“Do not leave the province unless it is necessary.”

This was the slogan the Beijing government used during the height of the COVID pandemic in China.

According to official data from China Newsweek, The Forbidden City, one of Beijing’s most iconic attractions, saw a fall in visitors from 19 million in 2019 to just over 3 million in 2021, due to the pandemic. However, after China’s pandemic policy was lifted, the Forbidden City saw a surge in visitors, reaching 22,000 a day on 1 January 2023.

This graph shows the significant fall in tourist arrivals in China’s provinces from 2019 to 2020. More than half the provinces saw a decrease of more than 50%, with the eastern region most affected, recording a 70% reduction in visits.

This trend continued into 2022, the year in which China’s tourism industry was most affected by the pandemic and the weakest industry numbers in three years. The overall domestic tourism market was weak throughout 2022 with total domestic tourism arrivals of 2.530 billion, a decline of approximately 20% compared to 2021.

A new trend of tourism: Travel Live Streaming

Live streaming on social media platforms is a revolutionary concept for China, focusing on virtual travel and changing the conventional definition of travel. This kind of virtual travel overcomes China’s strict travel controls during 2019 – 2022. Travel is no longer limited by geography, since the audience can see the scenery and have guided tours through the cameras and explanations of the broadcasters all at their fingertips.

What does the travel live streamer think?

“Travel live streaming will never die!” said Jing Wu, a live travel guide.

Jing Wu is running his account @gugongwage on one of China’s leading short video platforms——Douyin, which is known worldwide as TikTok. He has been a tour guide for 19 years and began doing this during the SARS outbreak in 2003.

Since June 1, 2020, ‘Live Travel Guide’ has become a full-time job for Wu. He switched from ‘offline’ guiding to ‘online live streaming’, because he saw the traditional tourism industry struggle during the pandemic with numerous travel agencies forced to close.

“The situation for domestic tourism is hardly going back to pre-2020, even if China has lifted COVID restrictions,” Wu said.

Wu believed that live-streaming was more likely to provide a decent livelihood for a tour guide.

“The income of a successful live tourism travel guide can even reach the after-tax level of a small or medium-sized enterprise,” he said.

In addition to making money from live streaming rewards, Wu also said that he started to make a profit by promoting goods after accumulating a certain number of followers. E-commerce is currently the main way live streamers generate income.

“Even now that the pandemic is over, I wouldn’t go back to being an offline guide,” said Wu.

“Guiding and travel live streaming are already two completely different kinds of work,” he said, “and comparing the efficiency of making money, traditional guides are no longer comparable to live travel guides at all.”

 

However, not all live travel guides made the same choice as Wu.

Xiaodao Guo, another live travel guide who mainly live-toured the Great Wall, chose to return to a career as an offline guide after the pandemic ended.

“I’ve been waiting for this day for too long!” said Xiaodao Guo.

“I’m glad that the live-streaming during the pandemic brought me a lot of fans,” Guo said, “and now they have gone from being fans to being my customers.”

Guo said he is now earning no less than when he was a live travel guide.

“The previous livestreams opened up my popularity and I don’t have to worry about not having customers anymore,” he said.

“Travelling is finally no longer a lonely thing for me,” Guo said, “Having the company of tourists makes me feel that my profession has more value for existence.”

“It can’t completely replace offline travel! “

Virtual travel is not just for the young. Older Chinese agreed that “virtual travel” was an excellent way to make up for their missing travel experience during the pandemic.

“When I watch their live streaming, I have a feeling of being there,” said Xilan Liu, a retired middle-aged Chinese woman. She said virtual travel helped alleviate her loneliness and boredom after a busy day of a “normal” life.

“TikTok is so addictive that I might spend more than an hour or two a day watching such live streams,” said Liu.

 

But for Kris Cao, a junior high school student, who hasn’t travelled much due to his young age and the limitations of COVID-19, said: “Virtual travel can only listen to other people’s views, but I can’t feel it myself.”

 

However, both felt that ‘virtual tourism’ could not really replace physical tourism and they would prefer to visit these places in reality when COVID restrictions are lifted.

What does the staff of the Tik Tok platform think?

The Tik Tok as a platform has also provided technical support for the promotion of live-streaming travel.

Xuhui Feng, a staff member of the live streaming division of TikTok’s company, ByteDance, said that TikTok would increase user stickiness by improving the user’s immersion experience.

TikTok cooperates with professional travel agencies and uses professional photographic equipment for multi-camera shooting, aiming to provide high-quality pictures.

 

In addition, the platform will develop offline tourism special products through the O2O model, such as the Forbidden City cultural and creative product.

Feng said: “The controversy about data security and TikTok have not led to a falloff in usage for virtual tourism, and it has become a trend in the Chinese tourism industry.”

However, while it has turned into a trend, Feng said: “Its future direction after the epidemic is still unclear.”