XIAMEN, China, Feb. 12, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The one-week Xiamen #BRICSfootprints International KOL Experience Tour came to a successful end on the picturesque Gulangyu Island. The event has not only received close local attention but was also recorded online by the Xiamen Municipal Tourism Development Commission ("XMTDC") which took this opportunity to showcase to visitors across the world, especially from the BRICS countries of Brazil, India, Russia, and South Africa, a beautiful, honest, dynamic and romantic city image through words, pictures and videos posted on social networking platforms like Facebook and YouTube. It brought a new tourism boom to the city in the wake of the 9th BRICS Summit.
If a city's fame is restricted to its homeland, then it's at best a domestic tourist city; if it receives mainly visitors from neighboring countries and regions, then it's only a regional tourist city. So as an international tourist city, how did Xiamen manage to make foreign friends so crazy about it?
Foreign Celebrities Speak for Tourism in Xiamen
Xiamen not only has the fresh, romantic, fashionable and dynamic charm that's no less impressive than the hot international tourist destinations, but it also boasts comprehensive public facilities, a sophisticated urban civilization and a service system that showcase Xiamen's charm. In order to advance the promotion of a "Charming Xiamen," the XMTDC sent out an invitation for a tour of Xiamen on Facebook and sifted through applicants based on multiple standards including profession, nationality and Internet influence before finally locking on Sajanpreet Singh, an Indian internet celebrity outdoorsman, and Natalia Tuflinskaia, a Russian model and actress. For them, the XMTDC specially tailored three "Revisit the BRICS" routes with a focus on the internationality and beauty of places, guiding them in a tour of the most fantastic sights across Xiamen.
The charming and stylish World Trade Strait Tower, the picturesque Island Ring Boulevard, the romantic Gulangyu Island, the historic architectural complexes in various foreign styles, and the delicious authentic local snacks all amazed the guests. Overwhelmed by the enticing food and scenery, Singh and Tuflinskaia marveled again and again. They could not wait to share their experience through post after post on Facebook, introducing to overseas netizens a wonderful garden city on the sea, which aroused the curiosity and interest of foreign mainstream media and spawned an animated discussion on Xiamen tourism among foreign travel professionals.
Exclusive contents go viral online internationally
In order to let foreigners better feel the charm of Xiamen with two celebrities, the XMTDC led professional overseas social media teams to give full and uninterrupted coverage of the experience on international social media like Facebook and YouTube. They have published 11 posts with 100,000 hits and 5,000 interactions in total. Overseas fans reposted the posts with unique comments like "Post BRICS," "modern and vigorous city," and a "trip of romance and culture," which soon went viral on line.
At the same time, the XMTDC published a publicity film, Discover BRICS Footprints in Xiamen, of the sights involved in the trip. The video gives foreigners a deep impression about Xiamen's landscape, city quality and Xiamen's being a garden city by the sea. The publishing of the video is another climax of this endeavor. The video, which was shot in the first-person perspective combined with close and long shots, is so sensory and tensional that viewers feel like visiting the places in person, which will arouse the zeal of overseas tourists to visit Xiamen.
BRICS Summit Promotes Xiamen as a Travel Destination
Xiamen has entered the spotlight because of the hosting of the BRICS Summit. The impact can still be felt half a year after the summit. "Post BRICS" Travel helps Xiamen embark on a new phase of building an international city of tourism.
"A KOL is a good social media platform both at home and abroad; or we can say, it is even better in the overseas market," said a representative of the XMTDC. "Thanks to the BRICS impact, we ask the Indian and Russian KOLs to make best of their international influence to help foreigners know Xiamen, and then discover and fall in love with this city. The fact shows we are doing it pretty well."
Against the backdrop of a tourism revolution, a transfer from traditional tourism to high quality and full-range tourism and shaping Chinese tourism's image by using the Internet brings about both opportunities and challenges for tourism in Xiamen. This promotion of tourism initiated by the XMTDC made the best of international KOLs, used the precise market positioning and gave full play to BRICS impact. The marketing spring of Xiamen, a city of history and vigor, continued for several days. It created a new way of overseas new media advertising. There is reason to look forward to a bright future of tourism in Xiamen.
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