Jimu News reporter Li Bo
Correspondents: Zhao Shengmi, Lin Wen
"I saw a lot of people taking photos of national costumes here on Douyin before. Although it was raining today, it was very good, and I am very satisfied. On June 19, Wei Yamei and her friends took a set of travel photos in the Daughter City Scenic Area of Enshi City.
Ma Jian, general manager of Enshi Daughtertown Commercial Operation Management Co., Ltd., said that in less than two years, the number of travel photography stores in Daughtertown has increased sharply from 15 to more than 120, and the annual income of merchants has exceeded 3 million yuan, making it the most popular industry.
In 2023, the output value of the Daughter City Travel Auction will be nearly 80 million yuan, and the output value will exceed 100 million yuan this year.
Wei Yamei (third from left) takes a photo with a friend
One scenic spot will increase 100 travel photography stores in two years
The Daughter City travel photography boom originated in the scenic area's Qimei Street, where more than 20 merchants originally sold traditional Tumiao ethnic costumes, but the traditional sales model did not meet the needs of tourists, and the business became more and more deserted. In June 2022, the scenic spot operating company convened a discussion meeting with merchant representatives to guide merchants to reform and solve problems. Lu Shikui has been in the clothing business in the scenic area for 6 years, and was inspired by the discussion to become one of the first merchants to try "selling and subletting" on Qimei Street.
"At the beginning, there were only more than 10 sets of Tujia costumes suitable for taking pictures in the store, most of them were blue and blue cloth colors, and the type was single, and we rented them at a price of 30 yuan per hour, but I didn't expect that once it was launched, it was in short supply." Lu Shikui recalled. After tasting the sweetness, he invested more than 400,000 yuan to redecorate the store, renamed it Travel Map Photography, and also customized national costumes from Guizhou, Hunan and other places, and recruited makeup artists and photographers to provide makeup and shooting services for tourists.
In August 2022, Lu Shikui tried to release a cross-dressing video of national costumes on a short video platform, which attracted the attention of tens of thousands of netizens. From September to October of the same year, the number of tourists who came to Lu Shikui's store to experience was overwhelming, and at its peak, it received nearly 200 tourists per day, and the turnover exceeded 300,000 yuan in just over one month. Today, his travel photography shop has expanded from the initial 36 square meters to 160 square meters, with more than 30 permanent makeup, photography and retouching staff, and the turnover has exceeded 160,000 yuan during this year's "May Day" period alone.
Seeing Lu Shikui's successful attempt, more than a dozen merchants on Sister Street have transformed and started to operate a travel photography business.
At the beginning of 2023, the Daughter City Scenic Area seized the opportunity of the popularity of ethnic cross-dressing videos on the Douyin platform to hold the first "National Costume Drag Show" video competition, receiving 480 works from all over the world. After the fermentation of the topic, the entire Sister Street quickly went out of the circle, and the scenic spot took advantage of the trend to build the Sister Street into a 400-meter-long travel photography street.
According to Ma Jian, general manager of Enshi Daughter City Commercial Operation Management Co., Ltd., in the past two years, the number of travel photography stores in Daughter City has increased from 15 to more than 120, and the annual income of merchants has exceeded 3 million yuan. In 2023, the output value of the Daughter City Travel Auction will be nearly 80 million yuan, and the output value is expected to exceed 100 million yuan this year.
Tourists are taking pictures
A photo incubates an industrial chain
The emergence of a new consumption hotspot can often drive the growth of an industry. With the rise of the travel photography industry, the largest number of practitioners are photographers and makeup artists.
Photographer Tian Yuming is 28 years old this year and has worked in professional photo studios in Wuhan, Xiaogan and other places. Last summer, he returned to his hometown and became a travel photographer in Daughter City, earning more than 10,000 yuan a month.
Every time the tourist season arrives, Tian Yuming has to "rotate continuously". "Shooting started at 9 a.m. and was busy until the early hours of the next morning." Tian Yuming said that after the tourists put on their makeup, he will choose five to six scenic spots to shoot according to the wishes of the guests, and each tourist needs an average of nearly one hour to shoot. When he returns home at night, he also retouches the photos he took during the day to ensure that they can be sent to tourists the next day.
Tourists and photographers communicate the details of taking pictures
In front of the makeup table, makeup artist Xiao Qian sketched a pair of thin eyebrows with a few strokes. Concealer, lipstick, and traditional tiara...... In about half an hour, she completed the overall makeup for the tourists, and the image of a fair Miao girl appeared in the mirror. 25-year-old Xiaoqian used to work as a bridal makeup maker at a wedding photography company and often needed to travel. Last year, she applied to become the resident makeup artist of Travel Photography, which not only increased her income, but also made her life more regular.
Behind a photo, there are a variety of services involved in costume and prop rental, makeup photography, action modeling, post-production, etc. At present, most of the photography stores in the Daughter City Scenic Area have fixed makeup and photography teams, and many stores cooperate with photography teams in Wuhan, Chongqing and other places to outsource photography and post-editing during the peak season to improve the efficiency of filming. The scenic travel photography store also continues to create differentiated advantages, such as the professional production of travel vlog short videos by Moma Ji Photography; Yuelv shoots exquisite makeup; The daughter begonia store has many clothes and rich shapes......
A make-up artist is doing a Miao look for a tourist
Promote the healthy development of the industry
"Behind the popularity of travel photography, there are also hidden worries." Xu Yanhua, president of the travel photography industry branch of the Enshi Daughter City China Selenium Chamber of Commerce, said frankly that the number of travel photography shops has increased sharply, and a large number of people from other industries have quickly poured into the travel photography market. Last year, more than 70% of complaints related to travel photography in scenic spots mainly included soliciting customers, similar makeup, patterned photography, false publicity, and mismatch between service quality and price.
In order to promote the healthy development of the travel photography industry, in November last year, the scenic spot established the Enshi Daughter City Hua Selenium Chamber of Commerce Travel Photography Industry Branch, absorbing more than 50 travel photography businesses, and also organizing members to study in Luoyang, Henan and other places, and formulate unified regulations, subdivide service standards and price systems, and clean up market chaos. The Chamber of Commerce also invested more than 50,000 yuan to build the roof of the Tujia stilted building, the red wall of the deep palace, the red wall of the Yanji Internet celebrity, the small bridge and flowing water, etc., for the merchants to use for free. In view of the shortage of makeup and photography professionals in the peak tourist season, the Chamber of Commerce has also set up an exchange group for makeup artists and photographers to promote resource sharing and save costs for businesses.
Xu Yanhua said that through the formulation of industry norms, the service quality of travel photography merchants in makeup and post-production has been significantly improved this year, and the complaint rate has been greatly reduced. In the future, the Chamber of Commerce will also guide businesses to launch richer forms of travel photography, provide richer shooting scenes, and hold special skill competitions such as makeup and photography to improve the service ability of practitioners.
(Source: Jimu News)
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