Recently, Malatang in Tianshui City, Gansu Province has been frequently searched on social platforms. A bowl of Malatang made the northwest town popular. Diners become tourists, and food drives tourism. Food tourism of "eating and traveling" has become a new consumption trend, bringing new opportunities to local development.
Malatang hot weather water tour
Recently, the popularity of "Tianshui Malatang" continues to rise. Reporters learned from Meituan and Dianping that since March, dine-in orders for Tianshui Malatang have increased by more than 140% compared with the previous two months. In the past week, the search volume for "Tianshui Malatang" on Dianping has increased by more than 13 times month-on-month. In the past month, the number of new Malatang catering merchants in Gansu on Meituan has increased by more than 51% compared with the previous month, and the number of Malatang merchants in Tianshui that offer Meituan group buying packages and other transactions has increased by more than 90% from the previous month.
The steaming hot Malatang quickly set fire to Tianshui travel. Recently, Tianshui City, Gansu Province held a Malatang "Foodie Festival" event, inviting tourists from all over the world to eat delicious food, see the beautiful scenery, and visit Dragon City, and continue to build the cultural tourism brand of "Tianshui is loved by thousands of mountains and rivers". During the "Foodie Festival", activities such as Malatang delicacies exhibition and sales, specialty product exhibitions and sales, gourmet experience, Malatang food contest, boutique tourist route promotion, Tianshui specialty products gifts, and local characteristic cultural and artistic performances were held, attracting many tourists.
Tianshui has profound historical and cultural heritage and rich tourism resources. It is the hometown of Fuxi, the founder of humanities. It is home to Maiji Mountain, one of the four major grottoes in China, and the Dadiwan site with a history of 8,000 years ago. The popularity of Malatang has brought rare opportunities for Tianshui tourism development.
Data from Tongcheng Travel Platform shows that the search popularity of Tianshui tourism has increased by nearly 200% recently, and continues to rise rapidly. Mafengwo big data shows that in the past week, tourism popularity in Tianshui has increased by 266% month-on-month, and tourism popularity in Maijishan has increased by 300%, followed by Tianshui Ancient City and Fuxi Temple.
On the Qunar platform, Tianshui hotel bookings increased by 50% year-on-year in March. Tujia B&B data shows that bookings for Tianshui B&Bs grew rapidly in March, with post-90s and post-00s tourists being the main booking group. Tourists from Beijing, Lanzhou, Mianyang, Shijiazhuang and Xining made the most bookings. Data from Xiaozhu B&B shows that the occupancy rate of Tianshui B&B in March increased by 800% compared with the same period last year, and the number of B&B orders in Maiji District increased nearly 10 times compared with the same period last year.
"This week, we have received many inquiries from Lanzhou residents who want to travel to Tianshui, which has increased by more than 200% compared to last week." Sun Yu, general manager of Gansu Hu Chunqiu International Travel Agency Co., Ltd. said, "Experiencing food is the mainstream travel mode for young people nowadays. One. The popularity of Tianshui Malatang continues to rise, and we have designed a batch of food experience products suitable for tourists of all ages, covering a wider range of Gansu specialties," said Sun Yu.
Increase destination visibility
Food is an important experience for people when traveling. In recent years, food has become a favorite travel theme for many tourists. Food tourism not only enhances the popularity and reputation of the destination, but also boosts local consumption.
Wu Fenglin, director of the Planning and Leisure Research Institute of the China Tourism Academy, said that food tourism has a strong human atmosphere and is more likely to resonate with the public. To a certain extent, food tours are also social tours and are especially popular among young tourists. They have strong stickiness in using the Internet and new media and are the main promoters of cultural tourism innovation.
Last year, Zibo barbecue became very popular, making Zibo one of the most popular tourist destinations. In addition, on the Meituan platform, cities featuring delicious food such as Jiangmen, Taizhou, Liuzhou, Zigong, Chaozhou, Shantou, Yanji, and Yibin have generally experienced high tourism popularity, and the number of accommodation bookings has increased significantly compared with previous years. During last year’s National Day holiday, accommodation bookings in Yanji, Taizhou, Shantou, Liuzhou and other cities all increased by more than 400% compared with 2019.
Chen Qiang, secretary-general of the Cultural Tourism Specialty Food Development Working Committee of the China Cuisine Association, said: "Currently, tourists prefer local specialties, including specialty snacks, traditional famous dishes, rural delicacies, etc. Food tourism has various forms and contents. Rich, people often fall in love with a city because of a dish, and feel happy because of the fireworks."
The reporter learned that Dianping launched the "Chaozhou Tourism Food Map" earlier this year. Citizens and tourists can search for "Chaozhou" to browse city walking maps, note guides, local activities, treasure food merchants, real user reviews and other contents in one stop. Get travel itinerary recommendations and online booking services for hotels, restaurants, etc. During the Spring Festival holiday, the number of views using this map increased by 287% month-on-month.
Tell good food culture stories
Food, housing, transportation, shopping and entertainment are the six elements of tourism. As the tourism space changes from scenery to scene, the role of catering and food in the construction and development of tourist destinations has become increasingly prominent.
Recently, Beijing held the 4th Snack Food Culture Festival. Many well-known catering companies and time-honored brands launched new spring seasonal products, inviting consumers to enjoy the "spring on the tip of the tongue" while enjoying the spring.
Currently, the Department of Resource Development of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism has launched a national 24-solar tourism delicacies and food tourism routes collection and promotion campaign called "Looking for the Beautiful China and Traveling Thousands of Miles of Mountains and Rivers". Chen Qiang believes that this event is a major innovation to enhance the lasting appeal of food tourism. It integrates solar term culture with food, folk customs and scenic spots to help the food tourism industry flourish.
Food is the most important thing for the people. Food tourism is favored by more and more tourists, and it is imperative to build a food tourism brand. Chen Qiang said that the quality of food tourism should be strictly controlled, the differentiation and richness of food tourism routes should be maintained, and a better experience should be created for tourists; in addition, efforts should be made to cultivate professional explanation talents for food tourism to convey the wonderful stories behind food Culture and stories are introduced to visitors.
Zhejiang’s “Taste of Zhejiang·Thousands of Bowls in Hundreds of Counties”, Hunan’s “Taste of Hunan·The most delicious places in Hunan”, Anhui’s “Great Taste of Anhui, Famous Snacks of Hundreds of Counties”, Guangzhou Asian Food Festival, Jinan Shandong Cuisine Food Festival Food promotion cases such as this show that food has become a new driving force in many places to promote consumption and promote high-quality development of tourism.
It may become a new highlight of inbound tourism
"The excellent traditional Chinese culture makes the core of food rich and attractive. From the food concept of 'harmonizing five flavors' and 'eating in four seasons, pursuing balance' to the rich and colorful ingredients and the exquisite skills of frying and cooking, Chinese food has unique characteristics." Food from other countries is presented in different forms," Chen Qiang told reporters.
Recently, inbound tourism has continued to pick up. Wu Fenglin believes that food tourism has the potential to become a new highlight in attracting overseas tourists and a new breakthrough in boosting inbound tourism. Facing overseas tourists, how and what to promote should become the focus. It is recommended that overall planning, systematic promotion, and brand innovation be focused on promoting local food landmarks with distinctive cultural characteristics and clear and systematic food tourism routes.
Chen Qiang believes that food tourism should form an industry chain that integrates culture, tourism and food as soon as possible, and go abroad to communicate with food cultures around the world through festivals, exhibitions and events. Food tourism can also be linked with overseas Chinese restaurants to better showcase the wonderful content of Chinese food tourism. In addition, for overseas tourists who love Chinese food, an integrated food tourism consumption experience should be provided. For example, the "Searching for a Beautiful China and Savoring Thousands of Miles of Rivers and Mountains" national 24-solar tourism food and food tourism routes should be compiled into a consumer guide and provide many language version, making it easier for more overseas tourists to click on the map to find information.
Zhao Shan People’s Daily Overseas Edition