The online traffic dividend has disappeared, the online traffic is concentrated to OTA, and it is difficult to acquire customers online – these are the consensus in the Chinese tourism industry. Therefore, phrases such as “private domain traffic” and “market segment” have become popular in recent years. Many Chinese travel companies have carried out research, in searching for new traffic sources.

Douyin could be an ideal channel.

For travel agencies, the Douyin channel still benefited from the rising trend of customer acquisition. There are relatively few tourism businesses on it, and there is not much competition… yet.

Moreover, the Douyin channel is more suitable for travel agencies in fragmented market segments, because it uses algorithms to push videos based on user interests and hobbies. As long as the positioning and tags of the Douyin account of the tourism enterprise match the user’s preferences, the video will be pushed accurately, hence the conversion rate is high. 

In the travel videos on Douyin, users can get a more vivid and comprehensive picture of the destination, which is more immersive than graphic information. On the other hand, Douyin audiences who watch videos can interact with the broadcaster in the comment area, which can stimulate users’ desire to travel. At the same time, Douyin advertising can be operated in a multi-strategic manner by creating social media trending attractions and cultivating fan communities.

Douyin is a short video music platform, which is displayed in various forms such as “young, interesting, and creative”. Since Douyin’s short video became popular, it has captured more than 500 million users, especially young people born in the 90s and 95s in first- and second-tier cities, who are quick to accept new things and have strong spending power. Therefore, many advertisers in the tourism industry want to promote their products and services through Douyin.

3 Steps on how to use Douyin short video in tourism promotion

1. Improve content quality and create social media trending tourism attractions.

China has entered a new stage of high-quality tourism development. The era calls for high-quality tourism products and will eventually reward high performance tourism companies. On Douyin, if you want the beauty of scenic spots being seen through videos, you must fully realise the importance of tourism planning, invest more time and money in marketing planning, and also need to improve the quality of content to present high-quality and “truth, goodness and beauty” value.

2. Cultivate fan communities and make good use of marketing channels.

In the fierce market competition, it is not easy to gain fans’ love and loyalty. Therefore, to place travel advertisements on Douyin, more attention must be paid to guiding users to create a strong sense of identity.

3. Accurate advertising

Douyin advertisements can be launched according to different regions, age groups, etc. Therefore, tourist attractions and destinations should have a clear product positioning and establish a clear product personality to obtain more suitable and loyal tourists.

To sum it up, first is to position, identify the market segment and establish the USP that are different from those of the peers, and develop high-quality videos to promote, attract traffic, which leads to the next step is to use the travel Douyin mini programme to achieve conversion.