3 million followers in 5 days! "Tour Guide Xiao Qi" becomes popular, is the tourism track on Douyin gaining momentum?

Recently, a Xinjiang tour guide became popular, with 3 million followers in just a few days. What is the reason? This article explains the reasons for the explosion and related content, I hope it will be helpful to you.

I have seen people gain 3 million followers because of one video, but this is the first time I have seen someone gain 3 million followers because of someone else’s video.

Recently, a Xinjiang tour guide became popular, with 3 million followers in just a few days, and related topics have been on the Douyin hot list many times. The reason for his popularity is that a travel blogger posted a video praising him.

The tour guide's name is Qi Qin, and his Douyin account name is "Langlang Planet Xinjiang Xiao Qi". After he became popular, the boss of the company behind him spoke out. Netizens found that Xiao Qi's boss is a big V with more than 2 million fans. His popularity may seem accidental, but in fact, he had the right time, place and people.

So, what is the origin of this travel company? After the tour guide Xiao Qi became popular, what new thinking did he bring to the industry?

1. Gain 3 million followers and passively become an Internet celebrity

"I met a silly boy in Xinjiang. He is our tour guide."

At noon on June 30, travel blogger @路人甲旅行记 posted a video on Douyin titled "Based on the principle of not letting honest people suffer losses, I must make a video to talk about this guy." In the video, the blogger told the story of his tour guide in Xinjiang.

At the beginning, he called the tour guide a "silly boy". What was so stupid about him?

The blogger said that other people would get kickbacks when they took their guests shopping or eating, but he didn’t. He took the blogger to local shops. When the blogger wanted to buy some souvenirs, he said, “Don’t buy them here, they are too expensive. Let’s go to a cheaper place later.” He also bought ice cream, dried fruits and fruits along the way, and helped take care of the children…

He is very diligent and does a lot of detailed work, which seems "silly", but this silly energy reflects that he loves his job very much, and he does his job conscientiously and provides the utmost service.

Obviously, "Tour Guide Xiao Qi" directly hits the chaotic tourism and unscrupulous tour guides that many users hate. Compared with his peers, his image of being serious, responsible, hardworking and considerate of tourists is undoubtedly eye-catching.

Originally, the travel blogger just wanted to post this video to praise him. "I didn't expect that one of my videos could have such a big marketing impact. At first, I just thought that this guy was so honest, so hardworking, and he was from Northeast China, and he was so far away from home. I had to post a video for him to help him attract customers and let him make more money in the future. It's that simple."

But unexpectedly, this video quickly became popular. As of now, the number of likes for this video has reached 4.3 million, and it has helped the protagonist of the video, Xinjiang Xiaoqi from Langlang Planet, to attract one million fans in one day and 3 million fans in just 5 days.

Not only that, the tour guide Xiao Qi also received attention and reposts from official media such as Xinhua News Agency, People's Daily, and Guangming Online.

Related topics such as "Tour guide gained one million followers after tourists posted videos praising him", "Why tour guide Xiao Qi suddenly became popular", and "Tour guide Xiao Qi said he has started to control the number of groups" were on the Douyin hot list.

The travel blogger "Passerby A Travel Notes" also gained nearly one million followers because of this video.

Faced with the sudden influx of traffic, from an amateur to an internet celebrity with millions of fans, tour guide Xiao Qi said in the video, "I'm still a little confused." After becoming popular, Langlang Planet received millions of inquiries, and the backend was paralyzed.

After the tour guide Xiao Qi became popular, in addition to a surge in traffic and praise from many users, it naturally also attracted a lot of controversy.

On July 4, "路人甲旅行记" once again released a video in response to the popularity of tour guide Xiaoqi, saying that many people on the Internet questioned that this was planned and created by him and the company behind tour guide Xiaoqi, and that the video he posted was an advertisement, etc. He responded to all of them one by one. This sincere defense also made many netizens say that "sincerity is always a killer move."

2. What is the background of the company behind this?

As the popularity continues, the travel company behind the tour guide Xiao Qi, Langlang Planet, has also received more attention.

Xinbochang found that Langlang Planet is a Xinjiang tourism company that focuses on mid-to-high-end tourism. It was established on February 17, 2023. The boss of Langlang Planet is a big V. His Douyin account name is "Imperial College Yu Classmate". He has been posting videos on Douyin for a long time and now has more than 2 million fans.

Yu posted a Douyin video on March 1 this year, mentioning that his main project this year is to travel to Xinjiang. In this video, he mentioned that Langlang Planet is positioned as mid-to-high-end and high-end: pure play without shopping, focusing on in-depth travel.

Moreover, Yu’s content output ability is very strong. Many users knew about this big V before the tour guide Xiao Qi became popular. The fact that the tour guide Xiao Qi was able to gain so many fans in a short period of time, in addition to many passers-by fans, is actually inseparable from the buff of his boss.

After the tour guide Xiao Qi became famous, Yu also released two videos in response.

One tells the story of the tour guide Xiao Qi, mentioning that he recruited Xiao Qi through Douyin, and only Xiao Qi recorded an application video for him; the other talks about why Xiao Qi became popular, mentioning that Xiao Qi himself is a hardworking and motivated person, for example, he taught himself to fly drones, which is why he seized this opportunity.

On the other hand, the popularity of tour guide Xiao Qi is actually inseparable from the positioning of this travel agency. This is a mid-to-high-end travel company, so the services it provides are naturally difficult for ordinary travel agencies to achieve.

Xinbochang saw on the Douyin account of "Langlang Planet Travel" that the store has 11 travel group buying products on the shelves, with prices ranging from 7,980 yuan to 16,800 yuan, all of which are single person prices.

The Langlang Planet account has also held live broadcasts many times to promote its own travel products.

Some people also believe that the popularity of tour guide Xiao Qi may boost Xinjiang tourism. The last example is Zibo, Shandong. However, Xinbochang found that the official account related to Xinjiang tourism has not followed up on the popularity of this event.

However, after the tour guide Xiao Qi became popular, Xinbochang discovered that many employees of Langlang Planet Company had registered Douyin accounts, such as "Langlang Planet Xiao Yuan", "Langlang Planet Travel-Yuting" and "Langlang Planet-Yun Zheng".

Among them, "Langlang Planet Xiao Yuan" began to update vlog videos after Xiao Qi became popular. As of press time, one video has received nearly 30,000 likes and the number of fans has reached more than 4,000.

This travel company undoubtedly understands both content and traffic.

3. Douyin tourism track is gaining momentum

From an industry perspective, the popularity of tour guide Xiao Qi is not only a case of an amateur becoming famous, but also shows that there is greater room for imagination in the tourism sector.

An industry insider commented: "It shows the recovery of the tourism market and also shows that Douyin is making efforts in the local life track."

Li Ran, general manager of Douyin's life service and travel industry, said that after three long years of waiting, the trillion-dollar "travel dream" is urgently waiting to be carried out, and 2023 will be a year of explosive growth in user demand for travel.

At present, Douyin's local life mainly includes multiple business lines such as in-store, hotel and travel, takeout, and comprehensive services, which are further subdivided into different scenarios such as scenic spots, transportation, catering, and hotels.

Since the beginning of this year, with the relaxation of the market environment, the tourism market has gradually warmed up and even become increasingly hot. Many institutions, experts and even celebrities have turned to the tourism sector.

Nowadays, short videos and live broadcasts are becoming the main battlefield for the public to discover new ways to travel.

According to data released by Bytedance City Research Institute, in the first quarter of 2023, the number of Douyin users with an interest in travel exceeded 400 million, a year-on-year increase of 13%.

Not only that, Douyin also invited many celebrities to join this year.

On June 9, celebrity Gao Yuanyuan launched her first live broadcast on Douyin, leading many netizens to travel around Paris. The live broadcast room launched a variety of tourism products: a two-day in-depth tour of Paris, a one-day tour of boutique castles, a 10-day and 8-night in-depth tour of France during the summer vacation, and an 11-day luxury tour of France, Italy and Switzerland, with an average per capita customer price of more than 9,000 yuan.

On the afternoon of June 16, Huang Shengyi and her husband sold travel packages such as a five-day and four-night luxury double tour package to Sanya, a two-day and three-night tour package to Disney, and a five-day and four-night quality tour to Beijing in the live broadcast room, and ultimately achieved a GMV of 152 million yuan in a single event.

On the institutional side, Vision Entertainment, a well-known MCN agency that has signed stars such as Zhang Meng and Marco, said that local life has become one of Vision Entertainment's emerging core strategies . It will continue to invest in this field in the future to leverage the company's professional capabilities and the huge matrix advantages of its many artists.

According to FeiGua data, Huang Shengyi ranked first in the group buying expert list of Douyin's travel track last month, with estimated sales of more than 500 million yuan; among the top ten, there are also several travel accounts such as Chimelong Official Flagship Store, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai Surrounding Tours, and East China Little Players.

While the public's understanding of selling goods seems to be still stuck on live streaming, local life has quietly gained momentum.

However, celebrities are not normal after all and are not dedicated to promoting group-buying products. Douyin's local life, especially the hotel and tourism sector, seems to still lack benchmark cases that have truly gone viral.

As the tourism market continues to heat up, how much growth can Douyin generate? How long will the popularity of tour guide Xiao Qi last, and what kind of growth will it bring to the tourism track? It remains to be seen.

Author: Chang Mei; Editor: Qiu Yuan

Source public account: Xinbochang (ID: New_bc), focusing on live streaming, live e-commerce, and short videos.