During the National Day and Mid-Autumn Festival, the "Mirror of the Sky" Chaka Salt Lake Scenic Area once again witnessed a tourism boom, receiving 156,000 visitors, a year-on-year increase of 15.97%. Behind this impressive figure lies the solid footprint of the scenic area's continuous efforts to attract visitors, and it also reflects the profound changes it has brought to regional development. As of October 8th, the annual number of tourists received by the scenic area has exceeded 2.8 million, and the brand of "Qinghai Tourism Golden Business Card" is shining even brighter.
Make multi-dimensional efforts to attract customers and precisely break through the circle to expand the market
To make the charm of the "Mirror of the Sky" reach more tourists, Chaka Salt Lake has built a comprehensive traffic diversion system from content creation, channel dissemination to interactive experience. At the online end, the scenic area has been deeply engaged in the "short video recommendation + live streaming real-time promotion" model. By capturing the changing light and shadow on the clear lake surface, the grandeur of the salt sculpture art group, and the romantic shuttle of the colorful little train through the camera, the beauty of the "Mirror of the Sky" has gone viral on various platforms. The "Tea Card Tour, Douyin Photo Shoot, Win Big Prizes" campaign launched simultaneously has encouraged tourists to actively share their travel experiences, achieving a viral spread where "tourists become promoters".
International communication has taken a solid step forward. The English version of the scenic area's promotional video has been launched on the international platform of China National Radio, showcasing the unique charm of ecological tourism on the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau to the world. The Weibo account of Guangming Daily launched a topic # The English promotional Video of Chaka Salt Lake in Qinghai Province is So Beautiful #, which quickly exceeded 50,000 views, making Chaka Salt Lake a "beautiful lens for the world to discover China" and attracting many tourists to come for its reputation.
The Chaka Salt Lake Scenic Area has created a series of theme activities around festival nodes to retain tourists with cultural experiences. During the National Day holiday, red performances were staged every day. Patriotic knowledge quizzes, "Painting the National Flag Together", and "Expressing Love to the Motherland in Dialects" and other sections ignited the patriotic enthusiasm of tourists. The birthday celebration activities participated by tens of thousands of tourists became the most touching scenery of the holiday. The Mid-Autumn Festival special event focused on local characteristics, providing free large mooncakes from Qinghai. Staff members explained the production techniques and cultural connotations on the spot. Interactive activities such as guessing lantern riddles to win souvenirs, making sachets, and DIY salt sculptures allowed tourists to experience the warmth of "salt culture" through hands-on activities. This also made the scenic area a popular choice for family and parent-child trips.
Service upgrade enhances quality, and the foundation for 5A creation is strengthened
The key to attracting visitors lies in retaining them with high-quality experiences. In the past two years, Chaka Salt Lake has taken the creation of a 5A-level scenic area as its core goal, comprehensively improving both hardware facilities and software services to create a comfortable and convenient visiting environment for tourists. In terms of hardware, the scenic area has been optimizing the visiting experience from the details: re-planning the parking lot's flow route and adding new energy vehicle charging piles to solve the problems of "difficult parking and charging" for tourists. 120 sets of rest seats and 135 trash cans have been added to make the scenic area environment cleaner and more convenient for rest. 1,120 sets of signboards and guidance signs have been set up, and 18 barrier-free passages cover key areas of the scenic spot, allowing tourists with different needs to visit easily. The comprehensive service station in the core area was put into use simultaneously. The station is fully equipped with oxygen inhalers, hot water supply and other facilities. Professional medical staff are on duty to ensure the health of tourists.
Meanwhile, the scenic area is constantly enriching its recreational activities. The "Snow leopard" and "Pallas's Cat" themed small trains shuttle across the salt lake, becoming a "mobile scenic spot" for tourists to take photos at. The salt water power generation research and study project enables tourists to explore the scientific mysteries of salt in an immersive way and experience the charm of salt culture. The 30,000-square-meter salt sculpture art complex has been upgraded and renovated, with a new "Chaka Romance" love-themed area added. Buildings such as the Sweetheart Hill and the Ice Heart Castle have become new popular check-in spots, further enhancing the "playability" of the scenic area.
In terms of software services, the scenic area has launched a "big training" campaign to enhance the service skills of all staff. Through theoretical training, scenario simulation and other methods, it aims to improve the etiquette norms and emergency handling capabilities of employees, making "smiling service" another calling card of Chaka Salt Lake. Upgrade the intelligent operation system and the smart tourism experience center to achieve "one-click access" for services such as ticket reservation, route inquiry, and voice guidance, significantly reducing the queuing time for tourists and making the tour more efficient and convenient.
The integration of culture and tourism promotes development and drives changes to benefit people's livelihood
The continuous popularity of Chaka Salt Lake not only enhances its own brand but also becomes an important force driving regional economic development and improving people's livelihood. Since 2016, the scenic area has received over 20 million tourists in total, directly or indirectly creating more than 5,000 jobs. It has enabled the local people to achieve employment and income growth right at their doorstep. From scenic area staff and homestay operators to local specialty vendors and tourism transportation drivers, more and more people are sharing the dividends of tourism development. In maintaining a balance between ecological protection and tourism development, Chaka Salt Lake has always adhered to the concept of "ecological priority". Through measures such as scientifically planning tour routes, strictly controlling the number of tourists, and promoting environmental protection facilities, it has achieved a win-win situation of "green mountains and clear waters" and "gold mountains and silver mountains". Today, the Chaka Salt Lake Scenic Area is not only a "traffic driver" for Qinghai's cultural and tourism industry, but also an important link promoting regional industrial upgrading and ethnic unity. The natural beauty and warm service of the "Mirror of the Sky" continue to write a new chapter in the high-quality development of Qinghai's cultural and tourism industry.
Today, the Chaka Salt Lake Scenic Area is not only a "traffic driver" for Qinghai's cultural and tourism industry, but also an important link promoting regional industrial upgrading and ethnic unity. The natural beauty and warm service of the "Mirror of the Sky" continue to write a new chapter in the high-quality development of Qinghai's cultural and tourism industry.
