Travel bloggers enter the "reverse tourism" track

As the economy recovers, people are starting to travel in revenge. Tourist destinations are crowded with people, but travel bloggers choose places that few people go to. The same old travel vlogs will cause visual fatigue to users. How can travel bloggers stimulate the audience's desire to travel in terms of content creation?

"Life is not just about the immediate, but also about poetry and the fields in the distance." A few days ago, #丁真自驾到旅游Tibet# also became a hot search. As the shadow of the epidemic gradually dissipated, tourists who had been at home for a long time also quickly started retaliatory tourism. Precisely because of this, many tourists complained on Xiaohongshu, "There are crowds of people everywhere" and "You can only see heads when you go out." According to data from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, during the Spring Festival holiday, domestic tourism reached 308 million person-times, a year-on-year increase of 23.1%, and domestic tourism revenue reached 375.843 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 30%.

While tourists are rushing to popular attractions to check in and take photos, travel bloggers are getting involved in the "reverse tourism" track. They deliberately pick some lesser-known attractions to record travel videos and show the audience a different world.

Xu Yun, a well-known travel blogger on Bilibili, shot a series of videos about cycling to Heilongjiang during the Spring Festival. Under his lens, the exotic style of the Hagia Sophia, the color-changing ice sculptures of the Ice and Snow World, the snow-covered land of Northeast China and other scenes were all presented to the audience, giving the audience a sense of being there.

For the audience, when everyone's desire to travel becomes stronger and stronger, the monotonous daily vlog records of travel bloggers may not be able to satisfy everyone's curiosity about travel. In terms of content creation, how can travel bloggers stimulate the audience's desire to travel?

1. “Cloud tourism” is popular, and travel bloggers are experiencing a peak in the number of followers

During the boom of cloud tourism, the audience was far away from the beautiful scenery. At that time, the video content created by travel bloggers was more like satisfying everyone's imagination about travel. According to the "2022 New Tourism Consumption Trend Report", the number of domestic tourists during the May Day holiday was 160 million, a year-on-year decrease of 30.2%, and domestic tourism revenue was 64.68 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 42.9%. In the context of the sluggish tourism industry, live cloud tourism has become a new favorite of Generation Z. About 11% of users often watch cloud tourism. WeChat has also set up a special cloud tourism page for this purpose.

Judging from the cloud travel videos released by major platforms, travel bloggers of all types have presented a visual feast in their own fields to the audience who are forced to stay at home. RV bloggers lead the audience to travel around the world, cycling bloggers show the audience the thrills of the journey, and travel and food bloggers check in local delicacies for the audience... These videos have invisibly raised the audience's expectations for travel.

After the epidemic, tourists are gradually resuming their travel plans. At this time, travel bloggers' videos seem to have become a must-have guide for viewers to check in in advance, and users are more interested in travel videos that can not only appreciate the beautiful scenery but also get money-saving tips. Relevant data shows that before 2016, there were less than 1,000 full-time travel bloggers in China. At present, the total number of travel bloggers on major platforms has exceeded 100,000.

Now, with the recovery of the tourism economy, travel bloggers have also ushered in a new round of fan growth. For example, just after the epidemic, Xu Yun's B station account increased from 1.236 million fans to 1.723 million, Douyin travel blogger Fang Qi's fans increased from 21.994 million to 22.191 million, Xiamen Abo's fans increased by more than 1 million, Baikal Anan's fans increased by more than 800,000... Of course, some travel bloggers have fallen into the bottleneck of content creation. The travel content is almost repeated day after day, so the fans increase slowly, such as Mushini and Captain Han's Drifting Diary.

From the perspective of content creation, how travel bloggers adapt to the changes in audiences' viewing habits of travel videos before and after the epidemic, and create content that meets everyone's urgent travel needs, is a new direction they are exploring.

2. When “reverse tourism” becomes mainstream, how should content creators achieve success?

During this year's Spring Festival holiday, popular cities such as Sanya, Dali, and Changsha suddenly became popular destinations for tourists to take revenge trips. Official data showed that Sanya received a total of 1.6129 million tourists during the Spring Festival, an increase of 616,400 tourists from 2019, which is also a symbol of the gradual recovery of the tourism industry. However, when creating content, travel bloggers were involved in the "reverse tourism" track, using unpopular attractions as an incision to reinterpret the meaning of tourism.

Each of the videos recently released by Xu Yun, a travel blogger on Bilibili who is wandering around China, has received millions of likes. Take Xu Yun's video "A Hard-core Man Cycles through Northeast China and Spends the Night in a Roadside Tin House" for example, which has received 4.493 million likes. In Northeast China, where the temperature was more than 30 degrees below zero at night, Xu Yun set up his tent directly in the snow beside the road. His sleeping bag, which could only withstand the temperature of more than 20 degrees below zero, was frozen by the next day.

However, Xu Yun did not stop riding. He packed his bags and continued on his way, passing through Jingyu County, Narhong, and Linhaixueyuan. He also talked about the history of the War of Resistance against Japan when passing through Jingyu County.

How difficult were the conditions for Xu Yun's cycling? The road was often empty, and when night fell, there were all kinds of strange noises coming and going, which made people feel like they were shooting a horror movie. Netizens left comments in the barrage: "The passers-by are afraid that you will freeze", "I am shivering with cold", "Isn't this more exciting than "The Lone Moon"? " Later, Xu Yun finally found a tin house where he could temporarily stay, but the coldness was no less than camping in a tent in the snow. Since it was the eve of the Chinese New Year, Xu Yun chose to follow the local customs and cooked dumplings on the kang. He had not eaten for a day and ate forty dumplings at once.

Xu Yun once said self-deprecatingly: "People who drive RVs are traveling, while people like us who ride bicycles are more like fleeing." Having said that, Xu Yun's travel videos satisfy young people's yearning for freedom, and have a natural beauty of returning to nature.

From the overall style, Xu Yun's videos are more like documentaries, and his cycling trip is a spiritual practice. Xu Yun used a camera to record every aspect of food, clothing, housing and transportation. The hardships and gains of the journey are vividly remembered. The scenery in Xu Yun's lens includes the towering snow-capped mountains in Tibet, the desolate and magnificent sunsets on the border, and the wilderness stretching thousands of miles...

Many netizens praised Xu Yun's video: "Every frame can be used as a screen saver." But behind the beautiful scenery is Xu Yun's hard work day after day. He climbed over 4,600-meter-high mountains in the wind, lived in culverts under the road, and sometimes even heard the howling of wolves. These thrilling scenes satisfied the audience's curiosity about unpopular attractions, and the audience was also impressed by Xu Yun's courage.

In addition, whenever Xu Yun visits a scenic spot, he will tell the audience about the local customs and historical origins, which shows his profound cultural heritage. Xu Yun's cycling can not only take the audience to appreciate the natural wonders, but also present a series of travel challenges to the audience. His personal experience, what he saw and heard, and cultural knowledge all add depth to the video, which is also the key to Xu Yun's popularity.

Douyin travel blogger Fang Qi's videos tend to be healing. After the epidemic, Fang Qi set her travel destination to her hometown in Northeast China. When she was traveling by car, she passed by a wooden house wrapped in snow mushrooms, photographed the glittering rime in the early morning, and also aimed the camera at the snowman in the music gallery. She described the ice city Harbin as follows: "This ice and snow kingdom can compose cold music and sing romantic songs." Although Fang Qi's videos are only one or two minutes long, the pictures are as beautiful as a dream, and she edited her mumbling life into a poetic realm. Netizens commented: "Each work is like an art film."

Take "Blue Tears" as an example. Fang Qi's video has received 3.914 million likes. Blue Tears is actually the fluorescent sea in Xiamen. The male lead Zhang Wansen and the female lead Lin Beixing of the TV series "Twinkle Twinkle Star" have seen this sea together. Fang Qi tells this beautiful and romantic love story in a video of dozens of seconds. Fang Qi is very good at telling stories in videos. Before each trip, Fang Qi will dig out local stories related to TV series and novels, and incorporate her imagination into the video creation to polish the script. Because of this, Fang Qi's videos can always poke the audience's heart at a certain moment, and show the beauty of the journey scenery and words vividly, which also resonates with the audience.

Mid-level travel blogger Xiaoduo also drove his RV to Lengji Village at minus 60 degrees Celsius, while Diandianyan went to Hainan's niche treasure villages, Guizhou's Zhijin Cave, Getu River, etc. Tail-level travel blogger Xiaocai's travel story always lingers in niche attractions, such as the unmanned path leading to the sea in Zhanjiang and the mountain trail in Zhuhai, while Guo Xiaotao prefers unpopular attractions made popular by TV dramas, such as Jiangmen in "Kuangbi" and Ningbo villages in "Menghualu".

Although travel bloggers are currently more inclined to create "reverse travel" content, it is not the case that "reverse travel" is more likely to become a hit. Douyin travel blogger Mushini initially posted a video of herself walking freely in the mountains wearing sunglasses, which received 1.242 million likes. In the empty mountains, Mushini's free and unrestrained image quickly attracted fans. However, Mushini is still continuing his previous creative style, and there is no breakthrough in the content. Fans have watched too many videos of walking in the mountains, and naturally they soon developed visual fatigue.

As "reverse tourism" gradually becomes popular, users will probably need more hardcore strategies for unpopular attractions, which poses a more severe challenge to travel bloggers. In addition to creating landscape videos, bloggers may try to recommend travel preparations to users. Xiaohongshu travel bloggers such as Pipi in the Blue Planet, Eryan and Ma Toilet have compiled information on scenic spot transportation, accommodation, etc. into travel strategies, providing tourists with a reference guide. When "reverse tourism" becomes a new direction for travel bloggers to create, unpopular attractions have also distracted tourists' attention to a large extent, which is conducive to the positive development of the tourism ecology.

3. How do short video platforms help the linkage of “film and television + cultural tourism”?

This year's hit TV series have also brought a number of tourist attractions to the fore. After the broadcast of "Go Where the Wind Is", Fengyangyi, Youfeng Courtyard and other places have suddenly become check-in spots for viewers. According to official data, on the day of the Spring Festival travel rush, the number of flights at Xishuangbanna Airport reached 65, a year-on-year increase of 550%, and the passenger throughput was about 15,000, a year-on-year increase of 834%. During the Spring Festival, the number of tourists in Dali and Xishuangbanna increased by more than 10 times.

Coincidentally, "The Storm" has made Jiangmen, the filming location, popular, and "Red River" has made the ancient city of Taiyuan in Shanxi popular. These attractions have seen a surge in the number of tourists due to the popularity of the TV series. On short video platforms, tourists have been checking in at the Old Factory Street and eating rice noodle rolls, pork trotter noodles and other delicacies from the show, trying to imitate Gao Qiqiang's life trajectory. Some tourists have simply posted multiple sets of comparison photos of the scenes in the show, and these videos have sometimes received hundreds of thousands of likes. In the ancient city of Taiyuan, tourists have also followed the rhythm of the movie, running back and forth in the yard, imitating the process of Zhang Da and Sun Jun's investigation. Many people have also stood on the second floor of the yard reciting "Red River" to feel the soul-stirring national spirit.

In a sense, these short videos of tourists also provide travel bloggers with new creative ideas. Admittedly, the short video clips of the scenic spots in the drama also brought traffic to the scenic spots. However, although the videos edited by tourists highly restored the famous scenes in the drama, they lack cultural heritage and have a sense of superficiality. Travel bloggers may be able to go a step further on this basis. They can cosplay the plot and conduct secondary creation, and they can also help the audience explore the local historical knowledge, characteristic culture, development process and other content.

"Reading ten thousand books is not as good as traveling ten thousand miles." The meaning of travel is not limited to eating, drinking and having fun. Every city that has experienced the vicissitudes of time has accumulated its own stories. Travel bloggers need to use the form of travel to explain the relevant knowledge to the audience. The "Thousands of Miles Alone" series of variety shows initiated by Shan Jixiang, the gatekeeper of the Forbidden City, showcases the cultural origins of the porcelain cities Longquan and Liling and the intangible cultural heritage of porcelain making technology during travel.

After the epidemic, as tourists' desire to travel has become stronger and stronger, travel bloggers' content creation has also been involved in the "reverse tourism" track. How to present the unique scenery of unpopular attractions, how to tell the local history and culture, and how to help tourists prepare travel strategies are all severe challenges faced by travel bloggers.

Author: Rain and Smoke; Editor: Ji Nan

Source: TopKlout (ID: TopKlout), a self-media ecological observation account that combines good-looking and informative content