"Great Wall Heroes" welcomes future visitors back to Beijing with new 2020 promotional campaign

On August 28, 2020, the "Great Wall Hero 2020—Visit Beijing Again" promotional event organized by Beijing Municipal Culture and Tourism Bureau was held at Fortress Square, Badaling Great Wall Scenic Area. This event was supported by Yanqing District Cultural Tourism Bureau, Badaling Special Zone Administrative Center, Air China, and China Plus. It is one of a series of events in 2020 as part of the Beijing Great Wall Cultural Festival.

Ms. Pang Wei, Deputy Director-General of Beijing Municipal Culture and Tourism Bureau, reviewed the achievements of the Visit Beijing international social media campaigns since 2013. Visit Beijing actively promotes Beijing on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube. Each year, the "Great Wall Heroes" global marketing campaign has invited foreign influencers to Beijing to experience the latest Beijing cultural tourism tours and products, as well as promoting Beijing through global social media platforms. The event has become an annual branding event for Beijing Municipal Culture and Tourism Bureau's overseas promotion campaigns. In the wake of COVID-19, this year's "Great Wall Heroes" campaign had the new theme of "Visit Beijing Again." Long-term Beijing expat influencers were invited to take part in a panel discussion about post-COVID-19 tourism development.

The five influencers/panelists were: Mr. Jim Spear, co-founder and designer of two award-winning tourism businesses near Mutianyu Great Wall; Ms. Sarah Keenlyside, founder of Bespoke Travel Company, which offers tailor-made, immersive travel services to foreign tourists; Mr. Hayden Opie of Beijing Hikers, a hiking club that has been popular in Beijing for more than 10 years; Mr. Ignace Lecleir, owner and founder of TRB, awarded number one fine dining restaurant in the world by TripAdvisor in 2019; and Mr. Dominic De Couto of B Electric, which offers fun new ways to discover Beijing via e-bike.

At the end of the event, Beijing Municipal Culture and Tourism Bureau presented the five foreign influencers with a certificate naming them "Great Wall Heroes" in recognition of their active efforts to promote Beijing and promote international cultural exchange.

In an interview, Ms. Pang Wei said that now that the COVID-19 outbreak in Beijing has been brought under control, the successful hosting of this event was of great significance to the future of cultural tourism in Beijing. Foreigners in Beijing were invited to visit the Great Wall and join the live stream, with the hope of helping people around the world to get to know China again after COVID-19 and find out how Beijing's tourism market has recovered. The event also launched Beijing's latest Great Wall Cultural Tours project, with the goal of laying a solid foundation for the recovery of inbound tourism after COVID-19.

After the event, the guests experienced the newly-launched Badaling Great Wall Night Tour, which was also live-streamed from Visit Beijing's Facebook page. It is hoped that these promotional campaigns will embody and carry forward the spirit of the Great Wall, use the Great Wall culture as a link to tell Chinese stories, and promote cultural exchanges between China and the world.