City uses panda power to attract tourists around the world

Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province and a world-renowned "city of giant pandas", has developed its inbound tourism industry in recent years through online promotions and overseas roadshows, making itself a must-visit destination for foreign tourists.

During the 2019 "Global Travel Merchants Gathering in Chengdu" Inbound Tourism Partnership Summit held in late November, the Chengdu Inbound Tourism Strategic Partnership Alliance was founded. About 40 major travel merchants, who are involved in tourism business, became members. They included the Pacific Asia Travel Association, Ctrip, TUI China Travel, and ITB China.

The Chengdu Inbound Tourism Strategic Partnership Alliance is founded in late November for the city of Chengdu to establish cooperation with travel merchants worldwide and attract more overseas tourists. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Through the alliance, the Chengdu culture, radio, TV, and tourism bureau established long-term cooperation with major travel merchants worldwide. Through this relationship, the bureau will learn about the trends of global tourism consumption and the preference of overseas tourists, as well as design tourist routes together with partners with the goal of attracting more tourists to Chengdu, helping the city become a "world creative culture city" and "world tourism city."

Doryang Lhamo, director of the bureau, said that members of the alliance are pioneers in their industries. The bureau wants to incubate, design, commercialize, and promote inbound tourism products in Chengdu to make Chengdu a global travel destination. In the next three years, the bureau is expected to develop another 100 partners, Doryang added.

The summit attracted more than 200 people from international travel organizations, consulates, overseas culture and tourism offices, travel merchants, airlines, as well as media outlets from home and abroad.

Another highlight of the event was the first International Network Panda Festival, which aimed to help Chengdu be known around the world through the iconic panda.

During the festival, the bureau launched a competition for netizens worldwide to make short videos of three movements, rolling, playing with rods, and wrestling, while acting like pandas. The videos will be uploaded on various social media platforms, such as TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube. Contestants with the most likes will be invited to Chengdu to see pandas, as well as experience the city's green landscape and culture that features the characteristics of innovation, fashion, inclusiveness, and social benefits.

In November 2018, the bureau launched a competition for "panda nannies." It invited competitors from the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain to post videos about how to get pandas to sleep. The two video makers with the most likes were invited to Chengdu to take care of pandas as volunteer. To date, videos of the competition have been viewed about 2 billion times worldwide. The event also won a golden medal at the 19th IAI International Advertising Awards. Organizers also attended the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity and the event was reported on by multiple overseas media outlets.

Foreigners color panda sculptures in Chengdu. [Photo provided to China Daily]

During this year's summit, the bureau granted 10 people from countries like China, the UK, France, Japan, and Australia the certificate of global ambassador of Chengdu tourism. These ambassadors, which are influential in the politics, business, media, and tourism sectors, will help more people learn about Chengdu, promoting exchanges between Chengdu and the world.

Backed by its rich culture and high-quality tourism products, Chengdu has opened itself to the world. This year, the city organized events to promote its culture and tourism in countries like Greece, Germany, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Morocco, and Japan.

From Oct 25 to 30, the city ran its food, panda exhibition, folk arts, and creative culture fair in Sweden, Finland, and Denmark.

A woman poses with a panda mascot at a recent inbound tourism partnership summit. [Photo provided to China Daily]

From Oct 30 to Nov 6, a promotional event was held in Osaka, Japan, Seoul, South Korea, and Los Angeles, the US to enable officials, industry insiders, and the public to learn more about the city.

In June, Chengdu opened direct flights to Rome. On Nov 10, Chengdu held a culture and tourism promotion event in Rome, in which more than 10,000 people attended.

On Nov 12, masters of Sichuan cuisine briefed gourmands and media members on the history, culture, and expertise of the cuisine in Barcelona, Spain. They also displayed the cooking methods of several classic Sichuan dishes and snacks.

"In recent years, Chengdu has made continuous innovations in the promotion of its inbound tourism. Its experience is worth learning from," said John Koldowski, special adviser to the CEO of the Pacific Asia Travel Association.

He said that Chengdu has first-class culture and tourism resources, as well as great potential for inbound tourism. He suggested that Chengdu tell stories in a vivid way to help overseas tourists develop an interest in visiting the Sichuan capital.

From January to September, the gross tourism income of Chengdu reached over 327.1 billion yuan ($46.3 billion), up 25.56 percent year-on-year. It welcomed 195 million visits during this period, up 11.38 percent year-on-year. The number of inbound visits also grew 6.7 percent to over 2.75 million. The statistics demonstrates its attractiveness to tourists worldwide and the achievements of its local travel promotion.

This year, Chengdu was included in the list of "Best Travel Destinations" by TripAdvisor, a major global travel platform. It also won the Red Coral Award of Asia Tourism by 21st Century Business Herald as the "most popular cultural and tourism travel destination." Chengdu was also a finalist for "most beautiful Chinese tourism city" by Federation Internationale du Tourisme.