Text丨Western bacteria
The "fire" in Harbin has burned from the end of last year to the present, and there is no sign of cooling down.
Subsequently, more and more people are discovering a phenomenon:
After the "restart" in 2023, from Zibo to Shijiazhuang, from Tianjin to Harbin, the topic and degree of the Internet have soaredIt's actually a northern city
In the past few years, when it comes to Internet celebrity cities, many people's first impression is still Chongqing, Chengdu, Xi'an, Changsha, etc., which are obviously dominated by southern cities. But since last year, more and more northern cities have begun to "get out of the circle".
It's really like this New Year's Day holiday "Harbin defeats Sanya" - in the matter of engaging in Internet celebrity citiesThe North is beating the South?
Subtle changes can also be found in some statistics.
According to the "2020 Top 100 Internet Celebrity Cities List" released by the 21st Century Business Herald, among the top 10, only Beijing and Xi'an are northern cities on the list.
In the top 20, 7 are in the northern cities.
In 2023, according to the "2023 China Internet Celebrity City Index TOP20" list jointly released by Ouwei Data and "Drive China", among the top ten cities, only Beijing and Xi'an are northern cities.
But in the top 20, the number of northern cities has increased to nineThe North and the South are almost evenly divided
Compared with the three years before and after, although the top ten "old" Internet celebrity cities dominated by southern cities are still stable, they can be called the cities that have blown a whirlwind of Internet celebrities since last year, such as Harbin, Zibo, Tianjin, etc., which is obviousNorthern cities are even better
What's going on behind the scenes?
First, in the era of traffic, more and more cities are aware of the importance of urban image marketingsaw the power of "out of the circle overnight".。As a result, many cities have begun to "revitalize". Relatively speaking, some northern cities are actually a bit of an "afterthought".
Probably speaking, it should be their turn to start coming out of the loop now.
Two, there is a point of view that:
With the gradual ebb of land finance, there are fewer and fewer opportunities to attract investment, and there is not much room for urban development and economic operation. On the latter point, the northern and inland cities feel the most urgency.
This analysis makes sense. In fact, the rise of this wave of "Internet celebrity cities" has gone from Zibo to Shijiazhuang to HarbinIt can be clearly seen that the **department initiative"**figure
In a previous article, Western Bacteria also mentioned that with the increasing importance of consumption, everyoneThere is a need to re-evaluate the value of "influencer cities".
Although there are controversies in many cities to build "Internet celebrity cities", and the specific effects vary greatly, attaching importance to consumption and treating tourists well have become more and more compulsory courses for every city.
Three,The improvement of transportation infrastructure and the change of cultural and tourism consumption structure
For example, many people know that in the past few years, the Great Northwest Tour has also been very popular, which is closely related to the improvement of high-speed rail and highway networks. And Zibo's popularity last year also has a lot to do with the local high-speed rail.
As for the explosion in Harbin, although it is inseparable from the local "nearly a year of preparation", as well as superimposed some accidental factors, alsoThe power of trends cannot be ignored, that is, the rise of ice and snow leisure tourism.
According to a report released by the China Tourism Academy, it is expected that the number of ice and snow leisure tourists in China will exceed 500 million in 2025, and the domestic ice and snow tourism revenue will exceed 11 trillion yuan.
In the face of such a rapidly expanding market, a group of northern cities represented by Harbin and other cities with climate advantages naturally have the opportunity to share more of the cake.
There is another hidden reason, that is, in the era of network traffic, the mechanism of cities "out of the circle" through tourism and consumption is changing.
In the past, when it came to developing tourism, many people would mention 5A-level scenic spots. But now, in the era of all-for-one tourism, there are fewer and fewer people who simply visit scenic spots to check in, and are replaced by immersive all-for-one experience tourism.
Coupled with the help of online social platforms, almost any city "hot spot" can suddenly become the city's IP after being discovered by netizens, thereby attracting more people to check in.
That is to say,Compared with creatively "revitalizing", whether there are enough star-rated scenic spots in a place is not so important for the development of tourism
Diving in Tianjin, barbecue in Zibo, rock in Shijiazhuang, ** festival in Nanyangand so on, all of which are very representative cases.
It is worth noting that the traditional 5A-level scenic spots are generally distributed in the country, with more in the east than in the west, more in the south than in the north, and more in the southeast coastal areas than in the northwest inland areas, and most of them are distributed in economically developed, cultural and natural resource rich areas, and are centered on provincial capitals.
To a certain extent, this can also explain why, for a long time, tourism in the south has been more popular than in the north, coastal cities are more popular than inland, and big cities are more popular than small cities.
But today, this set of tourism evaluation mechanism based on the number of traditional star scenic spots has been shaken, and more and more young people have begun to look for new fun cities on the InternetSome little-known small cities also have more possibilities to "get out of the circle".
It can be said that the northern region, where traditional tourism resources are relatively insufficient, should benefit more from this new tourism "discovery" mechanism.
However, in the popular phrase of the moment, it is not easy to turn "traffic" into "retention".
The network mechanism is a double-edged sword, the faster it fires, the faster it may get cold. Zibo, Tianjin, etc., are more typical examples.
There are actually some objective laws behind this that need to be faced.
Like, reallyInternet celebrity cities that can achieve "long red" have to be mainly in big cities
Because these cities, relatively speaking, are richer in consumption scenarios, tourism resources, infrastructure, etc. In areas such as urban marketing, the sense of experience and innovation is also stronger.
That's why, I've always believedHarbin will not be the second "Zibo".Causes.
Another objective reality that needs to be accepted is that engaging in Internet celebrity cities can only be "icing on the cake" for most big cities, and it is unlikely to be a "charcoal in the snow".
For example, Chongqing, as a representative of the "old" Internet celebrity city, received 5,456 overnight tourists in the city in 2022460,000 person-times, tourism and related industries achieved an added value of 1,0632.6 billion yuan, accounting for only 3 percent of the city's GDP7%。Even the 14th Five-Year Plan target is only about 5%.
Therefore, the traffic is certainly enviable, but its real role is not as big as everyone thinks. Therefore, it is very important for a city to have a sense of "Internet celebrity" and service awareness, but to build an Internet celebrity city, there are still costs and benefits to consider.
Over the past decade or so, the balance of development, both in terms of population and total GDP, has clearly tilted in favor of the South. The widening gap between the North and the South has often aroused concern and even controversy.
A landmark phenomenon is that since Tianjin fell out of the top 10 in GDP in 2020, Beijing is the only city in the north among the top 10 cities in terms of economic aggregate.
So, as more and more northern cities begin to "revitalize", can engaging in "Internet celebrity cities" help northern cities achieve a reversal?
It is important to point out that when we are talking about northern cities, the generalized analysis can be biased. The actual benefits of engaging in "Internet celebrity cities" may be completely different for different cities
In terms of policies, resources, location, etc., northern cities are not monolithic, and the gap between two northern cities may be greater than the gap between a northern city and a southern city.
Therefore, on the whole, as mentioned above, since the actual impact of the Internet celebrity economy itself on the city may not be as great as imagined, it may be unrealistic to completely reverse a certain trend by relying on a few more cities to engage in the Internet celebrity economy.
Of course, for some cities, if they can really turn traffic into "retention", from "revitalization" for tourists to continuously optimize the business environment and make the city more open, it cannot be ruled out that it may completely change the fate of a city.
More cities are willing to "roll" up and "move", which is not a bad thing.