National Culture and Tourism New Media Conference focuses on boosting urban tourism

The National Culture and Tourism New Media Innovation and Development Conference was held on Nov 28 in Shijiazhuang, Hebei province. Rao Quan, deputy head of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, attended the event and delivered a speech.

Themed on "New Media Enabling High-Quality Development of Culture and Tourism", the conference discussed innovation and development of new media in culture and tourism so as to help local governments promote their towns and cities and attract more tourists.

Officials from regional and municipal departments of culture and tourism, academics, and enterprise representatives participated in the discussion and shared their insights.

Huang Chuxin, deputy director of the New Media Research Center of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and vice-dean of the School of Journalism and Communication at the University of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, noted that tourism promotion could be diversified by bringing together various forms and contents.

Zhou Min, assistant dean of the School of Journalism and Communication at Beijing Normal University, pointed out that technology could make the innovation of new media more efficient. She presented vivid pictures, short videos, and creative promotional animation of several travel destinations generated by artificial intelligence which attracted potential tourists.

Officials from local departments of culture and tourism, along with representatives of major domestic social media platforms such as Douyin, Weibo, WeChat, Kuaishou, and Xiaohongshu, shared their successful cooperation and innovative promotional tourism campaigns that grabbed a wide audience.

For instance, a livestream on Weibo about Nujiang Lisu autonomous prefecture in Yunnan province garnered 506,000 views at the time, and the related topic views exceeded 20 million. Xiaohongshu also rolled out a national tourism promotional campaign themed "Visit My Hometown for a Day" in collaboration with provinces and cities across the country. It meets the demand of young people who hope to travel like a local and experience the most vibrant aspects of the local culture.