Recently, to help travel enthusiasts fully and comprehensively appreciate the beauty of Hangzhou, the Hangzhou Municipal Tourism Commission joined hands with Mafengwo, China’s leading free independent travel service platform, to launch a rich and diverse special event titled “Free Hangzhou Travel.” Through the creation of a variety of fresh and engaging Hangzhou travel scenarios, the event presents the city’s culture and “Hangzhou lifestyle” in full, and has been widely embraced and highly praised since its launch, significantly boosting travelers’ enthusiasm for visiting Hangzhou.
Scenario-based Custom Itineraries: Embark on a Personalized Journey to Hangzhou
Centered around the theme “Personalized Trips to Hangzhou,” the “Free Hangzhou Travel” special event invites netizens to choose their favorite attractions based on interest tags related to the city, allowing them to easily create their own custom “free independent Hangzhou travel” itinerary. Each itinerary is linked to a unique travel raffle number, and participants can use the final drawn number to win a complimentary 3-day, 2-person free independent trip to Hangzhou. This time, the Hangzhou Tourism Commission and Mafengwo have also adopted an unconventional approach to promoting tourism resources—guiding travelers through distinctive Hangzhou homestays and authentic Hangzhou cuisine to offer a well-rounded travel experience, thereby crafting a multifaceted, premium “Hangzhou lifestyle.”
The four seasons in Hangzhou each tell a poetic story. Themed around the seasons, the campaign categorizes over a hundred Hangzhou attractions by recommended travel season, then further organizes them under different tags based on attraction attributes to facilitate traveler selection. From “Evening Elegance” to “Quirky Gems,” from “Riverside Carved Pavilions” to “Tea-Scented Retreats,” the emotionally resonant interest tags of Hangzhou also serve as poetic interpretations of the “Hangzhou lifestyle.” The campaign also features a “Recommended Premium Itineraries” section, vividly showcasing a wide range of free independent travel options in Hangzhou through rich, high-quality travel diaries.
In addition to customizing itineraries, users can explore the advantages of Hangzhou homestays and the city’s food culture in depth through two dedicated sections: “Memories of Jiangnan, A Stop in Hangzhou” and “Authentic Hangzhou Cuisine, Colors of Jiangnan.” Particularly in the homestay section, Hangzhou accommodations are categorized across five dimensions—“By Tea Gardens,” “With Views of West Lake,” “With Unique Design,” “Hidden in Old Streets,” and “With Mountain Views”—introducing themed homestays that match these characteristics, making it easier for users with different preferences to quickly find their ideal stay.
Mobile Interactive Innovation: Fun Quizzes on the “Hangzhou Lifestyle”
To better present Hangzhou’s abundant tourism resources, Mafengwo has also created an interactive travel quiz within its mobile app—themed “Discover Your Travel Personality, Travel to Hangzhou for Free.” It weaves various Hangzhou lifestyles into travel stories and determines six fun travel personalities based on users’ personalized choices.
The uniquely Hangzhou lifestyles, connected through storytelling, ensure the quiz’s narrative flow, while the novel and entertaining travel personalities strongly encourage multiple shares across platforms such as WeChat, generating widespread interactive enthusiasm and fueling a collective love for the “Hangzhou lifestyle.”
From the unfolding of an antique folding fan, heralding the beginning of a uniquely Hangzhou travel story, to the depiction of fun encounters awaiting the user’s discovered travel personality in Hangzhou, and finally to the share-and-reward mechanism for coupons, each part of this well-connected campaign highlights the unique allure of Hangzhou.
Scenario-based Travel Experience: Sparking a Hangzhou Tourism Craze
The “Free Hangzhou Travel” special event, through its scenario-based marketing approach, has stirred millions of netizens’ memories and yearnings for Hangzhou. Countless comments have poured in, sparking a wave of travel enthusiasm themed “Let’s Go to Hangzhou.” Netizen @see wrote: “Hangzhou is breathtakingly beautiful, and its food is amazing. I miss the soup from Jiangnan Er, once bought magnolia flowers from an old lady’s basket in a Hangzhou alley, photographed lotus flowers at Quyuan Fenghe in the peak of summer, and captured winter plum blossoms at Hangzhou Botanical Garden in the coldest season...”
In the mobile internet era, a “scenario” is not just a simple noun—it represents the reconnection between people and commerce, including in travel. New experiences emerge with the creation of new scenarios; new trends follow new insights; and new lifestyles are essentially the popularization of new scenarios.
The “Free Hangzhou Travel” campaign jointly launched by the Hangzhou Tourism Commission and Mafengwo, through scenario-based itinerary planning and innovative interactive experiences, has elevated the way travel is enjoyed. It successfully pioneers new approaches to tourism resource marketing and promotion, helping the public experience Hangzhou from multiple perspectives—“admiring scenic views, staying in homestays, and savoring local cuisine”—while leisurely enjoying the relaxing and soul-enriching ambiance of the “Hangzhou lifestyle.”
