Photo/Shetuwang

Pei's vlogs are created by a team of five members, including a video editor. They draft an outline for each shoot in advance and adjust their plans according to circumstances. One vlog shows how Pei grew a little anxious when her tour guide in Vietnam turned up an hour late. But Pei soon came up with a plan B and opted to tour around on her own.

To embrace the growing trend for shooting short videos in China, travel website Mafengwo started to encourage its users to post vlogs about their trips in 2018, which has now become an important part of its user-generated content.

"It's easy to upload a short video via our app-our users can choose from various video formats, filters and background music to polish their work. When you browse our app, you soon come across an original short video uploaded by our users," says Zhao Qian, head of Mafengwo's short-video content.

According to her, its users have uploaded over 2 million short videos online, covering a wide range of themes, such as food, scenic areas and hotel experiences.

"For a long time, tourists often shared their trips online via photos and words. However, short videos have become the new trend because they're bright, direct and fun. It's also an efficient way for visitors to find information about local travel experiences," she says.

In June 2018, travel website Qyer unveiled its video column, working with more than 20 partners to offer professionally generated content across a number of fields. In 2019, it aims to encourage travel influencers and ordinary users alike to upload their own short videos via its app.

Qyer's vice-president Cui Li says their users are becoming increasingly willing to share their travel stories by video-about 30 percent of the daily content generated by their users are short videos. She's confident that this will only increase as China rolls out its 5G network.

"When travel influencers on social media are promoting destinations through high-quality and engaging short videos, ordinary tourists will want to have the same experiences thanks to this kind of 'celebrity endorsement'. It's a main strategy for destination marketing in 2019."

Email: gaohan@nbd.com.cn