The director of the Cultural and Tourism Bureau becomes an Internet celebrity, can "traffic" become "retention"

Xie Wei, director of the Internet celebrity cultural and tourism bureau of Suizhou City, Hubei Province, who was dressed in a costume robe, but was both "sloppy" and happy by netizens because of his "sloppy" hair ornaments and slightly blessed figure, told reporters happily: "In the first quarter of this year, the city received a total of 752.6 million tourists and achieved tourism revenue of 46.7 billion yuan, exceeding the data of the same period in 2019 and setting a record high." ”

Completely different from the image of the video, he is meticulous in his work. Recently, when he spot-checked a problem at an attraction, he solemnly told the local cultural tourism system staff: "If the traffic rises and the reputation falls, we will only be eaten back by the traffic!" ”

In the past two years, cultural and tourism bureau directors in various places have been "very busy": they have to "show up" to promote cultural tourism in a high-profile manner, but they also have to bear the pressure brought by the Internet - some people call them "bureau chiefs trapped in traffic".

In the face of some controversy and traffic, Xie Wei is optimistic, "The director of the cultural and tourism bureau who is willing to appear on the camera to 'roll' still hopes to do something." Saying that, he also did not forget to tell the reporter to give more publicity to Suizhou.

Many readers are curious, why did they become influencers? What kind of confusion do you face? Can it be maintained for a long time? To this end, our reporter conducted in-depth interviews with this group.

Why they became influencers

Whether it is appearance and expression, Xie Wei seems to be not very close to the standard of "Internet celebrity". In the video that took him out of the circle, Xie Wei wore a Chinese costume, which quickly attracted ridicule from netizens. "I knew from the beginning that I was looking very sloppy, but at the time I felt that it would not affect the beauty of the thousand-year-old Ginkgo Valley. I also didn't expect netizens to focus on me. Xie Wei said.

Being an Internet celebrity is not Xie Wei's original intention. In February 2022, Xie Wei was transferred from Suixian County to Suizhou City, Hubei Province as the director of the Bureau of Culture and Tourism. During the epidemic prevention and control period, the local cultural tourism industry suffered a heavy blow. One month after Xie Wei took office, coinciding with the peach blossom season in Suizhou, he confidently invited more than 2 self-media big Vs to do publicity. Unexpectedly, after the video was released, the response was mediocre, and the publicity effect was not satisfactory.

Xie Wei finished calculating the account and called it "flesh pain". "For an event, each big V needs labor costs ranging from hundreds to thousands of yuan. If there were such an event every month, the annual budget would be hundreds of thousands smaller. Comparing the effect, spending too much money is not a long-term solution. ”

At that time, Liu Hong, director of the Kardze Prefecture Cultural and Tourism Bureau in Sichuan Province, had become popular on the Internet with his martial arts appearance, becoming one of the first Internet celebrity directors, attracting a lot of attention.

This allowed Xie Wei to see new possibilities. "I thought, why not follow Director Liu Hong's example and try it yourself, it will save money than inviting stars and big Vs." Xie Wei said.

Whether there is controversy or not, it has to be admitted that Xie Wei's "explosion" has indeed saved a lot of money for the image promotion of Suizhou.

Xie Wei, who removed the label of "Internet celebrity", is the most typical image of a civil servant in the public concept: a dark jacket, a white shirt, and a calm temperament in his gestures. Before joining the cultural tourism system, he served as the secretary of the township party committee and participated in flood relief work.

In his opinion, the high-profile popularity is not contrary to his original intention, and what the cultural tourism industry needs is to "do marketing like a madman". Xie Wei said frankly, "Internet celebrity officials, just a statement. In fact, 'red' is a momentary thing, and civil servants are our job. When everyone is rolling, I can't accept that I don't move, which will be sorry for the trust of the organization. ”

Ouyang Min, associate professor at the School of Journalism and Communication of Wuhan University, believes that from the "low-key" of grassroots work to the "high-profile" of cultural tourism marketing, it actually reflects the functional transformation of government departments from "managers" to "service providers".

"For a long time, the image of officials has always been serious. In this wave of enthusiasm, bureau chiefs took the initiative to 'uncrown' and adopted a jumpy and youthful expression in front of the camera, subverting the public's inherent perception of civil servants. The interweaving of the two personalities of Internet celebrities and officials produces a strong sense of comedy and conflict, which is in line with the 'curiosity' psychology of the viewer. Ouyang Min believes that for the local cultural tourism industry, this is a development opportunity.

What are the dilemmas?

The directors at the center of the conversation found that traffic brought not only economic benefits, but also many controversies and rumors.

"I don't know if you've seen the video circulating online? In their video, I was praised as a little girl in her 20s, wearing suspenders and throwing winks everywhere. Speaking of this, Xie Wei's brows frowned slightly, looking very helpless.

In March this year, some self-media changed the face of Xie Wei's video by AI and marked it with the words "Director Xie's modern costume shooting video highlights", in an attempt to get a piece of the traffic tide, and also misled many netizens.

After the video was released, negative comments on the Internet flooded Xie Wei. Someone questioned him in the comment area: "Is it because of ugliness to get out of the circle, and you are about to embark on the road of selling ugliness?" ”

Drowned in the voice of public opinion, Xie Wei confessed that he once felt at a loss. He feared that he would be labeled "grandstanding" and worried that the influx of bad reviews would affect Suizhou's image. "Because of this incident, many fans have withdrawn from my fan base, and the video click-through rate has also been affected." Xie Wei said.

While Xie Wei faced confusion, bureau chiefs elsewhere began to examine the "double-edged sword" of traffic.

In March last year, Sichuan Province's Daofu County Cultural and Tourism Bureau director Deszawa Dorji quickly "came out of the circle" with a sci-fi promotional film and fluent English, becoming another well-known Internet celebrity director after Liu Hong.

So far, Dorjee's video has almost "zero bad reviews", but he still expresses concern about his high exposure. "My friend said I was 'looking for my own way,' exposed to the spotlight, and all the subtle movements were artificially amplified. If the traffic is too large, there may be gossip. Dorjee said frankly.

In this regard, Ouyang Min believes that under the strong wind of secondary creation of short videos, it is not surprising to encounter traffic backlash, and bureau directors should be prepared.

Chen Bo, a professor at the National Institute of Cultural Development at Wuhan University, pointed out: "Director Xie's 'ugly circle' has indeed increased the popularity of the city, and judging from the results, this is relatively successful marketing." But this is not a good medicine for the development of tourism, after the track of Director Xie is saturated, what will the directors of other places rely on to obtain traffic? ”

Chen Bo believes that in order to avoid traffic backlash, bureau chiefs should be soberly aware that propaganda is only a means and not an end. Compared with "packaging out the new", the cultural tourism industry still has to take the route of "content is king" and retain tourists with high-quality cultural tourism experience, otherwise it is easy to be short-lived and cannot last long.

How to seek "retention" in "traffic"

As more and more bureau chiefs join this "Internet celebrity" tide, sharp-eyed netizens find "clues", and cultural tourism short videos gradually appear homogenization - bureau chiefs compete to adopt similar practices such as "drag show" and "showing beautiful scenery", which makes the public inevitably tired of aesthetics.

"Imitation is the least controversial and the least investigated." An Internet celebrity cultural tourism director 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 more difficult. In order to keep the account changing, you have to follow the trend.

Not long ago, Zibo barbecue became popular "out of the circle", and at the same time provided new inspiration for the director of the Internet celebrity bureau - not only in the video endless "involvement", but also should pay attention to the travel experience.

Zhengze Dorji once held a special meeting to review Zibo's out-of-circle code, and finally came to the conclusion that a city must have a core of pyrotechnics.

"Barbecue seems to be a carrier of the taste of market life, but the affinity and interactivity embodied in this process are the core competitiveness." Dorji believes that the development of cultural tourism must not only have the "face" of video promotion, but also have the "lizi" of tourism experience.

Some cultural and tourism directors said in interviews that the fundamental reason for Zibo's explosion is to identify the unique features of the city, and we cannot simply imitate it, but give full play to local advantages according to local conditions to create a unique and down-to-earth cultural and tourism environment.

"Lately, I've been busy attracting investment." Dorjee said that after becoming an Internet celebrity, his influence is being "realized", "Recently, four companies came to me by name to talk about investment, investment in homestay projects and amusement facilities. ”

In Dafang County, Guizhou, Wu Jiaojiao, deputy director of the Internet Celebrity Bureau of Culture and Radio, experienced the online dividend - online data is transformed into offline revenue. A few years ago, they encountered the problem of "pain points", and some fans bluntly said to her that the tourism industry of young consumer groups was still blank, and there were "highlights" for young people but not "play". How to solve it, this once became a problem.

This year, the local reference to big data "got the right medicine": launched a variety of new tourism formats - Yi immersive script tours, dress-up tours, terraced light shows, 80s themed performances and other unique activities. "On May Day this year, more young tourists have come to Dafang. The average number of people marching daily is as high as tens of thousands. Among them, among the leisure tourism consumer groups, post-90s young users and parent-child groups account for nearly ninety percent. Wu Jiaojiao said.

Recently, many Internet celebrity cultural and tourism directors are thinking about how to realize the transformation from "Internet celebrity" to "long-term popularity", from "traffic" to "retention"?

Combined with relevant research, Ouyang Min supported the directors: "Tourist places that are known for their natural scenery suggest creating selling points that relieve urban pressure, embrace nature, purify the soul, and strengthen emotional experience." Tourist places with deep cultural heritage can focus on the development of folk resources, such as traditional crafts, folklore, historical allusions, etc., to explore deeper cultural connotations. ”

Some Internet celebrity cultural tourism directors said that in the face of cultural tourism fever in various places, it is also necessary to be vigilant against rushing projects on the ground.

In this regard, Chen Bo, an expert who has been paying attention to cultural research for a long time, reminded that local cultural and tourism departments should also do a good job in evaluating the ability of online traffic conversion under the premise of clear publicity and positioning. "After all, online traffic cannot be directly monetized, so the cultural and 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.

(Guangming Daily, reporter Zhang Zheng, correspondent Zhang Ziyi, Deng Bailu)