Digitalization boosts rural tourism in China

Many ancient villages across China in recent years have leveraged digital communication methods, including short videos and livestreams, to present tourists with once little-known rural scenery and local cultures, exploring a new development path that integrates rural tourism and the digital economy.

According to reliable data, users of Chinese popular short-video platform Douyin visited over 150,000 tourist attractions in rural areas across the country, and created more than 60 million related short videos last year, contributing to making more villages popular tourist destinations.

Tourists take photos of crops being sun-dried in flat bamboo baskets in Huangling village, Wuyuan county, Shangrao city of east China's Jiangxi Province. (People's Daily Online/Zhu Haipeng)

With a history of nearly 600 years, Huangling village is an ancient village "hanging" on the cliffs in Wuyuan county, east China's Jiangxi Province. The village is known for its unique tradition of "shaiqiu," or "drying colorful crops in autumn sunshine" on the rooftops of residential buildings.

However, the village once declined as only 68 of more than 180 households remained there, said Cao Jinzhong, president of Wuyuan Huangling Cultural Tourism Co., Ltd.

To protect and showcase the village's farming culture, the company restored the layout of the village, turned over 120 residential buildings into boutique homestays and hotels, and introduced tourism services like folk tradition experiencing activities and cultural performances, transforming the village into a scenic spot.

Huangling scenic spot has created relevant hashtags on Douyin and organizes "competitions" to attract travel bloggers, shutterbugs and tourists, effectively enhancing its popularity.

In 2022, Huangling village launched an online group-buying business, including livestreams and videos.

"In the first quarter of 2023, over 50 percent of tourists in Huangling scenic spot came after watching short videos about it," said Cao.

Cao added that the per capita annual income of villagers in Huangling village has increased from 3,500 yuan ($492) before the development of tourism to 56,000 yuan.

Relying on short videos, livestreams and other digital technologies, more and more beautiful rural sceneries and quality local products are becoming known to people, and rural culture and tourism are embracing new vitality, said Yang Hutao, a professor at the Institute of Economics of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

A tour guide surnamed Zhuang has garnered over 5 million followers on a short video platform.

"It took me 13 years to provide tour guide services for over 100,000 tourists, but I achieved the goal of offering services to more than 200,000 tourists in just three years thanks to the short video platform," Zhuang said.

Jin Wencheng, director of the Research Center for Rural Economy at the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, said in the digital era, digital communication methods have upgraded business forms like rural tourism and the selling of agricultural products, injecting new momentum into rural revitalization.

Since 2018, Douyin Group has launched projects to help rural culture, tourism operators, and creators master short video operation skills. Data shows that over 1 billion new videos relevant to rural areas were added on Douyin in 2023, attracting 2.4 trillion views, and one of its projects has resulted in cumulative transactions worth over 4 billion yuan in rural cultural and tourism products.