Ten Years of Losses Despite a Billion Yuan Investment: Once a "Money Pit"
During the May Day holiday in 2023, while other scenic areas were busy welcoming visitors, Laojunshan's ticket office prominently displayed signs for "Apology Milk Tea and Travel IOU Redemption." Laojunshan, which can accommodate 25,000 visitors simultaneously, had reached its maximum reservation capacity before the holiday. However, facing hundreds of visitors who hadn't secured tickets, Laojunshan issued a 10-year valid travel IOU to those without tickets, along with complimentary milk tea and a simple meal of chicken legs.
"Laojunshan owes you a trip, valid for ten years." This move won praise from netizens: "This is a truly heartwarming trip," "Only sincerity is invincible," and "A broader perspective leads to a wider path."
Just how popular is Laojunshan? On the third day of the Lunar New Year this year, at 4 am, Zhang Pengyuan, deputy general manager of Laojunshan Cultural Tourism Group, received a call from the scenic area asking him to report to the entrance. Upon arrival, he found the square, which can accommodate over 10,000 people, densely packed with people and vehicles. Fortunately, the scenic area and public security departments cooperated to ensure that over 30,000 people successfully climbed the mountain that day.
In late spring, the weather is cool above 1500 meters on Laojunshan. Taking the cable car to overlook the mountains and rivers, the deep mountain vegetation has not yet turned green. Despite being the traditional off-season for northern mountain scenic areas, Laojunshan still receives over 10,000 visitors a day.
Mr. Li, 26, and his group of seven drove from Baoding, Hebei Province, to Laojunshan, mainly to see the karst peaks and clouds and the illuminated Golden Summit. "We learned about Laojunshan through short videos; recently, the mountain climbing photos and costume shows from Laojunshan have been particularly popular." In 2023, Laojunshan scenic area welcomed 4.5 million visitors, with a comprehensive income of approximately 1 billion yuan, comprehensive tax revenue of 238 million yuan, and total assets exceeding 4 billion yuan.
However, 17 years ago, Laojunshan scenic area was a state-owned forest farm in Luanchuan County, Luoyang City, with debts of 14 million yuan, and even employee salaries were difficult to pay. The local government mobilized Yang Zhisan, a 60-year-old mining entrepreneur at the time, to take over the forest farm, "gathering the wealth of Beishan and developing the beautiful Nanshan," thus opening the curtain on Laojunshan's cultural and tourism development.
From the beginning of the scenic area's planning, it collaborated with the Tongji Architectural Design (Group) Co., Ltd. to propose "By 2025, Laojunshan will be built into a national-level scenic area integrating sightseeing and cultural experiences." The construction process involved an investment of over 1 billion yuan, creating tourist products such as the Ten-Mile Screen, the Golden Summit building complex, and the suspension bridge in the 58-square-kilometer Laojunshan scenic area. At the same time, 30 million yuan is allocated annually for marketing and promotion, allowing marketing personnel to fully utilize their abilities to promote and attract customers throughout the country, first opening up the provincial market and then the national market.
After ten years of refinement, by 2017, Laojunshan scenic area's revenue reached 100 million yuan, basically achieving break-even. "Many people believe that Laojunshan's popularity is due to short video dissemination; in fact, short video dissemination is only a 'catalyst.'" Zhang Pengyuan said that the consistent product development, offline marketing, and team building in the early stages are the foundation for Laojunshan's success.
Five Years, Billions of Views: From "Newcomer" to "Money Magnet"
At the end of 2019, a heavy snowfall blanketed Laojunshan in silver. The high mountains, cold weather, icy branches, strong north wind, and surging clouds, with sunlight shining through the clouds onto the three golden summits at an altitude of approximately 2200 meters, created a magnificent and beautiful scene. Photos of the snowy Golden Summit taken by several Laojunshan employees and uploaded online received 1 billion views in just half a month.
Yang Zhisan, 72 at the time, although not a member of the internet's younger generation and without experience in the field, followed the Internet Conference in Wuzhen and was a frequent user of short video platforms. The management team's idea of focusing on short videos not only received his approval but also involved significant investment in exchange for traffic.
Subsequently, Laojunshan mobilized all employees to shoot short videos, offering incentives: 1,000 yuan for 1 million views per video; an additional 1,000 yuan for every additional 1 million views, with a maximum bonus of 10,000 yuan per video. This policy was later extended to tourists as well. Laojunshan thus created the "legend" of "an employee earning 1 million yuan in bonuses in 3 years." With the participation of photographers, video creators, and internet celebrities, stunning videos and images repeatedly propelled Laojunshan to the top, even pushing announcements like "Ice has been cleared, visitors can play with peace of mind" onto the trending search list.
At the end of November 2020, Zhang Pengyuan posted a 13-second video of Laojunshan's snowy scenery, quickly gaining 60 million views and 1.8 million likes. "When your well-crafted product goes viral, you'll find that all kinds of resources gather around you." Zhang Pengyuan said that over the years, the employee team has accumulated 6 personal video accounts with over 200,000 followers each, and the scenic area's video account has over 1.7 million followers, but the million visitors are the true driving force behind Laojunshan's popularity.
He Chengyi, a Zhengzhou resident who has worked in outbound tourism for 13 years, was attracted by Laojunshan's snowy scenery in 2020. He had climbed Laojunshan twice before purely for leisure. After the 2020 Lunar New Year, he spent 3 months in Laojunshan looking for business opportunities. Through observation, he found that although winter and spring are the traditional off-season for northern mountain scenic areas, after the snow melts and spring arrives, Laojunshan does not become quiet; the tourist volume remains large, and there is a lack of high-end homestays. Therefore, He Chengyi invested approximately 8 million yuan to build a high-end homestay with 28 rooms. In 2023, the occupancy rate exceeded 70%, with revenue of approximately 4 million yuan, and the investment is expected to be recouped within two years.
From 2019 to 2023, on Douyin alone, videos featuring Laojunshan Scenic Area have been viewed over 14 billion times. Tourist arrivals have surged from 760,000 to 4.5 million, and revenue has increased from 180 million yuan to approximately 1 billion yuan. "One mountain has revitalized a city." Sun Xinxin, director of the Publicity Department of Luanchuan County Committee, said that in Luanchuan, a small city with a population of over 300,000, the Laojunshan Scenic Area has created 15,000 jobs and contributed 4 billion yuan to the local comprehensive income.
A Billion Yuan in Revenue: Walking a Tightrope; How a "Viral Sensation" Achieves Lasting Popularity
In 2021, when the BGM ("background music") of "A Journey to the Mortal Realm, a Feast for the Eyes, Eating Instant Noodles atop Laojunshan" accompanied by winter snow scenes went viral on short video platforms, Yang Zhisan wasn't overjoyed; instead, he worried about the lagging service quality of the scenic area.
In 2022, when the "viral sensation" Laojunshan welcomed its first wave of nighttime hikers, the scenic area's first reaction wasn't "welcome," but "discouragement." For Laojunshan, the winter and spring seasons were traditionally the off-season for tourism. Before 2019, the scenic area would close during winter. Similarly, night hiking was unprecedented at Laojunshan.
Laojunshan Scenic Area statistics show that as the scenic area gained online popularity, young people became the main tourists. Their focus shifted from "sightseeing" to "experiencing." Nighttime hiking, winter check-ins, and spring costume events all reflect this change. Adapting to fluctuations in tourist volume during peak and off-seasons and day and night, and meeting the consumption needs of young people, is key for Laojunshan to convert "online traffic" into "tourist flow." Therefore, Laojunshan no longer closes during winter, organizes nighttime hiking, and continues to invest in new attractions such as glass drifting, the Tengyun plank road, thrilling walkways, immersive performances, and Hanfu photography to meet the experiential needs of young people.
"The snow remains the same. To truly convert online traffic into tourist flow, the key lies in continuous innovation and development, constantly innovating consumption formats and models, and providing tourists with higher-quality cultural and tourism products." Yang Jiahou, executive deputy general manager of Laojunshan Cultural Tourism Group, said.
"In 2023, the number of tourists reached 4.5 million, with Generation X and Millennials accounting for 44% and Generation Z accounting for 43%. It is precisely because of proactively adapting to changes in consumer groups, needs, and time periods that Laojunshan has been able to maintain its popularity over the past few years." Zhang Pengyuan said.
"From Zibo barbecue to Harbin's ice and snow, and then to Tianshui's mala tang, we are paying close attention to and studying these emerging cultural and tourism phenomena." Yang Zhisan agrees with Luoyang's recently proposed new concept of cultural and tourism consumption—"disruptive creativity, immersive experiences, youth-oriented consumption, and mobile-end dissemination"—believing that Laojunshan's success as a popular scenic area over the past few years is due to its alignment with the new trends in cultural and tourism development.
Currently, the annual 4.5 million tourists have gradually exhausted the potential of tourist flow during peak and off-seasons and day and night. A large-scale increase in tourist flow to a single scenic area is no longer realistic. With the rapid turnover of popular scenic areas, how to achieve regional synergy, improve service quality, and maintain, or even enhance, long-term popularity is a question Laojunshan is currently considering.
