With their naive image and status as a rare species, giant pandas have attracted a large number of tourists, and seeing pandas has become an important purpose for many tourists. The popular visiting tours of giant pandas have not only promoted the development and recovery of local catering, accommodation, entertainment and other industries, but also promoted the accelerated upgrading of the panda cultural industry.

Go to the grassroots in the new year

"Huahua" in Chengdu, "Menglan" in Beijing, "Yuke" and "Yuai" in Chongqing... These names will become popular in 2023 and become almost household names. They are China's national treasure giant pandas.

Go to Dujiangyan, Ya'an and Wenchuan to see pandas

Sichuan is the hometown of giant pandas. In Sichuan, not only the Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding Research Base, but also the panda breeding bases in Ya'an, Wenchuan, and Dujiangyan have become new choices for tourists to visit giant pandas.

"Huahua" is a panda from the Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding Base. It is short and fat, moves slowly, and has a cute attitude. It has won the hearts of millions of fans. Many tourists come here just to have a look at it. . At the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, there is always a sea of ​​people, packed with tourists to see the pandas, with queues stretching from inside the park to outside the park gate. Sometimes, there will be a sign at the end of the queue for "Huahua" to remind you that it will take more than 2 hours to queue here before you can see "Huahua".

Because the Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding Research Base is too popular, many tourists choose to visit breeding bases further away from Chengdu. Affiliated to the China Giant Panda Research and Conservation Research Center, Dujiangyan Chinese Giant Panda Garden, Ya'an Bifengxia Base and Wolong Chinese Giant Panda Garden Shenshuping Base have become new choices for tourists. These three bases range from 60 to 150 kilometers away from Chengdu. The Wolong Chinese Giant Panda Garden Shenshuping Base is located in Gengda Town, Wenchuan County, about 100 kilometers west of Chengdu. The park is built on the mountains, and the environment is more like the wild. Giant pandas are lively and cute, attracting many tourists. In the context of increasing tourist demand, in the second half of last year, a tourist through train was opened from Chunxi Road in Chengdu to Shenshuping Base of Wolong Chinese Giant Panda Garden.

It snowed heavily in Sichuan a few days ago. The reporter saw at the snow-covered Dujiangyan Chinese Giant Panda Garden that despite the cold weather, there was still an endless stream of tourists coming to visit. Ms. Xu from Fujian told reporters: "Actually, I have wanted to bring my baby to see it for a long time, but I did some planning before coming. I heard that giant pandas like the cold and are afraid of heat and are not active in summer, so we did not come during the summer vacation and waited until the winter vacation. I came right after the holiday." Ms. Xu's son said that he really liked watching giant pandas playing in the snow.

Ms. Wu, a photography enthusiast who has taken giant pandas as her subjects all year round, deeply felt the changes before and after giant pandas became popular out of the industry in 2023. She told reporters that she goes to the above-mentioned bases to photograph giant pandas almost every month. "Wolong and Dujiangyan bases didn't have many tourists in the past, but last summer these bases were full, the parking lots were full of cars, and the number of people entering the park was restricted several times." Ms. Wu said with a smile, she couldn't stop seeing so many tourists. I couldn’t find a good location to take pictures.

The hosting of the Chengdu Universiade also directly pushed this craze for giant pandas to a climax. At the opening ceremony of the Chengdu Universiade, the cute Rongbao was ridiculed by netizens as the biggest "conspicuous bag" in the performance that night. Rongbao and giant panda elements appeared in every aspect of the opening ceremony of the Universiade. The giant panda instantly attracted countless fans. Become a true IP top class.

Promote the strong recovery of the local tourism industry

The surge in the number of tourists visiting giant pandas has undoubtedly driven the growth of local tourism revenue such as tickets, catering, and accommodation, and promoted the strong tourism industry recovery.

"Huahua" is a well-deserved "product leader" "King of. Data released by the Sichuan Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism shows that during last year’s May Day holiday, Sichuan’s cultural tourism market continued to boom, with receptions and tourism revenue exceeding the levels of the same period in 2019 and hitting record highs. Among them, the internet celebrity giant panda "Huahua" led 264,000 tourists to visit the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, ranking second among the top ten popular attractions in the country.

The Wolong Chinese Giant Panda Garden is at an altitude of about 1,700 meters, making it a good place to cool down and escape the heat in summer. In 2023, amid the popularity of pandas, it will be difficult to find accommodation around the Wolong Shenshuping Base. In winter, the local B&B industry has joined forces with tour groups to launch a number of activities. In addition to seeing giant pandas, there are also ice and snow viewings, and farmers’ slaughtering of New Year pigs, etc., which has expanded the new connotation of the tourism industry led by the panda craze.

The Ya'an Panda Base has received waves of foreign fans who come to visit the giant panda "Xiang Xiang". "Xiangxiang" was born in Ueno Zoo, Japan. After returning to China in February 2023, she moved into the Ya'an Bifengxia base and was officially put on display after the National Day holiday in October. Immediately afterwards, a Japanese fan group of giant panda "Xiang Xiang" went to China to visit relatives and see "Xiang Xiang".

The Financial Investment News reporter learned that after "Xiangxiang" settled in Ya'an Bifengxia base, its popularity in Japan remains high. Ya'an Cultural Tourism Group has established a cooperation with Nisshin Yunwen Tokyo Co., Ltd. relationship, jointly create an online and offline "Xiangxiang Home", and launch a customized travel project "Looking at Xiangxiang and Traveling to Tianfu" for Japanese fans, providing fans with accommodation, tickets, and car services throughout the process. Japanese giant panda fans "line up in Ueno" "Four hours to watch the fragrance for 1 minute", when you come to Ya'an, you can realize "the freedom to watch the fragrance".

It is worth mentioning that in addition to Sichuan, many places outside the province have also joined the giant panda fever "group chat". Many places, such as Yueyang in Hunan and Yongchuan in Chongqing, are also vying to introduce giant pandas, create their own panda IP and tourism IP, and share the economic dividends brought by the giant panda craze. In 2023, the Yueyang Chinese Giant Panda Garden introduced 10 giant pandas from Sichuan and officially opened in December of that year. The arrival of 10 giant pandas also brought huge popularity to Yueyang. Data shows that during the three-day New Year's Day holiday in 2024, the Yueyang Chinese Giant Panda Garden received 26,800 tourists.

In January this year, four giant pandas from the China Giant Panda Conservation and Research Center also officially met tourists at the Panda Pavilion of Lehe Ledu Animal Theme Park in Yongchuan, Chongqing.

Panda IP empowers innovation in the cultural and creative industry chain

At the same time, giant panda-related peripheral products have gradually become popular tourist souvenirs in Chengdu, and many popular giant pandas The surrounding items are selling well or even out of stock. Many places are also actively building their own cultural and creative product brands, and the development of the tourism and cultural industry continues to innovate.

For every tourist who has visited the panda breeding base or the zoo panda hall, buying a pair of giant panda peripherals to take home is undoubtedly the best souvenir. There are many types of giant panda peripherals, including panda Patterned hoodies, panda-shaped backpacks, panda neck scarves, panda hairpins, panda water cups, and carefully dressed panda dolls, etc., with the number of visitors increasing significantly, panda peripherals also became popular last year. In addition, in popular tourist attractions and check-in places in Chengdu such as Kuanzhai Alley and Chunxi Road, the Panda Museum and Panda Post Office are crowded with people, and giant panda elements can be seen everywhere.

“In the past six months, more customers have come to the store to buy panda peripherals than before, and this year’s customers have a characteristic when buying peripherals, that is, they will specifically buy peripherals for a certain panda or a few pandas, such as Some people want to buy 'Huahua' ones, and some want to buy 'Menglan' ones. I feel that pandas are no longer just a vague image for people, but they have more real feelings for them." Chengdu City. A clerk at a cultural and creative store told reporters.

Relevant management departments in various places are also actively promoting the development of panda culture. It is understood that in 2023, the Ya'an City Culture, Sports and Tourism Bureau, Ya'an Tourism Association and Ya'an Culture and Tourism Group jointly hosted the 2023 Ya'an Giant Panda Cultural and Creative Tourism Product Competition, aiming to promote the construction of an important destination for giant panda cultural tourism. Accelerate the high-quality development of culture and tourism, strengthen the "main engine" of the tourism industry, cultivate the "Panda Yali" cultural and creative product brand, further stimulate the cultural innovation and creative vitality of the whole people, and drive the in-depth integrated development of the city's cultural and creative industry chain.

Industry insiders pointed out that in recent years, following images such as the "dragon" and the Great Wall, the giant panda has gradually become another visual symbol that can represent China. Giant pandas are not only precious and rare, but also have rich cultural connotations. For provinces like Sichuan with rich resources, they should make good use of panda cultural IP, make good use of panda images, tell Sichuan stories, spread the voice of China, and promote regional cultural tourism The economy is developing comprehensively across multiple industries, allowing panda value to empower the economy.