Politics and distances must be photographed by travel. Today, travel photography has become an important way for travelers to express themselves and share their lives. However, the travel photography industry also faces many challenges. How to keep this emerging cultural and tourism industry popular has aroused widespread attention and discussion in the industry.
The natural "protagonist"
Young people today regard "experience" as an important criterion for evaluating travel. Travel photography has transformed tourists from "viewers" to "participants" or even "performers", and a sense of "protagonist" of life arises naturally.
"Show" is also a plus point for emotional value. "On the one hand, social media provides performers with a stage to show themselves, and on the other hand, it also stimulates viewers in all aspects." Ying Cheng, a senior cultural and tourism expert and self-media person, analyzed. In those carefully composed photos, there is not only exotic scenery, but also a concrete expression of an ideal life - some people see the freedom they yearn for, some are healed by the relaxation in the photos, and some people will silently record their destination and include it on their future travel list. The interactive likes in the comment section will bring new emotional feedback to the publisher. "This kind of interaction makes the emotional value of travel photography break through personal experience and extends into an emotional resonance in the social circle, making every posted photo a small bridge connecting yearning and reality." Ying Cheng said.
Jia Jia, a travel photographer in Luoyang, said that travel photographer has long gone beyond the traditional photography category of simply pressing the shutter to record the picture. With the continuous development and improvement of the industry, it has gradually evolved into an emerging comprehensive business format that integrates multiple links such as clothing rental, professional beauty styling, and customized photography services. For tourists, travel photography integrates all-round services such as scenic spot tours, cultural experience, self-display, and photography, and has a high cost-effectiveness. For related practitioners, various services such as styling and clothing, beauty, and photography have expanded their revenue channels. Therefore, the travel photography industry has rapidly risen in high-quality tours, and has expanded from early traditional wedding travel photography to travel photos, parent-child travel photography and other fields. At the same time, the travel photography professional team is more familiar with the environment and can efficiently guide the subject to capture the "story" of the characters and the environment; and with the support of professional cameras and post-production photo editing, the effect is much better than that of tourists taking on their own, so in the current context of the prosperity of beauty cameras and selfies, it still has a place in the market and has a strong development momentum.
In the past two years, the national trend has also driven the continued travel photography. The booming development of the travel photography market has prompted merchants to constantly innovate, highly restore the replica of clothing styles in specific historical periods or film and television dramas, providing tourists with a more in-depth experience. In Pingyao Ancient City, the reproduction of the young grandmother of Shanxi merchants is very popular. The exquisite silk cheongsam, paired with exquisite hair accessories and small handbags, allows tourists to instantly travel back to the era of Shanxi merchants' storm. In addition, young people are no longer satisfied with taking travel check-in photos. They are eager to experience traditional culture in depth through travel photography and show their personality and cultural confidence. The Tang Dynasty City in Xi'an never sleeps, the streets are full of "Tang Dynasty Rich Flowers" dressed in gorgeous Tang suits; in Quanzhou, Fujian, "hair hairpin flower surrounds" travel photography is popular, and the lost hairpin skills are revitalized.
Frequent chaos and "forced acceptance"
Travel photography provides people with a novel experience in traveling, but after consumers' enthusiasm retreats, the problem of travel photography is also exposed. The rapid expansion of the industry is accompanied by many chaos. In mid-July, the tourist scandal of Chongqing Hongyadong Scenic Area attracted passengers, and it came to an end with an official apology and five local departments jointly rectifying the order of the tourism market. The popular BBQ Travel Photography has become a hot topic due to the collective loss of contact among staff. Problems such as "intra-roll" competition, false propaganda, inducing consumption, and illegal customer acquisition in the travel photography industry have emerged.
"Since the popularity of Dunhuang travel photography in 2023, hundreds of small travel photography stores around the Crescent Spring Scenic Area suddenly emerged." A staff member of a well-known travel photography store in Dunhuang told reporters helplessly. Data shows that the number of domestic travel photography-related companies has exceeded 6,000, and most of them have been established for less than three years. In addition, some unqualified individual photographers flocked in, bringing challenges to industry regulation.
The problems of hidden consumption and random charging have highlighted the contradictions. The aesthetic differences between merchants and customers are currently the hardest hit area for complaints in the travel photography industry. On relevant complaint platforms, complaints such as "The travel shop collects money and pictures, and no longer care about others if they are not satisfied" are common. Faced with many hidden consumption, consumers are forced to accept it with the mentality of "all come."
The difficulty of park supervision is also increasing. Some travelers ignore park management regulations and even cause damage to natural resources. Previously, a video of an off-road fleet performing around the "Eye of Gnie" was spreading on the Internet. The Gnie Shenshan Scenic Area Management Bureau said that the crushed vegetation grows in high-altitude areas with an altitude of more than 3,500 meters, so the recovery period will take more than 10 years. If it is severely damaged, it will cause land desertification and even cause the "Eye of Gnie" to disappear.
Only by expanding the ecology can you "grow red"
"Wedding photography has its shortcomings, but the huge market and strong development momentum remind us that we cannot completely deny the value and significance of travel photography. In the future, the whole society can work together from multiple angles to create a good travel photography environment." said cultural scholar Gou Ruixue. For consumers, in the early consultation process, the contents and specific implementation details of the package should be detailed. Consumers should bravely say no to problems such as hidden consumption and random charges that arise in travel photography. After the travel photography is over, you can file a complaint with the relevant management department. For merchants, corresponding services should be provided and prices should be clearly marked, and questions raised by consumers should be explained.
The entry threshold for the travel photography industry is relatively low, and there are no relevant industry standards and specifications to follow, which has become the "pain point" of the travel photography industry. Previously, the market supervision departments at the two levels of Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture in Xiangxi and Fenghuang County took advantage of the situation and introduced a series of "regulation + service" measures, and issued and implemented the "Tourism Shooting Service Provided Standards", filling the gap in my country's travel photography industry without industry standards, and providing reference for the improvement and supervision of the national travel photography market.
In addition, industry experts suggest that the industrial chain should be further extended and the development of scenic spots should be promoted. The road to long-term popularity after becoming popular is difficult to go. Some cities that have become popular due to travel photography are at the level of Internet celebrity cities. Once the popularity is over, it is difficult to turn short-term traffic into a driving force for long-term development. The "assembly princess" model is ultimately unsustainable. It can expand the travel photography ecosystem, carry out cross-border integration, and use games, film and television to spread, expand and upgrade the service form of travel photography to achieve long-term development of the industry.
(Volkswagen News reporter Tian Kexin)
