the perspective of promoting cultural tourism, "My Homecoming Is Windy", which has nearly 200 million views on Douyin, has not successfully replicated "Go Where There Is Wind". Discussion topics on social platforms are still centered around the series itself, and rarely explore the local characteristics of Leshan, because even fewer people have visited Leshan to watch this short drama.

There are few topics about Leshan related to short plays on Xiaohongshu

The same situation also occurred in several cultural and tourism short dramas with over 10 million views, such as "Your Island Has Arrived" and "Don't Panic, My King". There may be discussions about the short dramas, but the discussion about culture and tourism is mediocre.

It can be said that the transcripts submitted by these two batches may be qualified as short plays, but as cultural and tourism short plays, they are still a long way from the goal.

2. Who will pay for the cultural and tourism short drama?

Cultural and tourism short plays have not yet made a splash, but there have been some hits with cultural and tourism themes.

In 2023, the drama "Escape from the British Museum" introduced netizens to the Chinese thin-bodied jade pot with twined twig pattern in the British Museum, and also attracted more netizens to pay attention to the Chinese cultural relics in the British Museum. It has been viewed more than 2 billion times on the entire network and has been on the hot search many times. It has been evaluated as "a short drama with great feelings."

"Escape from the British Museum" also falls into the category of cultural tourism, but the topic selection and filming were carried out spontaneously by the creators.

However, from the perspective of the industry as a whole, there are not many short drama companies that actively invest in cultural tourism short dramas. Although themes such as domineering presidents, sweet pets, and cool stories are rampant, the market returns are more controllable, and the audience of cultural tourism themes is not as wide as that of domineering presidents and cool stories. It depends on the timing to go viral, and it takes more energy to shoot.

Mingbai Culture, a short drama MCN, has entered the cultural tourism short drama market since mid-2023 and has filmed six or seven works. Chief screenwriter Zhu Linli told the editorial department of Xinbang that "the shooting time of cultural tourism short dramas is longer, and you need to work hard to do it well. Generally, commercial short dramas only need scripts, preparation, and shooting, while cultural tourism short dramas need to go out to collect folk songs first to understand the local urban landscape and humanities."

Moreover, when it comes to the specific circumstances of cultural and tourism attractions, most of them require the assistance of local departments. Therefore, at present, cultural and tourism short plays are not all purely market-oriented products, but are mainly led by official units, with creative teams and short play companies cooperating with specific local cultural and tourism departments.

"Cultural and tourism short plays focus more on showing historical features and local culture, and telling moving city stories; the first appeal of commercial short plays is to make users feel that they are good-looking. The starting points of the two are different," Zhu Linli pointed out.

A short drama practitioner believes that the difference in purpose between cultural and tourism short dramas and commercial short dramas brings up a core issue - who will pay for the cultural and tourism short dramas? "Government commercial orders can make money, but not a lot of money. Those who just want to make money might as well shoot commercial short dramas."

Some short cultural and tourism dramas can generate additional commercial income, such as brand sponsorship. In addition to the sponsorship from Changde Taohuayuan, "Your Island Has Arrived" also received the sponsorship from Tomato Novel.

However, most of the short cultural tourism plays have not been commercialized. "Some brands are interested in the short cultural tourism play projects, but it depends on whether the local government and propaganda department can accept this approach," Zhu Linli told us.

In addition, more practitioners who have tried out cultural and tourism short drama organizations told the Xinbang editorial department that not only are the competent authorities cautious, but brands are also cautious about the launch of cultural and tourism short dramas, "because the demands of brands in launching short dramas are different from the purposes of cultural and tourism short dramas."

The subject matter and platform make it difficult to break out of the circle, and the difficulty in breaking out of the circle makes it difficult to monetize. The difficulty in monetization makes it impossible to attract more people to join, which makes it even more difficult to break out of the circle. Cultural and tourism short dramas can easily fall into a vicious circle.

A practitioner close to the cultural tourism short drama industry pointed out: "If an organization spends so much money to make a cultural tourism short drama and it fails to be selected by the official evaluation and there is no reward, who will bear this part of the cost?"

3. Cultural tourism short dramas are still waiting for the wind to rise

The dilemma faced by cultural and tourism short plays is real, but it is undeniable that cultural and tourism short plays themselves still have value and market.

The cultural and tourism track has huge traffic potential. In 2023, the number of domestic tourists reached 4.891 billion, a year-on-year increase of 93.3%. Many travel bloggers and cultural and tourism experts have gained followers rapidly.

At the same time, short dramas are an emerging and youthful form of content. The "2023-2024 China Micro-Short Drama Market Research Report" shows that the scale of China's online micro-short drama market in 2023 is 37.39 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 267.65%.

In addition, every region in the country, from provinces and cities to villages and towns, has its own heritage and customs, which can become a huge source of material for cultural and tourism short dramas.

Therefore, using short plays to showcase local culture is an overall feasible idea. Many short play companies have seen the current difficulties, but still give it a try, trying to find a breakthrough.

Capacity Short Drama, the behind-the-scenes production company of the short dramas "Hot Mom Returns to the Village" and "Take You to a Good Place", decided to continue its efforts in the cultural and tourism short drama track, and set up a special project team of more than 20 people, trying to build "Capacity Culture and Tourism" into a leading brand. It also launched the "Xiaoyao Plan" for cultural and tourism short dramas, and united more short drama teams and creators to develop high-quality cultural and tourism short dramas.

Zhu Linli is also optimistic about the long-term value of cultural and tourism short dramas. According to her, Mingbai Culture currently has an average of one cultural and tourism short drama project to promote every month, and the cooperation schedule has been arranged until September this year.

She believes: "Every city has a side that needs to be expressed. We think it's cool to make cultural and tourism short plays. Regardless of whether we make money or not, good content is valuable when it is seen. Cultural and tourism short plays need to be polished and are not assembly line products."

Moreover, the difficulties faced by cultural and tourism short dramas are also being resolved by all parties.

In response to issues such as "review time is too long and implementation is difficult", the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television recently issued a notice to establish a special review platform for online short dramas, and delegated the review authority for short dramas with a cost of 300,000 to 1 million yuan to provincial departments. "Sichuan has stated that the film will be reviewed immediately and a reply must be given within 3 days," a short drama practitioner revealed.

Commercialization is also being liberalized. After one year of entering the cultural tourism short drama industry, Zhu Linli feels that cultural tourism short dramas are increasingly able to accept more new forms. "At the beginning, they gave us the scripts, which were positive energy propaganda. This year, many local cultural tourism industries are trying to accept new things. When we make short dramas such as "Su Nu Shu", we can become more and more youthful and commercial."

A few months may not be enough to judge whether the cultural and tourism short drama can be successful, and the market needs more time to verify it.

"Good content producers are solving what should be done and what is lacking. Now it is just a matter of time and opportunity. We just need to wait quietly for the market." Zhu Linli is confident that a batch of interesting and story-telling cultural and tourism short plays will appear in the future.

Author: Truffle; Editor: Zhang Jie; This article is written by the author of Operation Party [Xinbang], WeChat public account: [Xinbang], original/authorized to be published on Operation Party, and any reproduction without permission is prohibited.

The title image is from Unsplash, based on the CC0 protocol.