Self-cultivation of Internet celebrity cities

Shandong Zibo, which has become popular on the Internet in the past two days, has become a popular tourist destination for netizens across the country. As the title of "Internet celebrity city" circulates among different cities, new trends in consumer preferences emerge. The author analyzes how more niche cities should seize the opportunity under this phenomenon of popularity. Welcome everyone to read it together.

When it comes to "Internet celebrity cities", many people will think of Chongqing, where the light rail passes through buildings, Xi'an, where there are "tumbler girls", and Changsha, the "origin" of Wenheyou, the "king of restaurant queues", and Cha Yan Yue Se. The city that has become popular on the Internet in the past two days is probably Zibo, Shandong, which has been "conquered" by tourists from all over the country.

From the earliest "Internet celebrity attractions" to the current popular destinations that attract "college students" to challenge their extreme weekends. As the title of "Internet celebrity city" circulates between different cities, its path to fame is changing, and new trends in consumer preferences are also emerging. The birth and iteration of "Internet celebrity cities" is by no means accidental.

And beneath the surface of its popularity, perhaps it is the key for more niche cities to open the door to the tourism economy.

1. “Anti-tourism travel” brings traffic back to the city

Before the concept of "Internet celebrity cities" emerged, "Internet celebrity attractions" were the core reason for attracting many consumers to go out. In the past period of time, many domestic scenic spots have been trying to attract tourists by creating "Internet celebrity check-in points", among which the most common elements include glass plank roads, sky mirrors, Internet celebrity swings, etc.

Earlier media reports said that 67 glass plank roads have been built in 53 scenic spots across the country, and the total number of glass plank roads and glass viewing platforms in China has exceeded the total number of glass plank roads and glass viewing platforms in the rest of the world except China. In particular, in Jiangxi, Hunan, Chongqing and Yunnan, which are rich in mountain resources, each province has built more than five glass plank roads on average.

The effect of attracting visitors to "Internet celebrity attractions" such as glass plank roads is also particularly obvious. According to relevant reports, after the glass platform of Beijing Shilinxia Scenic Area officially opened for business, the number of visitors to the scenic area increased from less than 100,000 in the past year to 700,000. On the day of the trial operation of the world's longest glass bridge in the Grand Canyon of Zhangjiajie City, Hunan Province, a large number of tourists lined up overnight to experience it. However, as these "Internet celebrity elements" have become standard features of scenic spots, the attraction of tourists has begun to shift to "Internet celebrity elements" that are easier to produce photos.

In 2021, the "Beautiful Pink Beach" by Fuxian Lake in Chengjiang, Yunnan, became a celebrity check-in spot that everyone yearns for because of its dreamy girly pink and gentle waves that went viral on WeChat Moments. Or the "secret" blue house in Sanya's Qingshui Bay, with its dreamy blue walls and unique artistic conception under the blue-purple sky, has added another tourist destination to many young people's itineraries to Sanya.

However, as more and more netizens visited the site and posted their true “travel impressions” online, the filters of these “Internet celebrity attractions” were quickly shattered : the dreamlike “beautiful pink beach” was the result of color adjustment, the beach was not only overgrown with weeds, but the water was not clear. The “secret” blue house was just a dilapidated abandoned cabin, and outside the camera, there was only mud and stones.

Some people have fallen into the trap of "photo fraud", while others have discovered that some cities have unique urban landscapes that are enough to meet the actual needs of "shooting" in a movie. For example, Chongqing Hongyadong, the rumored filming location of the "Incredible Street" in "Spirited Away", has become a city attraction that tourists are eager to check in because it is comparable to the dream scenes in animated films. On the Douyin platform, the number of video content related to the topic of "Hongyadong" alone has exceeded 100 million. Or the Liziba Station on Chongqing Line 2, where the "light rail passes through the building", has become the most vivid expression of Chongqing, the "8D Magic City" on the Internet.

Although these places are not traditional tourist attractions, people are still keen to use their own cameras to record these novel scenes to show that they have been there, seen them, and experienced them. This kind of travel experience has overturned the original travel style of "sleep on the bus and take photos when you get off the bus" in the tour group era, thus giving rise to a "anti-tourist" travel purpose. Cities with such unique landscapes have also become "Internet celebrity cities" selected by traffic because they have received high exposure on social networks in a short period of time.

2. Old tourist cities gain momentum

"Internet celebrity cities" can not only rely on urban landscapes, but also actively gain exposure with the help of hot events. For example, in 2021, Beijing Universal Studios theme park quickly became popular with the chatterbox "Megatron". Short videos shot by tourists on social media of them teasing each other with the chatterbox "Megatron" became free advertisements for Universal Studios. Many tourists even chose to "watch it again" just to have fun with "Megatron".

Xi'an is more experienced in obtaining natural traffic by creating popular events. As a commercial pedestrian street as famous as Wangfujing in Beijing, Jiefangbei in Chongqing, and Nanjing Road in Shanghai, Xi'an's "Tang Dynasty City That Never Sleeps" has 13 billion views on Douyin, while the "Terracotta Warriors and Horses", Xi'an's tourist attraction with a history of 2,000 years, has only 3.8 billion views. Behind the huge traffic gap is the fact that "Tang Dynasty City That Never Sleeps" is well versed in traffic codes and has the ability to continuously create hot spots.

The first "Doll Lady" to become popular in the "Tang Dynasty City That Never Sleeps" was originally just an interactive street performance planned by the operator. However, in a slow-motion "hand-holding video", her intoxicating face and Tang-style charm quickly became popular, and many tourists wanted to shoot the same video on site. As a result, the "Doll Lady" has become a local "star project" like "Megatron", attracting tourists to come and check in.

Similar examples of artificially creating hot spots include the "Golden Armored Warrior on the City Wall", "Li Bai" who finds people on the street to recite Tang poems, and "Brother Stone" who performs stone chiseling in armor. Among them, the popularity of "Brother Stone" is undoubtedly a hot spot created by the scenic spot, tourists and netizens. In order to show the perseverance of the warrior, he often has a serious face during the performance, but a scene in which he was accidentally amused by tourists was photographed by netizens and posted on the Internet. The instant reversal of seriousness and joy turned "Brother Stone's" performance art into an "interactive performance."

Since then, making people laugh or holding back their laughter has become a common theme among tourists and "Brother Shitou", and every new live video released by netizens continues to bring traffic to the "Tang Dynasty City That Never Sleeps".

In terms of using online content to attract offline traffic, the recently launched "Secret Box of the Great Tang Dynasty" further demonstrates Xi'an's outstanding ability to create hot spots by combining local cultural advantages. The main performance form of "Secret Box of the Great Tang Dynasty" is that two staff members who play "Fang Xuanling" and "Du Ruhui" ask questions and randomly select tourists to participate in the answering. Although the program format of quiz is not new, the performance form of role-playing and talk show adds more fun and interactivity to the performance itself.

On social media, the duo of "Mr. Fang" and "Mr. Du" work well together and have a humorous conversation. Not only do they ask questions that span the East and the West, and the past and present, but their interactions with tourists are also full of "hit points". The official account of the scenic spot and the performance videos spontaneously shot by tourists have also sparked widespread heated discussions on the Internet. Since then, tourists have become not only consumers, but also producers and disseminators of content, helping "Internet celebrity attractions" continue to go viral.

3. “Niche cities” break through the circle through atmosphere

In a previous article titled "Tourism industry picks up, ushering in the era of atmosphere", Jingzhe Research Institute mentioned that in the context of young people replacing travel with vacation, niche tourist attractions and non-tourist cities are more likely to be favored by college students with no economic resources and young people who have just started working and have limited income because of the convenience of high-speed rail and train direct access and lower consumption levels than first-tier cities with well-known tourist attractions. Changsha, Wuhan and Zibo are representative cities among them.

Compared with the road to fame of tourist attractions and tourist cities that actively seek traffic exposure, the popularity of Changsha, Wuhan, Zibo and other cities that were not originally well-known tourist cities is another completely different way to go viral. Public data shows that Changsha and Wuhan have 2 and 3 national 5A-level scenic spots respectively, while Zibo does not yet have a 5A-level scenic spot. However, the developed high-speed rail lines in these three cities provide convenient transportation conditions for the arrival of tourists from all over the country, and the popular food and living city atmosphere have deeply touched the hearts of young tourists.

Changsha is the "entertainment capital" and the capital of Hunan, the birthplace of Hunan cuisine. Local internet celebrity catering brands such as Wenheyou and Cha Yan Yue Se have long been well-known throughout the country. As the main consumer group of these "internet celebrity brands", it is not surprising that young people can take the high-speed rail to the star city on weekends and complete a vacation-style tour to satisfy their appetite.

As for Wuhan, many netizens have already included it in their travel plans because of the impression it has left on people across the country as a "hero city". In addition, the local breakfast culture and crayfish, etc., have been dubbed the "Carbohydrate Capital" on the Internet through food bloggers' store visits and check-in videos, successfully planting the seeds for "college student special forces" to visit Wuhan.

The semi-self-service Zibo barbecue restaurant has also attracted the attention of young people because of its unique way of eating "small pancakes wrapped with spring onions". However, as a third-tier city without rich tourism resources, Zibo has become the most popular "Internet celebrity city" not just because of its food.

Compared with Changsha, which has the gene of "Internet celebrity", and Wuhan, which has the filter of "hero city", it was completely accidental that Zibo was initially noticed because of its "sincerity". At first, when an anti-counterfeiting blogger secretly visited businesses in Shandong, he found that local shops in Zibo not only "did not play with scales" and "did not cheat people", but some businesses even took the initiative to remove the packaging and weigh them or gave extra snacks as a bonus.

Compared with the short weights and measures that the anti-counterfeiting blogger had encountered in other cities, the sincere atmosphere in Zibo undoubtedly touched netizens. When the anti-counterfeiting blogger tasted Zibo barbecue, the per capita consumption level of several dozen yuan made "going to Zibo to eat barbecue" the most desired experience for many netizens.

Frankly speaking, the last hot search alone would hardly attract more foreign tourists to Zibo, a third-tier city that relies on heavy industry. However, after gaining the attention of the entire network, the timely intervention of the relevant departments of Zibo and the conscious maintenance of all Zibo citizens successfully continued the heat brought by public opinion.

From the leader's speech revealed by the taxi driver that "whoever smashes Zibo's pot, whose bowl will be smashed", to the opening of barbecue trains and barbecue routes, the actual actions of the Director of the Culture and Tourism Bureau personally welcoming college student tourists at the train station, and the local citizens spontaneously leading the way for out-of-town tourists, treating them to barbecue, and proactively explaining and apologizing to out-of-town tourists who had bad travel experiences online, it can be clearly felt that Zibo took on the unexpected traffic with honest business operations and the enthusiasm of "Hospitality Shandong".

Meituan data shows that Zibo's May Day accommodation bookings this year increased by 800% compared to 2019, ranking first in Shandong. This also proves once again that today's tourists care more about the atmosphere of the tourist destination than taking photos and checking in. Traveling is no longer to prove "I have been here", but to feel the most essential happiness from life in another city full of freshness.

In the past few years, in order to develop the tourism economy, all parts of the country have regarded online communication as an important channel to attract foreign tourists. Some local cultural and tourism directors even personally appeared in role-playing games to attract netizens to interact with them with eye-catching looks. However, while the cultural and tourism directors worked hard to update short videos to attract the attention of netizens, news of scenic spots charging random fees, overcharging tourists, or being confirmed to be "photo fraud" often instantly shattered the beautiful image previously created through publicity.

Beautiful scenery is certainly the most reliable strength for developing the tourism economy, but it is more difficult to impress people than to attract attention with beautiful scenery. People on the Internet often say that sincerity is always the ultimate skill. When the attention of young people is attracted by the popular food and the living city atmosphere, "niche cities" have the opportunity to break the circle, but whether they can continue the popularity is a test of the self-cultivation of each "Internet celebrity city".

Author: Early Summer

Source: WeChat public account: "Jingzhe Research Institute (ID:jingzheyanjiusuo)"