Qingdao Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism: Being a "Pace Setter" in the Cultural and Tourism Industry
At the beginning of 2020, the unforgettable "Spring Festival Robbery" forced the cultural and tourism industry to press the "pause button". Since May, as the epidemic prevention and control situation improved, the Qingdao Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism launched a series of internet marketing activities under the theme "Qingdao Sets the Pace". Through diverse and rich content and communication formats such as creative posters, H5, and music flash mob MV, it enhanced the public's goodwill and yearning for the city of Qingdao, and also established a benchmark image for the industry as a pioneer and innovator in restarting cultural tourism after the epidemic.
On March 14, the "Survey Report on Tourists' Willingness to Travel After the Epidemic" released by a professional agency showed that Qingdao ranked among the top 10 most desired destination cities for domestic tourists after the epidemic ends. According to big data, Qingdao was selected not only because of its natural landscapes suitable for seaside vacations and relaxation after the epidemic, its genes of being both fashionable and leisurely, and its charm blending tradition with modernity, but also due to the continuous efforts of the Qingdao tourism department in market development during the epidemic.
The sudden outbreak of the epidemic posed challenges to the cultural and tourism industry. Since February, the Qingdao Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism had been preparing for the restart of tourism after the epidemic, hoping to live up to the expectations of all tourists and present a fashionable and vibrant Qingdao in the post-epidemic era. Thus, the preheating marketing theme "Qingdao Sets the Pace" was born.
On March 28, the Shandong Provincial Leading Group for COVID-19 Outbreak Response issued a notice on further coordinating epidemic prevention and control and accelerating the restoration of production and living order. The notice pointed out that the cultural and tourism industry should be restored steadily, with all scenic spots in Shandong Province fully reopened and inter-provincial and surrounding tours fully liberalized. Subsequently, the Qingdao Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism officially started the preparation for the "Qingdao Sets the Pace" internet marketing activity: collecting the city's most trendy and distinctive tourist check-in spots and ways to play, shifting the main communication position to internet platforms, and shifting traditional tour forms to methods like "cloud tours".
After China Tourism Day on May 19, the Qingdao Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism officially launched the "Qingdao Sets the Pace" internet marketing activity. This marketing activity, in collaboration with over a hundred local cultural and tourism enterprises such as scenic spots, restaurants, and hotels, introduced 30 must-try ways to play in Qingdao and invited tourists to visit and check in at scenic spots. The activity also coordinated official microblogs of various districts and cities, official microblogs of major cultural and tourism enterprises, well-known travel influencers, and national media to spread the word simultaneously, inviting everyone to "set the pace" with Qingdao and attracting more netizens' participation and attention. This activity successfully promoted the resumption of work and production for cultural and tourism enterprises across the city and successfully "planted grass" for Qingdao as a post-epidemic tourist destination in the minds of tourists within the province.
Staying at home to fight the epidemic made people even more eager to breathe fresh air in open and bright places. Therefore, the Qingdao Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism planned and launched an interactive H5 mini-game called "What Level of Qingdao Player Are You", which collected 30 things Qingdao people miss the most, and called on netizens to vote via H5 to select the top 10 list of Qingdao's most checked-in tourist spots. Based on the number of ways played they had checked off, users could receive different titles such as [Bronze], [Silver], [Gold], [Diamond], [Soul Star], and [Top Player], along with corresponding travel suggestions, attracting more tourists to come and "unlock" Qingdao.
To better showcase Qingdao's rich tourism resources, the Bureau specially planned a Qingdao version of the "La La Land" music MV titled "Qingdao Sets the Pace". In the MV, several young girls playing the role of city awakening officers wake up Qingdao and continuously rally people to experience the beauty of Qingdao together. With over a hundred actors, 37 scenic spots for filming, nearly a hundred groups of high-quality shots, and the form of flash mob dance highlighting Qingdao's fashionable rhythm, the characters moving through scenes showcased Qingdao's rich and distinctive resources and ways to play... It is believed that this meticulously crafted "dual hundred works" will surely impress the public.
At the end of the video, national-level guide masters, young Qingdao girls (Qingdao Xiaoman), local bus drivers, and medical worker representatives were invited to express the rhythm of Qingdao in their hearts, adding warmth and credibility to the MV.
"Red tiles and green trees, blue sea and sky" have always been the symbol of Qingdao tourism, and Qingdao has always been one of the most popular tourist destination cities. How to continue maintaining Qingdao's prominence as a tourist destination city in the post-epidemic era is something the Qingdao Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism has been working on.
