Boosting ‘inner strength’ leads to sustainable growth of tourism sector

No matter if it is “celebrity promotion” or “stellar cultural and tourism bureau director campaigns,” the current marketing schemes of touristic organs across the country seemingly could not get any fancier as they strive toward their goal to win as many visitors as possible during the upcoming 2024 Spring Festival holiday season.

At China’s prolific well-known scenic spots, “cultural tours” have become a major theme. They have cultivated the public’s passion for gaining spiritual enjoyment through travel while has also opening up a test bed for provinciallevel tourism institutions to compete with each other with their local cultural specialties.

What is good about such “peer rivalry” is that it alerts the industry about the importance of being “niche” while learning new strategies that suit today’s “experiential eyeball economy,” Song Weiping, a cultural policy researcher, told the Global Times.

However, there have been some missteps along the way. Just what are these “no-nos” in the eyeball economy? Let’s take a look at some examples.

The Yuntai Mountain scenic spot in Jiaozuo, Central China’s Henan Province, recently sparked netizens’ criticisms with a tricky promotional campaign. Two performers, one woman and one man, were hired to play the character “Daji,” the consort of King Zhou of China’s Shang Dynasty (c.1600BC-1046BC), and interact with visitors.

Videos of the two actors’ performances involving intimate body contact and flirtatious behaviors like kissing visitors’ hands and caressing their faces were soon posted by netizens on Douyin, the Chinese version of Tiktok. Some netizens called the actors’ actions “cringy” and criticized them for overly “eroticizing” traditional Chinese culture. clearly backfired.

The idea that “there is no such thing as bad publicity” is the ultimate reason why such schemes are so uniquely odd. Using debatable stunts to lure visitors is an extremely opportunistic move.