On the night of February 24th, the lanterns in Chengdu were bright and dazzling, with countless Spring Festival activities blooming in various places in Chengdu. The Year of the Dragon came to a close amidst the lively atmosphere of fireworks and excitement, marking a vibrant start to the Chinese people's 2024. In the midst of this festive tourism atmosphere, how "hot and spicy" is Chengdu?
According to the "Top 10 Hot Cities for Domestic Migration during the 2023 Spring Festival" released by Tencent's location big data, as well as the "Favorite Cities for Post-00s Travelers" list released by the Qunar travel platform, Chengdu ranked first in both lists. Data from Ctrip also shows that the booking volume of inbound tourist flights during the 2024 Chinese Spring Festival travel season increased by approximately 819%. In addition to Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen, Chengdu and Harbin have also performed impressively in inbound tourism, becoming popular destinations for foreign tourists.
"Chinese New Year Chengdu Flavor" has also set off another round of climax on the Internet at home and abroad.
Under the theme of "Experience the Sichuan Flavor Chinese New Year in Chengdu," GoChengdu has meticulously planned and created the "Panda New Year Celebration" global Spring Festival series of events in advance, featuring hashtags such as #Chengdu Celebrations, #Year Of The Dragon, and launching dozens of original bilingual Chinese-style animations, hand-painted posters, New Year greeting videos, "Panda New Year" red envelope covers, and other social and internationally-oriented products. They have engaged in friendly interactions with international sister cities, local government agencies of tourist destinations, tourism organizations, panda fans, and others, continuously attracting domestic and foreign netizens' attention to tourism in Chengdu, creating a tourism boom in Chengdu in 2024.
Statistics show that during the Spring Festival period, GoChengdu ranked first on both Facebook and X platforms among national central city accounts. The "Panda New Year Celebration" global Spring Festival series of events reached a total overseas audience of over 31 million, with a total of 87,000 interactions. The "Sending Good Luck" celebration event program had nearly 20,000 visits, delivering New Year gifts to nearly 300 fans worldwide.
Integrating "Chengdu flavor" into creative short films
"China Year" ignites overseas social media
As the main venue event trailer for the New Year's Eve in Chengdu, the animation "Chinese Dragon, Dancing in Chengdu" adopts a combination of hand-drawn and AI synthesized images, based on the real story of the Huanglongxi Fire Dragon Dance, presenting a unique and distinctive dragon lantern dance show. The video has garnered nearly 100,000 views on domestic platforms, with over 8,000 interactions. On the GoChengdu Facebook platform, it has reached 27,000 views and nearly 800,000 impressions, with overseas Chinese commenting, "With the lanterns lit, this is the true taste of Chengdu's New Year!"
On Lantern Festival day, GoChengdu released the creative short film "Strolling in the December Market Painting," capturing the festive atmosphere of Lantern Festival in Chengdu. The short film creatively uses VR gaming settings to recreate the prosperous scene of the December market in Song Dynasty Chengdu. The protagonist, Xiao Rong, embarks on a magical journey through the ancient and modern December markets, experiencing the fireworks of Chengdu. After the video was released, overseas netizens commented, "The video is very interesting, I didn't know Lantern Festival in China is so lively, I want to visit Chengdu."
From New Year's Eve to the seventh day of the first lunar month, GoChengdu has consecutively released the "New Year in Chengdu" series of intangible cultural heritage hand-drawn posters on domestic and international platforms for eight days. These posters integrate Chengdu sugar paintings, Daoming bamboo weaving, Qionglai porcelain tire bamboo weaving, Chengdu silver flower silk, and other intangible cultural heritage skills, along with elements of the Year of the Dragon and the Spring Festival. On the GoChengdu Facebook platform, the total reach exceeded 4.7 million, with over 30,000 interactions; on the GoChengdu Photo Wall platform, the total reach exceeded 6.6 million, with 5,000 interactions.
Chinese cultural attache Zhang Heqing from the Chinese Embassy in Pakistan, Consul General of China in Osaka, diplomat Ms. Liu Yongfeng, as well as international officials such as the Austrian Consul General in Chengdu and the Chairperson of the Montpellier Foreign Relations Committee, and officials from domestic cities like Fujian, Xinjiang, Guizhou, and Chongqing have praised and shared the posters multiple times. After reposting one of the posters, Cultural Attache Zhang Heqing from the Chinese Embassy in Pakistan called out to GoChengdu, saying, "Follow GoChengdu, and you will learn more about the beauty of China and the flavors of Chengdu!"
(Some posters released by GoChengdu's overseas platform)
(Zhang Heqing, Cultural Counselor of the Chinese Embassy in Pakistan, forwarded the poster on his X account)
Multi-modal display "Bashu Flavor Chinese Year"
“The trend of celebrating the Chinese New Year in Chengdu has become popular
On the eve of the Spring Festival, GoChengdu collaborated with China Global Television Network (CGTN) for a global English live broadcast of the "Shuyan Fu" feast at Dongjiao Memory, which was aired on CGTN's new media client and overseas social media platforms on February 8th. The live broadcast was streamed on 10 domestic and international platforms including CGTN's Weibo, Video Number, English client, Facebook, reaching over 150 million viewers. The live broadcast had nearly ten thousand concurrent viewers across various platforms, attracting interactions and comments from netizens in dozens of countries and regions such as the United States, Italy, Indonesia, Nigeria, and the Philippines who praised, "The Hanfu is so beautiful! Such exquisite and elegant traditional customs!" and expressed well wishes for the Spring Festival.
From February 9th to February 17th, GoChengdu set up topics on various social media platforms overseas, continuously releasing images, videos, and content related to Chengdu's New Year celebrations to keep overseas netizens engaged and interested in Chengdu. Videos such as "One Hundred Thousand People Singing 'Me and My Motherland' Together," "Tianfu New Area Long Screen Light Show," and "Chengdu New Year's Eve Event" posted on the GoChengdu Facebook platform collectively garnered over 200,000 views.
(GoChengdu's Facebook platform posted a video of the Chengdu New Year's Eve event)
Giant panda Huahua takes the lead
Global Celebration of the Chinese New Year
On the eve of the Spring Festival, GoChengdu, featuring the giant panda Hua Hua as its mascot, collaborated with the traditional Chinese New Year activity of "Dragon Dance" to design WeChat red envelope covers with a "Panda New Year" theme. The red envelope covers received widespread acclaim upon their release, prompting netizens to eagerly request more: "I didn't manage to get one! I really like this design, please release more!" In response to the users' demands, GoChengdu subsequently launched multiple rounds of red envelope covers, accumulating over 100,000+ reads on their WeChat official account.
Meanwhile, GoChengdu created a special program called "Witness" for the Lunar New Year. They released three episodes titled "Consuls in Chengdu: Excitement in Chengdu in 2024," "Officials from Japan, South Korea, and Thailand's National Tourism Bureaus: Experiencing Chinese New Year in Chengdu," and "New Year Wishes from Foreigners Living in Chengdu." These videos focused on foreign consuls in Chengdu, officials from tourism bureaus in Japan, South Korea, and Thailand, members of Chengdu-based associations, and university professors who are foreigners living in Chengdu. Using their unique perspectives, they reviewed the development achievements in various fields such as culture, tourism, foreign trade, and education in Chengdu in 2023 and conveyed sincere New Year wishes during this festive season. Currently, the videos have reached a total audience of over 1.27 million and have been viewed by over 40,000 people.
(GoChengdu Facebook platform releases videos for the second and third episodes of the "Witness" program)
In 2023, Chengdu hosted the World University Games, attracting delegations from 113 countries and regions and over 6,500 athletes to come together in Chengdu for a grand event celebrating youth, unity, and friendship. During the Lunar New Year in the Year of the Dragon, GoChengdu planned and launched the "International University Sports Federation Invites You to Video Call" program. They conducted interviews with officials from the International University Sports Federation and student athletes from around the world, reminiscing about their warm memories of Chengdu and sending heartfelt blessings. The video reached an overseas audience of over 400,000 and had nearly 50,000 views. It resonated with international netizens, and many athletes left comments expressing their longing for Chengdu and gratitude towards the city. Aupal, a student ambassador from Uganda to the International University Sports Federation, sent a message in Chinese pinyin, saying "Xin nian Kua lie" (Happy New Year) and extending his wishes to friends in China across the ocean. President of the International University Sports Federation, René Fasel, sent a private message expressing heartfelt gratitude to Chengdu.
"Overseas Chengdu Residents: The Most Nostalgic Taste of Chengdu's New Year" focused on "Chengdu people" living and working abroad. Through video calls, GoChengdu helped them fulfill their New Year wishes and visited the Chengdu they missed the most. In the video, Wang Pingxi, the owner of a Sichuan cuisine restaurant in Japan, expressed her daily longing for her beloved giant pandas. Xiaoyu, a student studying at Nanyang Technological University, yearned to taste her mother's braised pork trotters in Jiandao Alley. Yilin, a Malaysian student studying in Chengdu, wanted to revisit the current "Internet-famous check-in spot" - the Twin Towers.
Social operation and international marketing
Assist Chengdu in "inbound tourism"
How to celebrate the Year of the Dragon in Chengdu? On the Xiaohongshu platform, there are over 1.64 million notes recording the "Chengdu Spring Festival Travel Guide," inspiring global netizens to explore Chengdu through the internet. On the eve of the Spring Festival, GoChengdu carefully designed the online interactive activity "Unlocking Auspiciousness in the Year of the Dragon," offering a variety of new Spring blessings to netizens worldwide.
Cultural tourism: Meet the national trend and unlock new dining experiences at the country's first panoramic immersive Han culture-themed meal show - "Sichuan Banquet"; at the Panda Base, be healed by giant pandas for a whole day; at Wuhou Temple, visit the garden Enjoy the lanterns.
Year of Sports: During the Spring Festival, Chengdu Hot Snow Miracle launches the theme event of the Chengdu Hot Snow Miracle New Year International Ice and Snow Festival, "The Wave of All Nations Welcomes the Spring with Ice and Snow". One stop check-in with the unique ice and snow culture of the world, a 5000 square meter super large entertainment snow park for the whole family to enjoy, and 6 different levels of ski trails for smooth sailing The rich form of ice and snow experience heats up the Chengdu Spring Festival holiday season; There is also a "2020 Street Dance" annual card that takes you to dance in 2024.
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