Harbin's ice and snow tourism has become popular. What role does social media play?

Harbin's tourism industry has been booming recently. How has social media helped it? Let's take a look at the author's analysis~

Social media has the main characteristics of spontaneous participation of Internet users, public information exchange and open communication channels. It is not only the creator and follower of some hot social topics, but also has largely changed the reporting methods of traditional media and the means of forming public opinion.

In the process of Harbin's ice and snow tourism going viral, interactive communication on social media has become the basic content and important feature of this communication, which is mainly manifested in: social media frequently launches Internet buzzwords, interactive communication on social media strengthens tourists' situational experience, cultural and tourism departments actively listen to social media demands, and social media promotes the formation of the city's cultural image IP.

1. Social Media

Generally speaking, social media refers to the network content production and dissemination carrier built through the Internet with users as the basic unit. It is an online tool and platform used by members of society to express opinions, express insights, share experiences and express views.

Social media now exists in various forms, including but not limited to social networking sites, TikTok, short videos, TikTok, Weibo, WeChat, blogs, forums, podcasts, etc. The main characteristics of social media are the spontaneity of user participation, the openness of information exchange and the openness of communication channels.

The rapid development and widespread popularity of social media have greatly changed the way the public socializes, making information production and dissemination faster, more convenient and more extensive. It can be said that social media is not only the creator and follower of some hot social topics, but has also largely changed the reporting methods of traditional media and the means of forming public opinion.

In other words, the vigorous development of social media generated in the fertile soil of the Internet can unleash dazzling public opinion energy. The information it produces and disseminates has become an important content for members of society to browse the Internet. It not only creates one hot topic after another that is widely concerned and discussed in social life, but also guides traditional media to follow up and actively participate.

Recently, the popularity of Harbin's ice and snow tourism is a prominent example of the popularity of social media. From the end of 2023 to the beginning of 2024, almost without any signs or warnings, Harbin's ice and snow tourism became the top of the list and headlines of major domestic online platforms and mainstream media through the expression and promotion of social media, and became a popular check-in destination for domestic and foreign tourists.

The attention, popularity and pursuit of Harbin's ice and snow tourism are closely related to the high-frequency and large-dose intervention of social media, which is worthy of study and reflection.

2. Social media frequently launches Internet buzzwords

With the rapid development of the Internet, tourism is no longer a simple holiday, but a spiritual search and catharsis. The derivation and transfer of Internet celebrity traffic is precisely the pursuit of unique experiences and the manifestation of inner sensitivity of social members.

The reason why Harbin's ice and snow tourism remains so popular is precisely because social media continues to intervene and release huge energy, satisfying people's comprehensive needs for emotion, beauty and humanity.

From Harbin to "Erbin" and then to "Binzi", this is by no means the shaping and promotion of Harbin's city image IP by mainstream media, but rather the nickname or nickname given to the Ice City Summer Capital by short video creators on social media. A key factor in Harbin's popularity this time is the frequent creation of memes on social media that have gone viral on the entire Internet.

In today's era when Internet information dissemination is increasingly strengthening the "net sense", only by enhancing communication and interaction between Internet users can the best dissemination effect be achieved. The two Internet buzzwords "Erbin" and "Binzi" will also transform the high-latitude city with ice and snow as its main marketing product into a bustling scene with a surge of manpower.

Whether it is "Erbin" or "Binzi", both originally came from the name for Harbin given by local citizens through short videos on social media.

When the Harbin Ice and Snow Festival opens on January 5 every year, various Douyin, Kuaishou and short videos related to ice and snow tourism, local customs and culture, Northeastern folk homestays and the city’s history and culture emerge in an endless stream.

In order to welcome tourists from other places, Harbin has introduced many new ways in catering, accommodation, entertainment and other aspects. Local citizens have never seen or experienced these new ways before, so they have issued Internet buzzwords such as "Are you still the same Harbin?" on social media.

From the perspective of content dissemination on social media, Internet buzzwords with multi-dimensional meanings, diverse themes and varied contents are emerging one after another. It can be said that the continuous introduction of these Internet buzzwords on social media are the "joke points" and "explosive points" of this round of Harbin's popularity.

From the perspective of modern communication where content is king, Internet buzzwords are the premise and foundation for cultural and tourism innovation and the shaping of city image IP.

"Southern little potatoes" are used to refer to southern tourists from Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangdong and other places, "small tangerines" are used to describe children in Guangxi kindergartens, "red pandas" are used to refer to children in Sichuan, and "little Moutai" is used to describe primary and secondary school students in Guizhou. These cities spread the "cute" rhetoric and soon became synonymous with highly recognizable and highly praised tourists on the Internet.

The rapid, widespread, multi-dimensional and scattered spread of Internet buzzwords created by social media has, on the one hand, injected interest into short video content, and on the other hand, enhanced the close attention of foreign tourists to short videos. It is with the support of short videos and other social media that network traffic has been concentrated in Harbin in a short period of time. Internet buzzwords have become hot searches as soon as they are released, and Harbin has thus attracted the attention of the whole country.

3. Social media interactive communication enhances tourist experience

In the traditional public perception, urban tourism is in competition with each other, but the popularity of Harbin's ice and snow tourism has triggered a strong "chain effect". The sweet interaction between "Bin Zi" and "Xiao Shatangju" on social media has set off a "singing" craze in the north and south cultural tourism, and also helped promote the national tourism to usher in the first wave of carnival in 2024. Many netizens expressed their feelings of "crying with envy" on social media, praising "Bin Zi is a real person" and "Northeastern friends can get along well."

The interactive communication on social media is reflected not only in the greetings between netizens from the north and south in the comments of short videos, but also in the messages from cultural and tourism departments in various places to tourists. With the extraordinary popularity of ice and snow tourism in Harbin, the entire Northeast cultural and tourism industry is also heating up.

Citizens in Shenyang, Liaoning Province, used social media to make suggestions to the authorities. A blogger posted a short video of "a golden girl falling from the sky" in the hope that the Shenyang Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism would extend the business hours of scenic spots during the Spring Festival. Just a few hours after the short video was posted, Liu Kebin, director of the Shenyang Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism, replied on social media that he "attached great importance" and "coordinated immediately."

From the perspective of communication effect, this reply fully reflects the actual measures taken by citizens to publish their demands on social media. Although this is a positive response of the cultural and tourism functional departments to Internet celebrities, the interaction between the government and citizens and the answers to the questions given by the heads of relevant departments have effectively demonstrated that social media has gradually transformed from an instant platform for spreading the city's image and realizing diversified exchanges among netizens to a new medium for interaction between the government and the public.

It is through the content expression and digital interactive dialogue of social media that multiple entities such as government, functional departments, enterprises, and citizens have gradually gathered on the online platform, each participating in the development of urban tourism and the construction of city image IP in their respective roles.

4. Cultural and tourism departments actively listen to social media discourse

As an important part of mass communication in modern society, social media has not only changed the way people connect and communicate with each other on a global scale, but also has a profound impact on various entities such as individuals, enterprises, social organizations and governments at all levels through news information, online marketing, consumer surveys and education and training.

The popularity of Harbin's ice and snow tourism has greatly touched and inspired cultural and tourism departments across the country. They have used their brains and tried every possible means to explore and try to use social media to "catch the trend" and "catch traffic." This also shows from another perspective that cultural and tourism departments across the country attach more importance to the dissemination and expression of social media.

Shanghai, Zhejiang, Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Hebei, Henan, Guangxi and other provinces (regions and cities) have successively innovated their social media communication strategies. Among them, the official Douyin account of Hebei Culture and Tourism immediately responded to the question of "Can you update 30 posts a day" in the comment section: "I'll give you a number, 60!" The official Douyin account of Hebei Culture and Tourism posted 75 posts in one day, focusing on "listening to advice" and "being clear and unambiguous."

Hebei Tourism Group has made full use of social media, consciously transforming passive inquiries into active "listening to advice", and taking immediate action on this basis. Whether it is suggestions from tourists or complaints from netizens, negative reports or positive publicity, it can actively respond and listen to netizens' opinions extensively, thereby changing the cultural tourism publicity method from a single mainstream media promotion to an interactive publicity in which mainstream media and social media jointly communicate with the public.

The number of followers of Hebei Culture and Tourism’s official Douyin account increased from 440,000 to 1.1 million in two days. As of January 22, 2024, the number of followers has reached 1.35 million.

The behavior of cultural and tourism departments to "listen" and "advise" through social media is called "pampering fans" on the Internet. The success of Harbin's ice and snow tourism is essentially a concrete manifestation of the cultural and tourism authorities fully respecting the wishes of foreign tourists and actively listening to social media discourse. They not only try to meet the various needs of traditional tourists, but also actively adopt suggestions from "tourists" on social media.

As social media develops rapidly, the behavior of "pampering fans" is being realized through the integration of online and offline. Those "netizens" who use social media to express their opinions are no longer just "spectators", but are actually real "tourists" who come to check in. They use social media to "call" officials to express their demands, and then hope that their demands will be met and realized. Of course, Internet users use social media, including short videos, to express their demands, which fully reflects the improvement of the media literacy of current social members and the enhancement of the public's democratic awareness and supervision concept.

5. Social media promotes the formation of urban cultural image IP

The development of the Internet has brought many conveniences to members of society. The most obvious of these is the birth and development of social media. Social media communication has the advantages of being wide, fast, and low-cost. It can help promote the forging and formation of a city’s cultural image IP by increasing the brand awareness and expanding the influence of city tourism brands.

Practice has shown that the planning of interesting content, the setting of ice and snow scenes, the design of multiple interactive methods, and the establishment of immersive experience for tourists have all become important factors in the popularity of Harbin's ice and snow tourism. These important factors have also received widespread attention from foreign social media. Tourists from Russia, Japan, South Korea, Kazakhstan and other countries have used social media to report on Harbin's ice sculptures, special food, folk customs, etc., with many expressions such as "too amazing", "incredibly shocking", and "successful counterattack".

From the perspective of foreign social media, Harbin's ice and snow tourism has become popular. This is not only the rise of the cultural and tourism industry after the three-year epidemic, but also an iterative upgrade of tourists' experience against the backdrop of the global tourism industry hovering in a slump.

At the same time, some foreign tourists also crossed the ocean to come to Harbin to check in, visit, taste delicious food, and appreciate the ice and snow. They posted videos and feelings of traveling in Harbin on their social media, and expressed them with words such as "awesome", "very cool", "too immersive", "magical and beautiful place" on Weibo, Douyin, and short videos.

The presentation and dissemination of content about Harbin's popular ice and snow tourism by foreign tourists and "netizens" has not only achieved a good word-of-mouth effect on my country's ice and snow tourism industry, but also promoted the formation of Harbin's urban cultural image IP and enhanced the popularity and reputation of Harbin's ice and snow tourism.

VI. Conclusion

In recent years, Harbin's ice and snow tourism industry innovation, city brand and city image building have evolved and progressed with the rapid rise of social media such as Douyin, Kuaishou and Xiaohongshu. In other words, Harbin's new ice and snow tourism industry promotion and city image communication, relying solely on the description and reporting of traditional offline media, can no longer adapt to the development trend of the Internet communication era, let alone meet the personalized, quality and diversified spiritual needs of domestic and foreign tourists.

Therefore, Harbin and other ice and snow tourism cities in China should grasp the key links such as content selection, theme planning, discourse expression, communication and interaction in the dissemination of ice and snow tourism industry and city image on social media, take content as king, creativity as basis and dissemination as key, and guide social media to not only integrate mainstream official information expression, but also integrate entertainment, youthfulness, fun and network-based diversified interactions, so as to realize the integrated innovation of ice and snow tourism industry through empathetic dissemination on social media.

Author: Liu Jinxiang; Editor: Shi Guang; Editor: Bandao

WeChat public account: Cultural Industry Review (ID: whcypl)