Who hasn’t been a “tourism special forces soldier”?

In recent times, travel-related terms have frequently been on the hot search list, among which "college students' special forces travel" has also become a phenomenon that has spread wildly on online platforms, and the popularity of related short video content should not be underestimated. So in this situation where travel short videos have attracted much attention, what kind of content will be more popular? Let's take a look at the author's analysis.

In the past month, "special forces tourism" has become popular all over the Internet.

The haze shrouded by the epidemic has finally dissipated. Netizens who have been trapped at home for three years can't wait to step out and experience the spring of 2023.

Among them, a special form of travel, "special forces tourism", has quietly emerged among young people, mainly college students . In order to maximize the use of time, they usually choose to set out on Friday night or Saturday morning, check in at the destination attractions intensively, and then rush back to the classroom on Monday morning for classes.

The biggest advantage of "Special Forces Travel" is that it is extremely cost-effective because it allows you to visit the most attractions in the shortest time without affecting subsequent course learning.

At present, special forces tourism has become the most popular way of travel on various platforms. The number of readings of Douyin #特种兵式旅游 has reached 1.24 billion times, and Xiaohongshu #特种兵旅游 related notes have exceeded 150,000. At a time when the situation of travel short videos is booming, what kind of content is more popular? What kind of accounts are easier to monetize?

1. “Special Forces-style travel” is popular all over the Internet

Contemporary college students may not be able to get up from their beds in the dormitory on time to rush to the "8 a.m. class", but they can definitely rush to the train station after class on Friday, take a nap on the train and arrive in another city in the early morning, then walk 70,000 steps, check in at a dozen attractions, taste local food, and then take the midnight train back to school, "seamlessly" step into the Monday class.

This is the "special forces-style travel" among college students that has been frequently searched on many social platforms recently. Because of its characteristics of "tight time, many attractions, and low cost", netizens joked that it is more like a special forces training. This is also another new tourism concept born from the young group after the concept of "traveling on a whim" became popular.

If we want to trace the origin of this way of traveling, on February 22 this year, a green train full of college students heading to Lhasa might be the "trigger" for this special forces-style travel craze.

"Youth has no price tag, hard seat goes straight to Lhasa!" The Xinjiang uncle's passionate words drew applause from the college students around him. Even though the train took 54 hours, the college students were still in high spirits. Many of them left their names on the banner, looking very excited. Currently, the video has received 178,000 likes on Douyin.

After this, the already restless college students could no longer hold back and began their own youth journeys:

An Anhui college student shared that he visited Beijing's Nanluoguxiang, Drum Tower, Forbidden City, Lama Temple, Summer Palace, Tiananmen Square, Beihai Park, Temple of Heaven and other attractions in just two days. He also ate noodles with soybean paste, fried tripe, fried cakes, soy milk, Peking duck... As for rest, he mostly took a "light nap" on the means of transportation to the next destination, which was essentially "optional."

Some college students could only barely pass the physical fitness test, but they were full of confidence and formed a group to "climb Mount Tai at night". After sitting in a hard seat for 6 hours, they went directly to the "Hongmen" (the starting point of Mount Tai). They boasted before going up the mountain, and it took them six and a half hours to finally reach the summit and see the sunrise at Mount Tai. When they were going down the mountain, their legs were shaking and they said, "I didn't recognize Mount Tai with my eyes."

Some college students know how to take better care of themselves, and transformed this "travel training" into a "food training", weakening the link of checking in at scenic spots and setting the goal of eating all over a certain place. In the "Ultimate 24-hour eating in Chongqing" note on Xiaohongshu, the blogger ate 18 meals a day and tried every kind of food: coconut milk taro ice, pig intestines, pea noodles, roasted potato skin, candied jelly, potato crackers, tofu rice, hot pot...

Screenshot of the video from @Squid Circle on Xiaohongshu

Thanks to the hard work of a large number of college students in promoting the special forces tourism, it quickly became popular.

To summarize the reasons, as mentioned above, in the past three years, due to the epidemic, most people have been confined to their homes, and the expectation of traveling has reached its peak. Among them, the three years of youth of college students seem particularly regrettable.

Secondly, when “rich and free” college students encounter a popular Internet meme, the impact generated is immeasurable.

Kas once wrote about the influence of college students in the era of short videos: their strong learning ability, low living pressure, more spare time, and relatively rich life make them have a relatively higher success rate in "getting started" with short videos.

According to Kas's observation, under the current special forces tourism, subcategories such as #how to shoot#how to dub#how to write copywriting are extremely popular, which also reflects that more college students want to join this carnival.

In fact, the reason why Zibo barbecue, which has been very popular in short videos recently, has become popular is inseparable from the promotion of college students.

Screenshot of the video "What to eat today" on TikTok @qq

According to media reports, from March 9 to March 16, a short video of a group of college students going to Zibo to eat skewers became popular, forming the first wave of popularity among the small circle of young people.

Subsequently, self-media accounts represented by food bloggers discovered this traffic password and immediately went to the local area to "check in", which made the characteristics of Zibo barbecue such as "large quantity, enthusiastic store owners, and thoughtful service" widely spread, and completed the peak of network traffic on April 9.

2. The past and present of travel accounts

In 2018, when short video content began to emerge, travel vlogs that can lead netizens to appreciate the wonders of the world have captured the attention of a large number of users with their relaxed and high-level content atmosphere, and real and life-like content presentation.

At that time, well-known travel influencers such as @itsRae gained millions of views and 100,000+ fans with a travel vlog about a trip to Utah National Park in the United States in 2018. Subsequently, more travel experts emerged in this field, such as @小小莎老师, @房琪kiki, etc.

Screenshot of the video @itsRae on TikTok

However, due to the practical problems that travel accounts face, such as high costs, long cycles, and difficulty in monetization, coupled with the impact of the epidemic, there are fewer and fewer pure travel accounts active on short video platforms recently.

Today, there are mainly the following types of popular travel content:

Some creators focus on checking in . The focus of this type of check-in video is not to recommend scenery to the audience. It is more about bloggers following the trend, going to popular attractions, taking a cursory tour, taking pictures or videos, and sharing the travel process at any time. Submitting check-in with POI videos has become a new trend for travel accounts.

Some creators choose to combine travel with food . Instead of recommending local attractions, they recommend local specialties more often, and achieve the purpose of Amway by whetting the appetite of the audience.

Screenshot of the video @猴能吃 on TikTok

Brave creators can also choose to shoot challenge experience videos, starting from the first person perspective, leading fans to experience some niche and thrilling attractions.

For example, @安之旅行日记’s video of experiencing the Huashan Skywalk has received 320,000 likes on Douyin, far exceeding the average level of the account. The Skywalk is known as the "most dangerous plank road in the world". Tourists can only climb to the 2,160-meter-high peak via a wooden plank road built on the outside of the cliffs, which is known for its "dangerous reputation".

In the video, the creator held a mobile phone in one hand and pulled the safety rope in the other hand, taking the audience to experience it in person. Even through the screen, many people left messages saying that they felt dizzy and their feet were numb, and thanked the author for taking the video, otherwise they would never have the chance to see the scenery above.

Screenshot of the video @安之旅行日记 on TikTok

In addition to ordinary tourists, many professionals have also made full use of their "innate advantages". Kass observed that many tourism practitioners, represented by tour guides, have successfully transformed into short video creators. While sharing beautiful scenery with fans through online channels, they also explain the historical allusions and cultural significance behind it in depth, forming a "tourism + popular science" content format .

For example, @厦门阿波, one of the dark horses with the most followers last year, compared with other travel accounts, his explanations not only stop at the subjective description of the appearance of the scenic spots, but also popularize their history, origin, significance, value, etc. Many users have commented on his broad knowledge and first-class eloquence. So far, his fans have increased to 16.82 million, which is a pretty good result in the increasingly competitive TikTok.

Screenshot of the video @Xiamen Abo on TikTok

In addition, as various platforms have been vigorously increasing their investment in local life this year, many "hotel and travel recommendation officers" and "local life experts" have also become "tap water" for various tourist attractions. In order to catch the user's attention more quickly, their works must show the most beautiful local scenery in the shortest time, so their videos often reveal a sense of exquisiteness and sophistication.

For example, @孙大野, when you click on his video, it is hard not to be attracted by the stunning aerial shots. In fact, every detail of the video can reflect the author's intentions: the talented copywriting, the warm real-life narration, the designed screen transitions... all aspects are different from some of the "formatted" content on the platform. In addition, as mentioned above, because the essence of the expert's work is to recommend hotels and travel, his account will be much easier in terms of monetization.

In summary, today’s popular travel videos will pay more attention to the fun and functionality of the content, rather than focusing on recording the scenery as in the past.

As for the creators of Xiaohongshu platform, they have fully considered the characteristics of the platform, and most of the content is about travel guides and recommendation. Many users said that Xiaohongshu has now replaced professional travel software and become a must-see platform for their own travel guides. In addition, due to Xiaohongshu's deep UGC genes, users have a much higher degree of trust in it.

It is worth noting that travel notes have always been a popular topic on Xiaohongshu. Kass has searched for more than 17.54 million "travel" related notes on Xiaohongshu, and more than 4.45 million related notes on scenic spots. Xiaohongshu's official data shows that during the Spring Festival, the number of travel notes published increased by nearly 70% year-on-year, an increase of nearly 20% compared to the National Day in 2022.

Screenshot of the video @安之旅行日记 on TikTok

3. Now that we have the traffic, how do we monetize it?

Corresponding to the "explosion" of short video travel content is people's growing enthusiasm for travel.

Data from Ctrip.com showed that as of April 16, domestic travel bookings for the May Day holiday increased by more than 12 times year-on-year, matching the same period in 2019; outbound travel bookings increased by more than 18 times year-on-year. Data from Meituan and Dianping showed that as of April 10, domestic accommodation, transportation, scenic spot ticket bookings for the May Day holiday had increased by about 200% compared with the same period in 2019.

For travel experts on short videos, the recovery of the industry means more monetization opportunities. In addition to the direct monetization channels mentioned above, such as hotel and travel recommendations and group tours, creators with high-quality content can also attract the attention of more brands and businesses. Creators can try to combine travel with live broadcasting.
In an era where “everything can be broadcast,” when users enter a live broadcast room, they enter a new world. Compared with general accounts, travel accounts have unique advantages in “venue” and “goods.”

Taking the well-known example of Oriental Selection, in early November 2022, Oriental Selection hatched a sub-account @东方选看世界. On the day of the premiere, the two anchors Qiqi and Dongdong took netizens to appreciate the sunrise over the sea at Laoshan in Qingdao. Subsequently, the account successively conducted special live broadcasts in many provinces and cities. The most attractive feature of the live broadcast room is the magnificent scenery of various parts of the motherland.

@东方选看世界直播 in Yunnan

At the earnings conference held on January 24 this year, Dongfang Zhenxuan CEO Sun Dongxu expressed optimism about the future potential of the Kanshijie account: "The Kanshijie account has only broadcast five or six shows so far (as of January 24), and the GMV of one of them has reached as much as 20 million yuan."

Last week, there were media reports that from April 15 to 16, Oriental Selection went to the Xizha Scenic Area in Wuzhen, Zhejiang, to conduct a special live broadcast event for Zhejiang's good products. The live broadcast room mainly sold local specialties of Zhejiang, such as Shaoxing rice wine, Jiaxing meat dumplings, Ningbo water-milled rice cakes and other products.

Third-party data shows that the total sales of this "Zhejiang Good Products Special Live Broadcast" exceeded 100 million yuan, of which 13 Zhejiang specialty products had sales exceeding 1 million yuan, and Shaoxing rice wine became the most popular product on the spot with sales of more than 200,000 bottles.

It can be seen that magnificent scenery and unique food can indeed attract more and more discerning short video live broadcast users. However, it is worth noting that as a leader in the live broadcast field, Dongfang Zhenxuan already has many advantages that ordinary people cannot match. If ordinary travel accounts want to strengthen their monetization capabilities, they will have to make more efforts.

Author: Jiangbei

Source: Caas Data (ID: caasdata6), data empowers short video content creation, operation, marketing and e-commerce sales.