China News Agency, Liuzhou, March 4th: A bowl of noodles brings fire to an industrial city China's "Generation Z" starts "reverse tourism"
Author Lin Xin
"For a bowl of noodles, go to a city." It is becoming a popular way of travel for China's "Generation Z" (referring to the population born between 1995 and 2009).
With the popularity of snail noodles, Liuzhou City, Guangxi, an industrial city located in the southwestern part of China, is "reversely out of the circle" and transformed into a tourist check-in place.
On weekends, tourists from all over China pulled their suitcases and lined up in front of the snail powder shops on the streets and alleys of Liuzhou to "check in" long queues, which became a unique landscape.
In order to be a "fan", "post-95" Tian Mi invited two friends and drove nearly a thousand kilometers from Hubei to Liuzhou.
As the "number one fan" of snail noodles, Tian Mi cooks a bowl of bagged snail noodles bought online every week to satisfy her cravings.
She said: "During the holiday, I finally had the opportunity to taste a bowl of authentic snail noodles in Liuzhou."
Snail powder is a local roadside snack in Liuzhou, which has a unique flavor of spicy, cool, fresh, sour and hot.
In 2014, the bagged snail noodles came out and began to "fly" to all parts of China, even Southeast Asia, the United States, Europe and other places.
After capturing people's taste buds, Liuzhou combined snail noodles with "poetry and distance" to promote "snail noodles + tourism", so that a bowl of snail noodles can string together tourist routes.
Liuzhou took advantage of the opportunity to launch tourist routes covering Bailiandong Cave Science Museum, Luobawang Luosi Noodle Industrial Park, and Luosi Street in Yaobu Ancient Town. Along this route, tourists can visit the Luosi Noodle Cultural Center, tour the snail noodle production line, and taste snail noodle snacks.
Zhang Kunling, a tourist who came here for snail noodles, queues up in front of different snail noodles shops to "check in" every day.
As a "post-00s", Zhang Kunling admitted frankly that when traveling in a city, she pays more attention to characteristics such as "delicious, fun, and low consumption".
Liuzhou, which is not a tourist city, is "out of the circle" on Chinese social platforms by virtue of its unique food, free parks in the city, and less popular features.
"3 yuan (RMB, the same below) to travel in Liuzhou by water bus" "Climb to Liuzhou Ma'anshan for 0 yuan to enjoy the most beautiful night view" "free visits to parks with karst landforms"... On major social media in China, Internet celebrity bloggers, local people Tourists share the charm of this niche city, and even the local vegetable market is "captured" by tourists.
Huang Qipeng, a "post-00" who came from Guangzhou to explore, made a special trip to Liuzhou Qingyun Vegetable Market to "check in".
She said that she was attracted by the smoke and fire of the vegetable market, where there are many delicacies and high cost performance.
Different from the traditional tourist crowd, the "Generation Z" who "pursue individuality and value experiential consumption" prefer to choose unpopular destinations and "check in" non-tourist cities.
Today, "reverse tourism" is gradually rising among China's "Generation Z".
Hegang, where you can stay in a five-star hotel for 300 yuan; Yanji, known as "Little Korea", and Xishuangbanna, which is full of exotic customs, are all concerned and "planted" by "Generation Z" on the Internet.
According to Ctrip data, during the National Day holiday in 2022, many non-traditional tourist cities in China, such as Hengshui, Hegang, Rizhao, and Leshan, have seen a significant increase in tourism orders.
Among them, "post-90s" and "post-00s" accounted for about 70% of the visiting tourists.
Huang Xiaojie, Chief Marketing Officer of Qunar, believes that "Generation Z" is the main force of consumption in the current tourism market. For this group of customers, travel is not purely for "checking in". Five-star hotels and other basic facilities are relatively complete and the prices are relatively low, which is in line with the tendency of young people to travel at low cost and high value.
With the growth of China's economy, China's tourism industry has transitioned from casual tourism to holiday tourism and then to "reverse tourism".
Liu Huimei, deputy dean of Zhejiang University's Tourism and Leisure Research Institute, previously said that the Chinese people have a more mature travel mentality.
More and more people are no longer keen to "check in" to popular tourist attractions.
They have a normal heart and return to focusing on the inner feelings of the subject.
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