When the Director of the Cultural Tourism Bureau changes to online celebrity, can the ＂flow＂ change to ＂reservation＂？
Guangming Daily reporter Zhang Zheng Guangming Daily correspondent Zhang Ziqi Deng Bailu
Xie Wei, director of the Cultural Tourism Bureau of online celebrity, Suizhou City, Hubei Province, who was both "spitted" and happy by netizens because of her hair accessories and slightly fat figure, told reporters with joy: "In the first quarter of this year, the city received a total of 7.526 million tourists, achieving a tourism income of 4.67 billion yuan, exceeding the data of the same period in 2019 and setting a record high."
Contrary to the image of the video, he is meticulous at work. Recently, when he spot-checked a problem at a scenic spot, he seriously told the staff of the local cultural tourism system: "If the traffic goes up and the word-of-mouth drops, we will only be bitten by the traffic!"
In the past two years, the directors of cultural tourism bureaus in various places have been "very busy": they have to "show their faces" in a high-profile way to promote cultural tourism, and they have to bear the pressure brought by the network — — Some people call it "the director trapped in traffic."
In the face of some controversy and traffic, Xie Wei is optimistic, "willing to appear in the camera ‘ Volume ’ The director of the cultural tourism bureau still hopes to do something. " After all, he did not forget to tell reporters to give more publicity to Suizhou.
Many readers are curious, why did they become online celebrity? What kind of confusion are you facing? Can you maintain the heat for a long time? To this end, Guangming Daily reporter conducted an in-depth interview with this group.
Tourists visit Hongcun Scenic Spot in yi county, Huangshan City, Anhui Province. Photo by Xu Jiadong/Bright Picture
Why did they become online celebrity?
No matter in appearance or expression, Xie Wei seems to have nothing to do with the standard of "online celebrity". In the video that made him out of the circle, Xie Wei wore Hanfu, which quickly attracted ridicule from netizens. "I knew from the beginning that I was very sloppy, but at that time, I felt that this would not affect the beauty of the Millennium Ginkgo Valley. I didn’t expect netizens to focus on me. " Xie Wei said.
Being online celebrity is not Xie Wei’s initial intention. In February 2022, Xie Wei was transferred from Suixian County to Suizhou City, Hubei Province as the director of the Culture and Tourism Bureau. During the epidemic prevention and control period, the local cultural tourism industry suffered heavy losses. Xie Wei took office for a month, which coincided with the peach blossom season in Suizhou. He confidently invited more than 20 people from the media to promote it. Unexpectedly, after the video was sent out, the response was flat and the publicity effect was not satisfactory.
Xie Wei called "meat pain" after calculating the account. "An activity, each big V needs hundreds to thousands of dollars in labor costs. If there are such activities every month, the annual budget will be several hundred thousand smaller. Comparing the effect, spending too much money is not a long-term solution. "
At that time, Liu Hong, director of the Cultural Tourism Bureau of Ganzi Prefecture, Sichuan Province, had become popular on the Internet with his martial arts costume and became one of the first directors of online celebrity, attracting a lot of attention.
This made Xie Wei see new possibilities. "I thought, why not follow the example of Director Liu Hong and try it yourself? It will save more money than inviting stars and big V." Xie Wei said.
Whether there is controversy or not, we have to admit that Xie Wei’s "explosion" has indeed saved a lot of money for Suizhou’s image promotion.
Tourists visit the drum culture exhibition at the Bell and Drum Tower Museum in Xi ‘an, Shaanxi. Xinhua news agency
Xie Wei, who took off the label of "online celebrity", is the most typical image of a civil servant in the public mind: wearing a dark coat with a white shirt, showing a calm temperament in his gestures. Before entering the cultural tourism system, he served as secretary of the township party Committee and participated in flood control and disaster relief work.
In his view, high-profile popularity is not contrary to his original intention. What the tourism industry needs is "marketing like a madman". Xie Wei said frankly, "online celebrity officials are just a statement. Actually ‘ Red ’ It’s a flash, and civil servants are our job. I can’t accept myself when everyone is writing ‘ Do not move ’ This will be sorry for the trust of the organization. "
Ouyang Min, an associate professor at the School of Journalism and Communication, Wuhan University, believes that the change from "low-key" in grass-roots work to "high-key" in cultural tourism marketing actually reflects the functional transformation of government departments from "managers" to "servers".
"For a long time, the image of officials has always been serious. In this upsurge, the directors took the initiative to ‘ Decapitation ’ In front of the camera, the expression of escaping and youthfulness subverts the public’s inherent cognition of civil servants. The interweaving of online celebrity and officials has produced a strong sense of comedy and conflict, which accords with the audience’s ‘ Curious ’ Psychology. " Ouyang Min believes that this is a development opportunity for the local cultural tourism industry.
What are the dilemmas in traffic?
The directors at the center of the topic found that traffic brought not only economic benefits, but also many controversies and rumors.
"I don’t know if you have seen the video circulating on the Internet? In their video, I was turned into a little girl in her twenties, wearing a sling and ogling everywhere. " When talking about this matter, Xie Wei frowned and looked very helpless.
In March of this year, some self-media AI-changed Xie Wei’s video and marked it with the words "Xie Director’s modern video footage" in an attempt to share a piece of the traffic tide, which also misled many netizens.
After the video was released, negative comments on the Internet flooded into Xie Wei. Someone asked him in the comment area: "Is it necessary to sell ugliness because of ugliness?"
Submerged in the voice of public opinion, Xie Wei said frankly that he once felt at a loss. He is afraid that he will be labeled as "grandstanding" and even more worried that the surging bad reviews will affect the image of Suizhou. "Because of this incident, many fans have withdrawn from my fan base, and the video click rate has also been affected." Xie Wei said.
In Bainiu Village, Changhua Town, Lin ‘an District, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, Luo Xingyue (first from right), an investment operator of the village scenic spot, introduced the natural scenery of Bainiu Village to tourists. Xinhua news agency
While Xie Wei is facing confusion, directors in other places have also begun to examine the "double-edged sword" of traffic.
In March last year, director of the Cultural and Tourism Bureau of daofu county, Sichuan Province, Jiang Zeduoji quickly "went out of the circle" with a sci-fi propaganda film and fluent English, becoming another well-known director of online celebrity after Liu Hong.
Up to now, his videos have almost "zero bad reviews", but he is still worried about his high exposure. "My friend said I was ‘ Seek your own way out ’ Exposed to the spotlight, all the subtle movements will be artificially amplified. If the traffic is too large, there may be gossip. " Denzawa Dorje said frankly.
In this regard, Ouyang Min believes that it is not unexpected that the traffic will bite back under the strong secondary creation of short videos, and the directors should be prepared.
Chen Bo, a professor at the National Institute of Cultural Development of Wuhan University, pointed out: "Director Xie ‘ Ugly out of the circle ’ It has indeed enhanced the visibility of the city. From the results, this is a relatively successful marketing. But this is not a good medicine for developing tourism. After the track of the director is saturated, what do the directors in other places rely on to get traffic? "
Chen Bo believes that in order to avoid the traffic itself, directors should clearly realize that publicity is only a means, not an end. Compared with "packaging is new", the cultural tourism industry should take the route of "content is king" and retain tourists with high-quality cultural tourism experience, otherwise it will be short-lived and will not last long.
How to seek "allowance" in "flow"
As more and more directors join the "online celebrity" tide, sharp-eyed netizens find "clues", and the short videos of cultural tours gradually appear homogenization phenomenon — — The directors are scrambling to adopt similar practices such as "cross-dressing show" and "showing beautiful scenery", which makes the public feel aesthetic fatigue.
"Imitation is the least controversial and the least investment." A director of online celebrity Cultural Tourism Bureau with a large number of fans bluntly said that because there is no professional operation team, creativity is easy to dry up and operation is difficult. In order to keep the account updated, we have to follow suit.
Tourists visit Nalati tourist scenic spot in Xinjiang. Xinhua news agency
Not long ago, the barbecue in Zibo was "out of the circle", which also provided a new inspiration for Director online celebrity — — You can’t just "roll in" endlessly in the video, but you should pay more attention to the travel experience.
Mitsuzawa Dorje once held a special meeting to re-examine Zibo’s out-of-circle password, and finally came to the conclusion that — — A city should have a core of fireworks.
"Barbecue seems to be a carrier of the taste of street life, but the affinity and interactivity reflected in this process are the core competitiveness." Yasuzawa Dorje believes that the development of cultural tourism should not only have the "face" of video promotion, but also have the "lizi" of tourism experience.
Some directors of cultural tourism said in interviews that the root cause of the fire in Zibo was to identify the uniqueness of the city. We should not simply imitate it, but give full play to local strengths according to local conditions and create a unique and grounded cultural tourism environment.
"I have been busy attracting investment recently." Online celebrity’s influence is being "realized". "Recently, four companies came to me by name to talk about investment and investment in homestay projects and amusement facilities."
In Dafang County, Guizhou Province, Wu Jiaojiao, deputy director of the online celebrity Municipal Bureau of Culture and Broadcasting, experienced the network dividend — — Online data is converted into offline income. A few years ago, they encountered the problem of "pain point". Some fans bluntly told her that the tourism format of young consumer groups was still in a blank, and there was "something to watch" but not "play" for young people. How to solve it once became a difficult problem.
This year, the local reference big data "suits the right medicine": a variety of new tourism formats have been launched — — Yi people’s immersive script tour, dressing tour, terrace light show, theme performance in the 1980 s and other ingenious activities. "On May 1 this year, the number of young tourists who come generously has also increased. The daily average number of marchers is as high as tens of thousands. Among them, among the leisure tourism consumer groups, young users and parent-child groups after the 90 s accounted for nearly 90%. " Wu Hao said.
Wu Jiaojiao (first from right), deputy director of the Bureau of Culture and Broadcasting in Dafang County, Guizhou Province, is at work. Bright picture
Recently, many directors of online celebrity Cultural Tourism Bureau have been thinking — — How to realize the transformation from "online celebrity" to "long red" and from "flow" to "reserve"?
Combining with relevant research, Ouyang Min gave suggestions to the directors: "As a tourist destination known for its natural scenery, it is suggested to build a selling point to relieve urban pressure, embrace nature, purify the soul and strengthen emotional experience. Tourist destinations with profound cultural heritage can focus on the development of folk resources, such as traditional crafts, folklore, historical allusions, etc., and explore deeper cultural connotations. "
A director of the online celebrity Cultural Tourism Bureau said that in the face of the cultural tourism fever in various places, it is also necessary to be wary of rushing into the project.
In this regard, Chen Bo, an expert who has been paying attention to cultural studies for a long time, reminded that the local cultural tourism departments should also do a good job in evaluating the online traffic conversion ability on the premise of clearly publicizing and positioning. "After all, online traffic cannot be directly realized. The cultural tourism department should measure the return on investment of the offline tourism industry and adjust the cultural tourism development strategy in real time according to the evaluation results." Chen Bo said.