Liu Shan

As an important way of information dissemination in the new media era, short video has been deeply embedded in public life and economic and social development. In recent years, from "Zibo Barbecue" to "Tianshui Malatang", from Harbin's "Artificial Moon" to Luoyang's "Flying Fish Suit" welcome team, short videos are reconstructing the ecology and consumption scene of cultural tourism communication, activating the city's economic vitality, stimulating social consumption potential, and creating a new paradigm of "traffic is economy". However, the phenomena behind it, such as homogeneous narratives, fragmented communication, and difficult traffic conversion, have gradually emerged. This paper analyzes the mode path and practical dilemma of short video empowering the development of local cultural tourism, and explores how it can realize the leap from "traffic carnival" to "value deep cultivation", help the cultural tourism industry grasp the pulse of the times and achieve high-quality development, and also provide new ideas for city brand building, cultural inheritance and innovation, Chinese image display, and cultural exchanges and mutual learning.

The main mode of short video to promote the development of cultural tourism

At present, short video is becoming a new engine for the development of local cultural tourism through algorithm-driven, content collaboration, cultural narrative and traffic conversion and other modes and paths.

Platform propagation mode: algorithm-driven traffic fission. Driven by the algorithm of the short video platform, cultural tourism communication is undergoing a paradigm change from "one-way output" to "fission symbiosis". Through the accurate algorithm recommendation mechanism, the platform is matching local cultural tourism content with user interest tags, forming a closed loop of communication of "user interaction-traffic fission-secondary creation-re-recommendation exposure", so that local cultural and tourism resources can quickly break through geographical restrictions and achieve exponential exposure.

Taking Harbin Ice and Snow World in Heilongjiang as an example, at the end of 46 years, Harbin Cultural Tourism and the Douyin platform launched the #Winter Travel Super Fan # topic warm-up in advance, and gave support to the topic content traffic, attracting extensive participation. When the first video with millions of likes and millions of retweets appeared, the algorithm predicted the public's interest in the ice and snow landscape, and quickly pushed the content to associated and potential users, driving them to spontaneously create and share, forming a fission spread. As of the end of 0/0, #哈爾濱冰雪大世界#詞條在抖音的播放量超過0億次.

Content production mode: UGC and PGC work together. Through the synergy of UGC (user-generated content) and PGC (professionally generated content), short videos are reshaping the local cultural tourism communication pattern. Through the two-way empowerment of real experience and professional interpretation, short video has created a cultural tourism content ecology with both cultural connotation and communication popularity, which not only improves the quality of content, but also optimizes the communication effect, and promotes the transformation of local cultural tourism from "traffic attraction" to "value precipitation".

一方面，UGC以普通用戶的真實體驗為核心，通過碎片化、生活化的內容呈現，降低了文旅傳播的門檻，更引發情感共鳴，即時創作與社交分享也為文旅傳播注入了鮮活的生命力。例如，福建省泉州市蟳埔村因遊客拍攝簪花圍體驗視頻走紅，引發明星參與二次創作，形成150多億次傳播量，帶動當地年接待遊客超350萬人次。

On the other hand, with the help of the production capabilities of the professional team, PGC injects depth, value and authority into cultural tourism content through content production methods such as cultural interpretation and historical traceability, and at the same time, better enhances the image and popularity of local cultural tourism brands.

According to the "Douyin 2024 Rural Cultural Tourism Data Report", local cultural and tourism institutions, as well as store explorers, local tour guides, and cultural tourism creators, have become the "treasure diggers" and "cultural tourism recommendation officers" who lead tourists to screen rural tourism destinations.

Cultural Narrative Patterns: Deep Connections from Symbols to Emotions. By digging deep into local culture, the short video platform gives aesthetic connotation to cultural tourism IP, and at the same time, by building an emotional bond between users and places, giving the former a sense of identity with the latter, and creating a local cultural tourism IP and city brand with emotional stickiness.

7 years 0 month, launched by the Shanxi Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism, the "National Wind Blows Jin Metaverse" cultural tourism series of short videos, based on Shanxi's local cultural and tourism resources and symbolized them, from Wang Huanzhi and the Stork Bird Tower to Qiao Zhiyong and Qiao's family compound, the excellent quality of the ancient ancestors, questions and thoughts are implanted, while conveying the image of Shanxi's cultural tourism, it also awakens the cultural memory rooted in the hearts of the audience.

With the development of economy and society, tourists are no longer satisfied with food and beautiful scenery, but also want to get real emotional resonance in tourism. Short videos transform cultural symbols into collective memory and identity by stimulating users' emotional resonance.

During the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holidays in 360, the "Speechless Bodhisattva" of Jingdezhen Ceramics Museum became popular because its expression fit the current psychological state of migrant workers, and the number of views of Douyin-related topics exceeded 00 million, driving the number of check-ins in the museum to increase by 0%.

Business model: traffic monetization and industry extension. By building a commercial closed loop of "online diversion, offline experience, derivative consumption, and word-of-mouth shaping" for tourist attractions, the short video platform has become an important engine and marketing tool for the cultural tourism industry to realize "online traffic into offline consumption". With accurate algorithm recommendation, the dissemination of creative content and the development of derivatives, short video not only reshapes the local brand image, but also takes cultural IP as the core, and begins to reconstruct the whole industrial chain and consumption ecology of food, housing, transportation, travel, shopping and entertainment, further releasing the commercial value of cultural and tourism resources and creating an incremental market for the local economy.

2024年，甘肅省博物館結合爆火的“天水麻辣燙”IP，推出“麻辣燙玩偶花束”文創產品，並通過短視頻平臺進行宣推。甘肅省博物館相關話題在抖音平臺播放約2.5億次，眾多線民留言“求代購”“求線上售賣”。數據顯示，當年8月，在甘肅省博物館天貓旗艦店開啟預售後，一周便引發近20萬人次湧入旗艦店搶購，並推動店鋪成交量同比大漲343%。

The practical challenges of short video empowering the development of cultural tourism

With its unique communication advantages and expressiveness, short videos have opened up a new path for the development and promotion of cultural and tourism resources. However, in the process of cultural and tourism integration, it also faces many practical difficulties.

Content level: homogeneity and uneven quality. On the one hand, the low-threshold creation characteristics of short videos have prompted various places to apply the "popular template", and the homogeneous narrative will not only cause public aesthetic fatigue, but also weaken the uniqueness of local cultural tourism. For example, after the popularity of Shandongfang dialect "shouting wheat", cultural tourism accounts in many places vied with each other to imitate marketing forms such as "local flavor shouting wheat" and "listening to persuasion and please", and short videos and copywriting followed "topic sea tactics", and the content "changed the place name without changing the script", which lacked innovation and depth and was questioned.

On the other hand, some short videos are disseminated in pursuit of traffic, while over-packaging or even fictionalizing cultural tourism resources. Some scenic spots even adopt the form of "deviation" and "crooked" for drainage and marketing.

Algorithm level: "information cocoon" and "traffic first". The algorithm recommendation mechanism and traffic-oriented logic of short video platforms lead to the dissemination of cultural and tourism content falling into the dilemma of simplification, fragmentation, shallowness, and entertainment, which restricts the diversified dissemination of content, dilutes the depth value of content, and exacerbates the fault line of cultural cognition.

The algorithm mechanism pushes similar content based on users' historical behaviors and hobbies, and the negative effect of "information cocoon" is highlighted, and users are limited to their preferred information circles, and it is difficult to reach a variety of complete cultural and tourism content, resulting in other niche cultural content being difficult to "break the circle" due to the lack of traffic tilt.

In addition, traffic-oriented algorithm mechanisms often pursue quantitative indicators such as clicks, likes, and viewing time, and those with visual impact and strong emotional stimulation are easily favored by platforms and traffic, prompting some creators to cater to the logic of traffic, give up mining and innovation of local cultural resources, and also restrict the effective dissemination of some content with profound cultural connotations.

At the commercial level, it is difficult to convert traffic and lack of sustainable development. Boosted by the wave of short videos, although local cultural tourism has quickly achieved "out of the circle", behind the traffic dividend, it is generally facing the dilemma of low traffic conversion rate and lack of sustainable development.

In some cities, due to the "filter effect" of short videos and excessive packaging, the psychological gap of tourists is triggered, coupled with the inability of supporting services and hardware facilities to keep up, resulting in a decline in the reputation of local brands, and online popularity cannot be effectively converted into offline consumption. In addition, the fragmented, shallow, and homogeneous presentation of short videos is difficult to form a sustainable attraction to tourists, and it is also difficult to stimulate their in-depth consumption willingness.

The problems caused by the fading of popularity after a short-term explosion of popularity are also significant, and many "Internet celebrity cities" are facing the dilemma of a short life cycle. Due to the excessive reliance on traffic import of local cultural tourism, ignoring product innovation, industrial collaboration and resource integration, and many regions are still in the stage of "single-point marketing", failing to link catering, accommodation, cultural and creative industries to form a closed loop, the lack of coordination of the cultural tourism industry chain restricts the sustainable development of local cultural tourism.

The optimization path of short video to promote the development of cultural tourism

To cope with practical challenges, short video creation should not only constantly examine its own limitations, deeply explore the connotation of cultural and tourism resources, and realize the transformation from traffic to value, but also strengthen the linkage and cooperation of the government, platforms, enterprises, users and other forces, and do a good job in international communication with the help of technology empowerment.

Mechanism transformation: Strengthen multi-party linkage and resource integration. Through the multi-party collaboration mechanism led by the government, empowered by professional institutions, linked by platform enterprises and participated by cultural tourism creators, we can help local cultural tourism deeply explore characteristic resources, build a sustainable "short video + cultural tourism" ecological model, and promote the high-quality development of cultural tourism.

First of all, governments at all levels and relevant departments should strengthen the normative guidance at the policy level to provide guarantee and support for the cross-border integration of cultural tourism and other industries and the integration of resources of all parties. In addition, it is also necessary to improve hardware facilities such as transportation and accommodation, continue to optimize cultural tourism services and experiences, promote the application of smart tourism technology, improve tourist satisfaction, and convert traffic into word of mouth.

Secondly, the participation of professional institutions can efficiently tap local cultural resources, empower content planning and production, stimulate tourists' interest and participation through more professional production technology, higher quality content expression, more efficient marketing plans, and more diversified interactive forms, accelerate the transformation of cultural and tourism resources, and extend the life cycle of cultural tourism IP.

不少新聞媒體發揮內容生產和傳播力優勢，在地方文旅資源的宣傳推廣方面表現突出。如2021年，成都市通報四川廣漢三星堆遺址重要考古發現與研究成果后，“四川觀察”團隊多次赴當地文物局展開調研，精心策劃和打造了《三星堆新發現·揭秘》特別節目並在其抖音平台發佈，取得了良好的用戶反饋。“四川觀察”抖音號在發佈量頭部的“三星堆遺址”話題中，其話題熱度破萬，點讚量甚至達到百萬。

"Sichuan Observation" launched a special program of "Sanxingdui New Discovery: Revealing the Secret".

In addition, the synergy between short video platforms and local brands can promote the innovation of cultural tourism products, provide differentiated experiences, promote the conversion of traffic to offline consumption, further activate the industrial chain, and inject new momentum into the cultural tourism industry.

Content upgrade: Achieve conversion from traffic to value. In order to realize the transformation from traffic to value, the core of local cultural tourism lies in sticking to the cultural core and innovating the narrative. On the one hand, it will explore potential cultural tourism IPs and carry out secondary production and innovation of cultural resources; On the other hand, it breaks through the traditional communication framework and makes cultural tourism content and IP both culturally rich and attractive through storytelling, scene-based, young, interesting and other narrative methods, so as to build a recognizable urban style.

In addition, short video platforms need to encourage the creation of high-quality content and build a high-quality content ecosystem. A system for evaluating high-quality content can be established and improved, and the creation and promotion of in-depth cultural content can be encouraged through means such as traffic tilt and creation funds.

At the same time, strengthen the algorithmic filtering and regulatory review of low-quality and homogeneous content, crack down on false propaganda and excessive commercialization, and standardize the order of communication.

Technological innovation: Technology applications empower user experience. Driven by today's digital trend, short videos are profoundly reconstructing the cultural tourism experience through technological innovation and technology application. Especially driven by artificial intelligence, VR (virtual reality), AR (augmented reality) and other technologies, the virtual restoration, immersive interaction, and diversified participation of scenes have become the key path to enrich the user experience and promote the development of the cultural tourism industry.

The rise of generative AI technology has begun to promote the transformation of the paradigm of cultural tourism content production, and the efficiency and diversity of content creation can be improved by deeply exploring local characteristic culture. Local cultural and tourism institutions, related enterprises and platforms can use the powerful multimodal generative model of generative artificial intelligence to create cultural tourism projects with unique regional characteristics, such as telling local historical stories through animated short films and interactive games, realizing the artistic restoration of cultural IP and the integration of ancient and modern, and injecting new vitality into the content innovation of the cultural tourism industry.

VR, AR and other advanced technologies can digitize cultural elements and innovate the interactive way of cultural tourism, especially for cultural heritage, VR, AR technology can realize the virtual restoration and display of damaged cultural relics or historical relics, solve the contradiction between cultural relics protection and open tours, not only enhance the immersive experience and participation of tourists, but also provide new technical possibilities for the protection, inheritance and utilization of cultural heritage.

International Communication: Leveraging overseas platforms to build a cross-cultural narrative system. In the context of global communication, short videos provide an emerging medium for international communication and cross-regional and cross-cultural exchanges with their unique lens language, and become the core carrier for delivering authentic and diverse Chinese stories to overseas users.

At the beginning of the 2025th year, Xiaohongshu became popular overseas, opening up a new path for the external dissemination of Chinese culture, and elements carrying the essence of Chinese culture, such as Chinese characters and calligraphy, traditional festivals, and Chinese food, attracted the attention of a large number of overseas users on the platform. At the same time, it also brings new opportunities for the reshaping of the global image of China's cultural tourism. For local cultural and tourism departments and related brand enterprises, it is necessary to make full use of this opportunity to promote local cultural and tourism resources, help the world better know and understand Chinese culture, and look forward to traveling and experiencing in China.

In terms of content planning, it is necessary to strengthen cultural integration, explore the commonalities between Chinese and Western cultures in terms of values and emotional expression, and plan relevant theme activities to promote cultural exchanges. It is also necessary to grasp the hot spots and traffic peaks, plan a series of topic activities that can arouse the interest of international audiences, attract overseas users to participate in the creation and dissemination of Chinese stories, and enhance cross-cultural identity and emotional connection.

In terms of narrative mode, the cultural barriers are broken through through localized narrative strategies and cultural barriers are dissolved. For example, foreign netizens who have lived in China and have an understanding of local culture are invited to visit and photograph local natural and cultural attractions in China, so as to create a "perceptible" cultural tourism from the perspective of overseas users.

In terms of operation and management, the influential international Internet celebrity bloggers and the operation teams of online organizations are encouraged to create content in the field of culture and tourism, and special subsidies, traffic support and award incentives are provided to enhance the enthusiasm for creation.

In terms of algorithm upgrading, we will optimize the ability of information security early warning and improve the quality and efficiency of algorithm review. Increase the extent of background checks on foreign accounts, and severely crack down on malicious control forces. At the same time, it is also necessary to optimize the language translation function of artificial intelligence, so as to ensure the convenience of cultural interaction between Chinese and foreign informants, and to achieve a balance and respect for cultural positions.

Conclusion

As a means of information dissemination in the new era, short video has opened up a new path from content production to platform dissemination and then to commercial realization for the development of local cultural tourism, but it also faces problems and challenges in content quality, algorithm mechanism, traffic conversion and other aspects. This paper analyzes its main operation mode and practical dilemma, and proposes an optimization strategy for the development of short video to empower the development of cultural tourism.

In the future, short video should continue to deepen the integration with local cultural tourism, strengthen resource integration, dig deep into cultural connotation, innovate technology applications, and realize the transformation from "traffic carnival" to "value deep cultivation", so as to continue to empower the high-quality development of the cultural tourism industry, cultural inheritance and innovation, and cultural exchanges and mutual learning.

This article was originally published in "News Front" 3/0 (II)