Social media fires up visitors to 'state kiln'
Tourists enamored with city's sweet deals and discount ceramic products
In the past, picking up porcelain helped local enterprises clear their stock, but now they need to focus more on making products liked by travelers, especially young travelers, to generate a buzz online, he said.
Liling is also capitalizing on the situation by creating dedicated sites for picking up porcelain and offering tourists supplementary services such as dining, accommodation and transportation.
Guo Hanjun, who works at Liling's multimedia center, said it has made lots of videos promoting picking up porcelain since August, and several videos have trended on social media.
The city has also invited celebrities, published porcelain picking-up guides and promoted itself at universities, Guo said.
As of March, the center has published almost 1,000 news stories about porcelain, with total views topping 400 million, he said.
The discount porcelain craze has helped the city's tourism and consumption to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, he added.
Local culture and tourism bureaus across the country are in fierce competition to promote their cities and attract travelers, said Liu from the culture bureau, adding that tourism can be a great tool to promote the brand of a city and in turn generate consumption and industry upgrading.
"We hope we can attract more people to Liling and offer better culture and tourism services to them, so they are willing to stay in the city for some time," he added.
