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Author | Gongsun Yao, Zhou Yi Shui

Editor-in-chief | Yang Ming

Editor | Jing Xiangyuan

Source | Yishui Cultural Tourism

Recently, the bottled water advertisements launched by Wahaha in collaboration with Guangxi's cultural tourism industry have sparked considerable discussion on social media platforms such as Xiaohongshu and Douyin.

Wahaha Group has joined hands with the Guangxi Tourism Association for brand linkage. Wahaha prints photos of Guangxi's famous scenic spots on its bottled water, using the bottles as a medium to promote Guangxi tourism. Previously, this "customized water" exclusively for Guangxi users had been distributed across provinces and entered supermarkets in Guangdong, Hainan, Hunan and other provinces and cities. With netizens from various places "showing off pictures," some tourist attractions in Guangxi have become popular and gained some attention.

In fact, in recent years, Zong Qinghou, who is in charge of Wahaha, has been actively exploring diversified operations, particularly showing its ambition in the cultural tourism sector.

As early as 2012, Zong Qinghou, chairman of Wahaha, said in an interview with the media that Wahaha's next new expansion goal might be the tourism industry. There are many articles to be written, for example, many scenic spots in some places are still primitive, with great development potential and low cost. It is very suitable to develop them as high-end holiday destinations. During his tenure as a national people's congress representative, Zong Qinghou also submitted many proposals on tourism.

Zong Fuli, who took over, continues to write the tourism chapter.

Returning to the "bottle marketing" effort, outputting brand and channel value to tourism

On May 28, 2024, 600 million bottles of mineral water printed with 60 scenic spots in Guangxi were sold across provinces for the first time. Many netizens from Guangxi, Guangdong, Hainan, Hunan and other places showed off this batch of drinking water on various platforms, and this display of pictures once again sparked heated discussions online.

It is understood that on April 10, 2024, the Guangxi Tourism Association and Hangzhou Wahaha Group renewed their cooperation agreement on bottled public service advertisements, and increased the publicity efforts for Guangxi's tourism resources, expanding from the original 16 scenic spots to 60 scenic spots, continuing to help Guangxi's cultural tourism "break through the screen and become popular." For Wahaha, its successful entry into more than 350 4A-level tourist attractions in Guangxi has further broadened its sales channels.

A senior industry insider revealed that Wahaha's layout in Guangxi tourism goes far beyond this. Wahaha will also participate in more events organized by the Guangxi Tourism Association, providing services to the events while fully showcasing its brand; it will print a "One-click tour of Guangxi" QR code on Wahaha bottles, allowing consumers to scan the code to obtain preferential tickets for related scenic spots and tourism performances; it will transform the Guilin Wahaha production base into a research and study tourism base, organizing local students to participate in research and study activities; and the two sides will jointly hold various cultural and tourism events to strengthen brand marketing, and so on.

With this combination of punches, Wahaha will further penetrate the Guangxi cultural tourism industry, and the situation of mutual benefit and win-win cooperation between the two sides will be further opened up.

In fact, based on Wahaha's national popularity and deeply rooted IP image, as well as the admiration of many Chinese people for the legendary entrepreneur Zong Qinghou, Wahaha's efforts in tourism marketing scenarios often achieve twice the result with half the effort.

In February this year, Zong Qinghou passed away due to ineffective medical treatment. In March, Qinglongxia Scenic Area in Xiuwu County, Jiaozuo City, Henan Province, issued an announcement stating that visitors carrying Wahaha products can enjoy free admission throughout the year. Tourism professionals are very sensitive to the dynamics of the public opinion field, especially to things with widespread reputation, and are willing to make emotional connections.

"Independent Operation": Based on its own advantages

In recent years, Wahaha has been exploring how to leverage its own advantages to enter the tourism sector.

It can be traced back to 20 years ago. In 2004, Wahaha's industrial tourism project was launched at its Hangzhou Xiasha base. The initial intention was to get closer to consumers and enhance the company's reputation. Later, it was discovered that tourist flow is a good thing, and the project was then rated as a "national-level industrial tourism demonstration site".

Currently, Wahaha's newly added intelligent factory park has been opened to tourists, and has developed in-depth industrial tourism, research and study tourism, and family tourism products, with good market response.

As Zong Qinghou said in an interview during the national "Two Sessions" - "Now the tourism concept of the Chinese people has changed. In the past, it was to go everywhere and hope to see more, but now it is to find a place to rest and relax. The future development of tourism is a very promising industry."

With this strategic understanding, Wahaha resolutely rushed to the leisure and vacation field. In December 2017, Wahaha registered and established Wahaha Hotel Management Co., Ltd.

A year later, in November 2018, Hangzhou Wahaha Resort Hotel officially opened. Located in Hangzhou Xiang Lake Scenic Area, it is the first resort hotel under Wahaha Hotel Management Co., Ltd., integrating catering, accommodation, and conferencing functions. The environment is elegant, and the leisure atmosphere is strong. After the hotel opened, both sales and reputation were good. Many young tourists actively shared their fun experiences of staying at the hotel and drinking Wahaha drinks on social media platforms, and it was fully booked for a long time.

At that time, the relevant person in charge of Wahaha Resort Hotel also outlined a blueprint for the hotel's development: positioning itself as a tourism resort area, cooperating with many 5A-level scenic spots nationwide and well-known domestic and foreign cultural tourism groups, highlighting the Wahaha cultural theme, using a franchise model to create a chain brand, accelerating the layout in urban areas and areas with high passenger flow, and radiating to the surrounding areas of Hangzhou, starting from Xiang Lake, and strengthening the cultural tourism sector.

Later, the promotion of franchise chains did not achieve good results, but it accumulated experience for Wahaha.

"Joint Efforts": With the help of industry leaders

Unable to realize its chain dream by operating hotels independently, Wahaha decided to join hands with industry leaders.

In December 2020, Wahaha Hotel Management Company and Kaiyuan Hotel Group held a cooperation signing ceremony in Hangzhou at Xiang Lake. At that time, Wahaha Xiang Lake Resort Hotel was officially renamed Wahaha Kaiyuan Xiang Lake Resort Hotel, seemingly preparing to make strides in the resort sector. According to the agreement, Kaiyuan Hotel Group "would fully integrate its resource advantages, brand advantages, and service advantages into the Wahaha Kaiyuan Xiang Lake Resort Hotel, creating a model hotel in the Xiang Lake National Tourism Resort." However, due to various reasons, this cooperation with the hotel "bigwig" was not smooth, and the hotel quietly reverted to its original name, "Wahaha Xiang Lake Resort Hotel".

However, Wahaha's cooperation with Ctrip has yielded good results. In October 2023, Wahaha Group joined hands with Ctrip's Lisheng Group and LvYue Group to jointly create "Kawei themed rooms." These rooms in partner hotels feature photo walls, pillows, and other items strongly associated with Wahaha's beverage brand, "Kawei." Each consumer also receives a free "Kawei" latte. This activity covered 100 hotels in 13 cities including Shanghai, Hangzhou, Suzhou, Wuxi, and Hefei. This collaboration is an innovative attempt by Wahaha to partner with the OTA giant Ctrip. Both parties have a high degree of matching in terms of brand fit and target audience, and the market response has been positive.

A Wahaha insider revealed that during Zong Qinghou's tenure, there were even discussions about developing tourism real estate projects in Madagascar, an overseas tourist destination. Zong personally conducted an inspection. Besides the strength and resources of the Madagascar Zhejiang Chamber of Commerce, he personally was very optimistic about the tourism industry. Currently, Wahaha is re-examining its diversified layout, possibly cutting some projects, retaining others, and expanding successful ones. "Some marketing managers within the group still follow the chairman's judgment, believing that the tourism sector is worth further development, following the path of large-scale leisure. As far as I know, they have also reflected this opinion, and it remains to be seen how determined the decision-making layer will be."