The "May Day" small holiday is approaching, and Xie Wei, director of the Suizhou Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism, is even busier. On April 4, he traveled to three cities. He traveled from Suizhou to Yichang to attend the closing ceremony of the 18th Hubei Provincial Games, and in the evening he rushed to Wuhan to prepare for the 4nd China (Wuhan) Culture and Tourism Expo. After that, from April 27 to April 4, he was busy holding a cultural and tourism expo in Suizhou City to build momentum for May Day.

Almost everyone sensed the potential explosive power of this "May Day" in advance from the hard-to-grab tickets and soaring hotel prices. The Ministry of Culture and Tourism mentioned at the previous press conference that "it is expected that the public's travel demand will be strongly released". According to data from a number of platforms, when the May Day holiday is less than 10 days away, the order volume of domestic air tickets, hotels, scenic spot tickets and other May Day holiday tourism products on the platform exceeded the same period in 2019.

This year's cultural tourism topic seems to be stationed on the hot search: first, the directors of cultural and tourism bureaus across the country appeared in fancy "rolls" to endorse, and even sank to the district and county level, and then Zibo barbecue red half of the sky. Cultural and tourism directors who have become Internet celebrities are confronting traffic while learning and exploring; On the other hand, as officials, they still need an adaptation process to the sudden exposure.

How to turn traffic into tourist volume is a question that almost every cultural and tourism director out of the circle will be asked, and now the upcoming "May Day", they may usher in their own answers.

Preparing for May Day

From any point of view, Xie Wei's appearance is the most common image of an official within the system. His brows often frown slightly from listening carefully to the other party, he wears a dark gray jacket, carries a briefcase when he goes out, and walks in a large and hurried way. Xie Wei's accent is very recognizable, "Suizhou" is often pronounced "sei" prefecture, he said that he is a "soil cadre", and his years of work experience at the grassroots level in townships and towns have made Xie Wei feel simple and simple.

It's hard to relate him to the appearance in the short video. In the video that made him popular overnight, he wore a white robe and danced a sword under the ginkgo tree, and the inappropriate long hair hood almost covered half of his forehead, with a blessed belly and an innocent expression, showing an inexplicable sense of funny comedy, which was commented by netizens as "spicy eyes" and "ugly out of the circle".

It has been more than half a year since he became popular, and Xie Wei is even busier. For four hours in the morning, Xie Wei's office meeting chair changed a total of five groups. Among these people, there are the staff of the China Tourism Research Institute who came all the way from Beijing, the person in charge of the local scenic spot in Suizhou, and the writers of the Federation of Literature and Culture who came to collect the style and publicize... Xie Wei freely switched between Suizhou dialect and Mandarin, circling through one wave of visitors after another.

He used to shoot short videos on weekends, but now he doesn't even have weekends. Recently, the second China (Wuhan) Culture and Tourism Expo was held, and Xie Wei was invited as a member of the recommendation team of Hubei Province and rushed to Wuhan non-stop. The expo gathered people from the cultural and tourism system of many provinces across the country, and the Hubei Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism even dispatched all the directors of cultural and tourism bureaus in the province to warm up for the next "May Day".

At the beginning of 2023, Suizhou's tourist data increased by about 2019-1 percentage points compared with the same period in 2, and the second quarter was another fierce tourist season, including three small long holidays of Qingming, May Day, and Dragon Boat Festival, and Xie Wei refused to let go of any opportunity to brush Suizhou's presence.

Zhengze Dorji, director of the Bureau of Culture, Radio, Television and Tourism of Daofu County in Kardze Prefecture, has the same sense of urgency. At the beginning of this year, the short video shot by Dorji with a sci-fi blockbuster sense became popular, and he became the second popular cultural and tourism director in Kardze Prefecture after Liu Hong, and also brought Daofu County into the field of vision of many people.

May Day is not a peak tourist season for the local area, the plateau temperature in this season is low, the ice and snow have just melted, but Dorji has already felt the warmth in advance.

In Daofu, the Kawanishi Small Loop and Moshi Park are traditionally popular attractions, but Dorjee Shuozawa expects that the Dando Loop may become a "dark horse" this year. This is a newly developed route, compared to the traditional long-distance National Highway 318, this self-driving route is more suitable for short trips during the May Day holiday.

Recently, Dorjee Shuozawa himself received contact information from three self-driving group travel agencies, each of which is thirty or forty cars, "They contacted us mainly to confirm the route and safety." Dorjee said that this is only part of it, and that a considerable part of the convoy will go directly.

Dorji's video also affected the local area. He played the Jade Emperor in a video that was filmed in a Tibetan house used for his own residence. After the video was released, the owner of the house simply transformed the filming location into a Tibetan residential museum, and operated a tea house and a homestay. In the upcoming Dandao Loop, many of these houses have been converted into guesthouses.

Whenever Dorji met local people on the road, the other party told him that the homestay had been renovated, and he would also feel pressure, "What if tourists don't come?" What if tourists come and they are not well taken care of and the tourist experience is not good? I will definitely be responsible. He is worried, the traffic of marketing propaganda has been scattered, and it will be feedback and verification on the "May Day" holiday, and he hopes for a good result.

Why the Director of Culture and Tourism?

It is difficult to say how the directors of cultural tourism have become the center of traffic in this wave of cultural tourism phenomena in the process of frequent out-of-the-loop phenomena.

In February last year, Xie Wei was transferred from Suixian County to Suizhou City as the director of the Cultural and Tourism Bureau, and the cultural tourism system suffered the lowest period during the epidemic. March is the flower season in Suizhou, and Xie Wei invited more than 2 self-media big Vs to recommend Suizhou. But the video style of self-media needs to be responsible for fans, "so some Internet celebrities are reluctant to come when they are doing it." To this end, Xie Wei proposed to promote Suizhou in any style, as long as it can reach a certain amount of traffic.

However, the effectiveness of the propaganda is still not satisfactory. Xie Wei described the money spent on this propaganda campaign as "cutting meat", relying on saving food and frugality to use the funds cut out, "if it can't be done once or twice, we can't sustain it."

Money is the main constraint. Xie Wei said that the Suizhou Cultural and Tourism Bureau spends about 500 million yuan on publicity and marketing every year, and it costs at least 100 million yuan to participate in the National Cultural Tourism Expo every year; Provincial, prefecture-level (prefecture) city circle marketing activities, as well as offline publicity out of Suizhou; The production of billboards, display board materials, etc., is everywhere where money is spent, and there is almost no excess funds.

At that time, Liu Hong, director of the Ganzi Prefecture Cultural and Tourism Bureau, was already a hot star. Xie Wei left a message in his video comment area, drowned in many comments. Until Xie Wei's costume video under the ginkgo tree was "ugly out of the circle", this time, it was Liu Hong's turn to take the initiative to leave a message in his video comment area, and the two had a connection.

The first cultural and tourism bureau directors to come out of the circle were Liu Hong in Kardze Prefecture and He Jiaolong in Xinjiang, but their appearance and rich and well-known local tourism resources are difficult to match elsewhere and cannot be replicated. "Director Liu Hong and Director He Jiaolong are like ceilings to us," said Ma Haibo, director of the Bureau of Culture, Tourism, Sports, Radio, Film and Television in Xixia District, Yinchuan City, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. And Xie Wei's "down-to-earth" style gave hope to other cultural and tourism directors.

Most of Ningxia's cultural tourism resources are in Yinchuan, and half of Yinchuan's cultural tourism resources are in Xixia District, including Zhenbeibao Western Film and Television City, where "Journey to the West" was filmed. "The IP of the Supreme Treasure and the Zixia Fairy is too strong", Ma Haibo secretly thought that if the Xixia District had to "participate in the scroll", it must be Zhenbei Fort, it must be "Journey to the West", it must be the Zixia Fairy, "This story carries too many childhood memories of the post-80s and post-90s." ”

Without waiting for Ma Haibo to react, Su Yankun, deputy director of the Bureau of Culture, Radio, Television and Tourism of Suyu District, Suqian City, Jiangsu Province, filmed "Journey to the West" on the hot spot, and the "five-Mao special effects" and cheap makeup pulled up the topic. Many people around him forwarded Su Yankun's video to Ma Haibo, saying, "You also give us one." Some people in the comment area also asked, "Wasn't "Journey to the West" filmed in Ningxia?" This time, Ma Haibo couldn't sit still, and the day before her business trip, she borrowed a set of "Zixia Fairy" clothes from the scenic area and hurriedly got on the horse to complete the cross-dressing shooting.

Ma Haibo feels that he has been pushed into this wave, which is also the feeling of many cultural and tourism directors: when the directors of cultural and tourism bureaus across the country are "rolling", "it seems that if there is no way to do anything, it seems to be inaction".

Stuck in traffic

Before the appearance, many cultural and tourism directors were unfamiliar with the concept of "flow". Xie Wei had never played short videos before, nor allowed a pair of twin daughters to play, anything he thought might be addictive was "dangerous", and when the "ugly out of the circle" video went viral, Xie Wei's reaction was also "dull and clumsy".

Overnight, comments poured in, most of them ridiculing Xie Wei's appearance, and some even personal attacks. Some people bluntly said that he was "spicy eyes", "ruined the image of Suizhou" and "like a flower", at first Xie Wei thought that Ruhua was praising him like a flower, but thinking about it was wrong, going to the Internet to find out that it was a movie harlequin, he did not have a taste in his heart.

Xie Wei has never dealt with such a high-exposure traffic, in order to cover the popularity of that video, he released another one in a panic, trying to "suppress the previous one", but did not expect to add fuel to the fire and the heat was higher.

Dealing with the tide of public opinion is often the first lesson that cultural and tourism directors have to practice after becoming popular. Wu Jiaojiao, deputy director of the Bureau of Culture, Sports, Radio, Television and Tourism of Dafang County, Guizhou Province, was born in 1991, she has a sweet appearance and became popular because of the Miao Yi national costume dress-up video, but there is no lack of various provocations and questions in the comment area.

When Wu Jiaojiao first started operating this account last year, Wu Jiaojiao's Douyin account was called "Jiaojiao takes you to see Dafang", and the video was all good mountains and waters in Dafang County, but the traffic was very low. On February 2022, 2, the account was renamed "Director Wu looks generous", and Wu Jiaojiao herself also stood in front of the camera.

Wu Jiaojiao described this process as accidentally touching the "traffic password", and she simply added more labels. The opening statement of the video, introducing himself as the "deputy director of the post-90s generation of the Dafang County Bureau of Culture and Broadcasting in Guizhou Province", was choked by netizens, "Why emphasize your 'post-90s'?" The next time she filmed, she quietly removed this label and only introduced herself as "deputy director of the Bureau of Culture, Sports, Radio, Television and Tourism of Dafang County, Guizhou Province", or someone was not satisfied, "Can you not specially introduce your position?" ”

What made her most uncomfortable was that she was made up of yellow rumors, and some people questioned how she rose from the position of a commentator at a young age, "Some things are very difficult to hear." Wu Jiaojiao said that she did not delete these comments, there were only 3 people in the team, and she did not have much effort to do this.

But the rumors intensified, and Wu Jiaojiao had to respond positively in the video. In one video, she recalled her resume in the system, "People often forget that people are fearful, don't let your 'you think' chill the hearts of people who work hard." Wu Jiaojiao said helplessly.

Although local cultural and tourism bureaus have used short video accounts as an important publicity and marketing platform, in most cases, they do not have KPI assessment pressure, but once they start operating, cultural and tourism bureau directors find it difficult not to be affected and trapped by traffic.

In April last year, Wu Jiaojiao filmed a horseback riding video in a scenic spot, accidentally fell from a horse, suffered a crushing fracture of the right hip, and stayed in the hospital for 4 days, and basically recovered after more than four months. Worried about triggering public opinion, the news has not been disclosed to the public. Wu Jiaojiao no longer appeared on camera, but advanced the shooting in the form of dubbing narration, and as a result, the video traffic plummeted during that time.

It was a day that Wu Jiaojiao will never forget. The pain of drilling her heart plagued her day and night, carrying the anesthesia pump but still couldn't stop the pain, taking painkillers, "eating hallucinations, feeling like I was dying, sleep has been poor." ”

At the same time, Wu Jiaojiao also worries about the update of the video. She knows that once the update frequency can't keep up, she will soon be left behind by the Internet, and she is not willing to go high and low. Wu Jiaojiao and the team thought of many ways, such as pulling up a green screen behind the hospital bed to post-key, but the effect was not good.

In order to increase the stickiness of fans, she opened more than 60 live broadcasts during her hospitalization, in which Wu Jiaojiao had exquisite makeup and chatted happily with fans, and the background was completely invisible to the hospital; Off camera, her wheelchair and injured nailed right leg are not visible.

After rehabilitation, when Wu Jiaojiao could get off the ground on crutches, she immediately put into filming. In those episodes, she didn't have any positioning, almost standing up to finish shooting.

"High profile" within the system

Before entering the cultural and tourism system, the directors of cultural and tourism bureaus generally had a resume in other departments. In contrast, the work in the cultural tourism system is indeed special, and in Xie Wei's words, it is necessary to "do marketing like a madman". The officials of the cultural and tourism system have naturally become the most "high-profile" ones.

In April last year, the Department of Culture and Tourism of Sichuan Province made the first time in China, linking the province's cultural and tourism system to plan and launch a series of short video activities entitled "Cultural Tourism Director Speaks of Cultural Tourism", requiring the cultural and tourism directors of cities (prefectures) and districts and counties to actively participate.

When preparing the video "assignment" assigned by the Sichuan Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism, Dorji noticed that the request column clearly mentioned the appearance of the director of the cultural and tourism bureau, with the note "deputy director is also available" in parentheses: "I really wanted our deputy director to appear at that time." Desperate Dorji said that the deputy director of the Daofu County Cultural and Tourism Bureau is a woman with outstanding appearance conditions and is also the image ambassador of Daofu County. But he flipped through the "homework" handed in elsewhere, and almost no deputy chief appeared, which made him "cut off the idea of becoming a deserter."

The Sichuan Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism also had four words in its request, "encourage innovation", and let Dorji see the room to play, when he played English and astronaut in the video, creating a blockbuster-style short video style with almost zero bad reviews.

In a sense, this high profile is also related to the fact that the Kardze Prefecture Cultural and Tourism Bureau has always attached importance to publicity and marketing. The cultural tourism industry is a pillar industry for the development of Kardze Prefecture, and the Cultural and Tourism Bureau is one of the most valued departments in Daofu County, with more than 40 employees. Zhengze Dorjee proudly introduced that in the entire Daofu County Cultural and Tourism Bureau, the publicity and marketing department has the largest office and the most sophisticated shooting equipment, "Our limited administrative expenses are spent on shooting equipment sparingly, and this alone cost 890,000 yuan." ”

This is not a small number for a county that has just escaped poverty. Zhengze Dorji told reporters that the reason why it costs so much comes from the portrait of tourists in Ganzi's local market research, "The tourists who come to our Sichuan and Tibet areas are all young people, and what surprised us was that the most tourists came not from Chengdu and Chongqing, but from Guangdong." Shuze Dorjee believes that this is an era of eyeball economy, and the main way for young people to obtain information comes from short videos, so the shooting equipment must be good and in the long run.

Elsewhere, it is undoubtedly difficult to fully imitate Ganzi's route. In non-traditional well-known tourist cities, the cultural and tourism departments can obtain limited administrative resource support, and "not enough manpower and money" is often mentioned. In addition, although they chose to appear in the exposure, they were somewhat uncertain about the extent of exposure. The Beijing News reporter interviewed a number of cultural and tourism directors, many of them lacked experience in dealing with the media, some people were worried about saying the wrong thing, insisted that the reporter send the interview outline, and strictly answered all questions with the content of the official document; Some people asked the reporter, what is your purpose, are you here to give us propaganda?

Therefore, the high-profile "appearance" of the directors of cultural and tourism bureaus is particularly conspicuous in the system.

Before becoming the director of the Suizhou City Cultural and Tourism Bureau, Xie Wei was the deputy county magistrate of Suizhou County. In August 2021, extreme heavy rainfall in Liulin Town, Suixian County, Hubei Province, caused flash floods, which caused serious damage. Xie Wei served as party secretary in Liulin Town, sitting in command and dealing with post-disaster reconstruction. Because of his excellent work, he "stabilized the situation" and was promoted and transferred to Suizhou City.

"The organization is promoted out of the ordinary, and it is already very conspicuous." Xie Wei is well aware of the low-key rule of doing things, "not moving is safe", but when he really got to this position, he couldn't accept his "not moving", "otherwise he would be sorry for the trust of the organization".

What made Xie Wei most sad was not the ridicule and criticism on the Internet, but the exclusion and incomprehension from his colleagues. Some public officials from other bureaus said in front of Xie Wei, "Isn't this the acting director? Xie Wei heard the pun and smiled.

Traffic, "retention" and new hotspots

In this wave of "fancy rolling", one of the most frequently asked questions of cultural and tourism bureau directors is how much traffic can really be converted into "customer retention".

After the liberalization of epidemic control, the cultural tourism market in various places has continued to heat up. It's hard to say how effective the chiefs are in shouting. Chuze Dorji told reporters that Kardze Prefecture has done detailed data analysis, and the peak period of tourists often occurs within a week after the peak of Liu Hong's heat.

But most places can't see such a visual connection. Taking the data of this year's Spring Festival as an example, the number of tourists in Suizhou increased by more than 30% year-on-year. Xie Wei is not sure how much of the percentage is a retaliatory rebound after the epidemic is over, and how much is the role of video marketing.

How to convert traffic into tourist volume is a topic facing the directors of cultural and tourism bureaus. In fact, most cultural and tourism bureau directors do not have direct KPIs in new media communication traffic, but the number of visitors is indeed one of the indicators that reflect the results of their work.

"We have a sky full of stars, but we lack a bright moon." In a previous interview with the media, Xie Wei once described the current situation of cultural tourism in Suizhou, this round of "bright moon" refers to 5A-level scenic spots, and Suizhou does not have a 5A-level scenic spot. "This year we have already proposed a 5A creation standard." Xie Wei introduced that at present, the Suizhou Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism is focusing on promoting the application of Yandi Shennong's hometown as a 5A-level scenic spot. "There were two acceptance opportunities, and in the last round of acceptance, I almost passed, and this time we have to be more prepared." Xie Wei told reporters that one of the hard indicators is that the scenic spot receives more than 60,5 tourists at home and abroad every year, and more than <>,<> overseas tourists.

Dafang County, where Wu Jiaojiao is located, also has requirements for the number of tourists. "Almost every year, the increase in the number of tourists in the same period is required to try to increase by more than 15%." Wu Jiaojiao said, "Last year, Dafang County experienced the first negative growth in ten years, and every time Dafang County suffered the impact of the epidemic during the peak tourism period, the requirements will be higher this year." ”

"This year, we proposed a 30% increase in the added value of cultural tourism-related industries, a 20% increase in the average consumption of overnight tourists, and a 30% increase in comprehensive income." Wu Jiaojiao said that from the current situation, this goal is not difficult to achieve.

However, the "homework" of the directors of cultural and tourism bureaus in chasing hot spots has not ended. Recently, Zibo barbecue red has become a phenomenon, and it has become a new research topic for the directors. For this reason, Dorji had a special meeting to discuss and study the Zibo circle code, and finally summarized the three words "pyrotechnics".

Xie Wei also paid attention to Zibo's every move, "The impact is particularly great, tourism is a big ecology, and it requires the interaction and joint efforts of the government, market entities and the people to form a global tourism situation and achieve lasting popularity." Xie Wei emphasized that this is a process in which every cellular molecule in society actively participates in the work of the top and bottom.

"I'd love to go to Zibo." Xie Wei said. He dreams that Suizhou will also be seen by everyone, and for this goal, he will continue to rotate like a top.

Beijing News reporter Li Zhao