Wang Po stopped, but Henan did not

This article explores in depth how the "Wang Po Matchmaking" phenomenon has driven the local cultural tourism boom through short video platforms, and analyzes the role and challenges of amateur IP in cultural tourism marketing. It is recommended for readers who are interested in cultural tourism marketing strategies and social media influence.

In 2007, the phrase "Hospitable Shandong welcomes you" became famous throughout the country, successfully making people all over the country remember the beautiful Shandong and prompting other provinces to follow suit, such as "Colorful Guizhou", "South of the Colorful Clouds", "Beautiful Qinghai" and so on.

As social media continues to develop towards video, tourism marketing is also constantly innovating with media convergence. "Wukong under Wuzhi Mountain", "Li Bai, the poet under the moon", "Wang Po, the matchmaker", "Zuo Youge, the leading dancer in the ice city"... At present, one "Wang Po's matchmaking" after another is constantly writing about cultural tourism marketing in the Internet era. People who used to watch tourism ads in the gap between the weather forecast and the 30-minute news on TV are now rushing to "Wang Po's matchmaking".

1. Make a person famous and bring a city to the fore

In the Wansui Mountain Wuxia City Scenic Area in Kaifeng, Henan, the bustling crowds seem very excited.

On the stage, an offline dating show, "Wang Po Matchmaking," is being broadcast. Although the actress who plays "Wang Po" is no longer Zhao Mei, who became popular on the Internet, this has not affected the popularity of the Wansui Mountain Wuxia City Scenic Area. Celebrity anchors from all over the country have started broadcasting off the stage, trying to catch the traffic of "Wang Po Matchmaking."

Coincidentally, it is reported that recently scenic spots in Wuhan, Zhengzhou, Jinan and other places have launched the "Wang Po Matchmaking" program, and "Wang Po" are emerging in cities across the country.

In fact, as early as February this year, @Kaifeng Wangpo attracted a lot of attention on the Internet. In February, lifestyle blogger @周大爷不服老 and anti-counterfeiting blogger @B太 posted videos of playing in Wansui Mountain and opened the "Kaifeng Wangpo" program.

Subsequently, the video of @开封王婆's live interaction went viral online, and countless single men and women and tourists came to visit, bringing substantial traffic to Henan's cultural tourism industry. The @开封王婆 account also ushered in a wave of traffic climax. According to the data from Heat Wave, the number of fans of the @开封王婆 account on Douyin was 2.5 million on March 26, and the number of fans of the account exceeded 6 million on April 2.

From the content point of view, @开封王婆's live blind date format is exactly what young people are suffering from. In the highly systematic daily life, the live blind date is attracting netizens.

From the follow-up data, just like Tianshui and Zibo before, this craze is not limited to online. According to the latest data released by the Kaifeng Municipal Bureau of Culture, Radio, Film and Tourism, during the 2024 Qingming Festival holiday, Kaifeng City received a total of 2.3639 million domestic tourists and realized domestic tourism revenue of 1.26 billion yuan, an increase of 28.96% and 51.8% year-on-year, respectively, and an increase of 134.2% and 138.8% respectively compared with the same period in 2019 on a comparable basis. According to media reports, as of March 26, the tourism search popularity of the Wansui Mountain Wuxia City Scenic Area alone has increased by more than 7 times month-on-month in the past week, and the ticket booking volume has increased by more than 2 times month-on-month.

As the "new top streamer" during the Qingming Festival, @开封王婆's traffic also boosted Henan's cultural tourism during the Qingming Festival. The "2024 Qingming Festival Travel Express" released by Alibaba's Fliggy shows that Henan's hotel bookings during the Qingming Festival increased by 201% year-on-year, and car rental bookings increased by 241% year-on-year.

It can be said that with the help of short video platforms, in offline local cultural and tourism services, @开封王婆 has driven the tourism market in Henan during the Qingming Festival from point to surface.

2. The end of amateur IP may no longer be live streaming sales

Looking back at the cities that once became popular through short videos, it is not difficult to find that this is not the first time that amateur IP has driven local cultural tourism.

From the host of Harbin Ice and Snow World to the Malatang uncle in Tianshui, Gansu, and then to the earliest Ding Zhen in Litang, Sichuan, the popularity of urban cultural tourism often starts with specific amateur IPs.

Compared with simple scenery, the dissemination of amateur IP characteristics is often more in line with the dissemination logic of short videos. The real, local and direct images have become the best "wild spokespersons" for local cultural tourism. Under the joint efforts of platforms, local cultural tourism and other celebrities, amateur IPs in cultural tourism scenic spots across the country are quickly seen and loved by users.

For these amateur IPs that have become popular due to cultural and tourism traffic, how to cope with the huge traffic is an important proposition.

The uncertainty of the "blind date" format has led to more and more celebrities flocking to the scenic spot after Kaifeng Wang Po became popular. The taste of the script has become increasingly stronger, and the appearance of married people has led to constant doubts about Wang Po's matchmaking.

In April, Zhao Mei, the actress who played Wang Po of Kaifeng, announced on social media that she would stop performing for the next month and stated that "there would be no commercial activities with any fans." She also closed her Douyin account to promote products.

Unlike most celebrities, the live streaming sales ability of amateur IPs that became popular through cultural tourism is often difficult to last long. This is because users' impression of such IPs is strongly related to the cultural tourism environment of each place. When amateur IPs leave the tourism scene and turn to live streaming sales, they are often not accepted by netizens.

Therefore, some celebrities who rose from cultural tourism have chosen to further deepen their ties with scenic spots rather than quickly realize commercial profits. With the explosion of Harbin, @冰城左左哥 stopped live streaming and focused on promoting Harbin's cultural tourism. Although Harbin's tourist peak season has passed, according to heat wave data, the number of @冰城左左哥's fans has not changed significantly compared to last winter.

Changes in the number of fans of @冰城左左哥 in the past 90 days (Photo source: Red Butler)

From @冰城左哥 to @开封王婆, the end of the combination of amateur IP celebrities and cultural tourism may no longer be live streaming with goods.

3. Henan: Content is the "King"

Following Harbin and Gansu, Henan's cultural tourism industry has once again taken advantage of the short video trend. However, this is not the first time that Henan's content genes have been shown in short videos.

After Harbin became popular in 2023, Henan Culture and Tourism focused on "listening to advice". In just 4 days, the official account published more than 100 pieces of content, from scenic spots and historical sites, traditional culture to special food and travel guides. Henan Culture and Tourism took culture as a starting point, starting with the director of the Culture and Tourism Bureau, and integrated it into young people through activities and spread its own traditional culture. At present, the official Douyin fans of the Henan Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism have exceeded 2 million.

Coincidentally, shortly after the 2021 Henan TV Spring Festival Gala "Dragon Boat Festival Wonderful Tour" was broadcast, a large number of Douyin users and Bilibili users re-created and reposted the content of the gala. Later, this series also developed multiple contents such as Qixi Wonderful Tour, Qingming Wonderful Tour, and Lantern Festival Wonderful Tour. On Bilibili, multiple "Wonderful Tour Series" videos have been played over a million times.

Image source: Station B

In addition, Henan Culture and Tourism has also built the "Only Henan·Drama Fantasy City" drama theme park in Zhengzhou, as well as the Heluo cultural immersive drama models "Wind from Luoyang" and "Searching for the Goddess of Luo River", which have not only received numerous praises on social media, but also attracted a large number of tourists to watch on site.

With content as the core and short videos as the medium, Henan Culture and Tourism has creatively explored historical culture and, on this basis, created a number of tourism products with cultural IP attributes, achieving a deep integration of culture and travel projects to a certain extent.

4. Use culture to shape tourism, and use tourism to promote culture

The cultural and tourism integration strategy was proposed in 2018. After several years of running-in period, in 2023, relying on short video social media, local cultural tourism and short video platforms finally found the new formula of "culture and tourism + short video".

In recent years, as traditional culture has become more popular among young people, many traditional cultural contents have become the "traffic code" for local cultural tourism to find users with the help of short videos.

In this context, local cultural tourism has become more comfortable with new communication channels. At the beginning of 2024, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television launched the "Travel with Micro Short Dramas" plan, proposing to create and broadcast 100 "Travel with Micro Short Dramas" short dramas to help cultural tourism areas go viral and create a local check-in atmosphere.

On the one hand, cultural tourism needs social platforms, and the promotion methods of the cultural tourism industry have long been quietly transferred to short video platforms. On the other hand, social platforms also need the traffic and popularity brought by cultural tourism. Every time a cultural tourism hotspot appears, it can not only make a wave of local celebrities popular, but also bring a wave of traffic to other celebrities.

At this year's Clour Ceremony, Lei Binyi, CEO of Wuyou Media, said: "When we operated Ocean Flower Island last year, we sent a group of anchors to shoot the youthfulness and fashion sense of Ocean Flower Island, and created a topic and live broadcast. In less than a month, the topic was played 40 to 50 million times. Later, we invested more in operations, including Douyin's local life hotel and travel packages, which also brought very good feedback. In half a year, the occupancy rate of individual tourists in Ocean Flower Island has been greatly improved, and the scenic spot shopping street has also been revitalized. Finally, the daily order amount of the cultural and tourism product packages brought by Douyin has exceeded that of Ctrip, which gave me a great shock."

Through music festivals, live broadcasts and other means, more and more content creators are participating in the road of cultural tourism and rural revitalization. This is not only the integration of cultural tourism in various places, but also the result of social platforms penetrating into the cultural industry. Local consumption, online entertainment, and cultural consumption are driven. In this context, perhaps "short video + cultural tourism" will be the best formula for cultural tourism to go viral on the Internet.

Author: Guangye; Source public account: Clour (ID: 1093227)