Calling jet-setting couch potatoes

Source: Ctrip

Thing is, many Americans have never heard of Saipan or even the Northern Mariana Islands, even though the archipelago is a US commonwealth.

"We've seen a vast increase in searches for Saipan since the late June episode of Hurry Up, Brother," Dai says.

Chinese online travel agency Tuniu.com's Saipan-product manager Liu Wei says one in five of the site's island-destination bookings are to Saipan.

TV and film aren't only determining where people go but also what they do there.

Take the flood of tourists to Gubei Water Town in Beijing's Miyun county after it was featured in Hurry Up, Brother.

"We receive tourists who specifically ask to play the rip-the-nameplate game featured on the show," says Liu Siqi, brand manager of the Beijing Wtown Tourism Co, which runs the attraction.

Players try to tear nametags from competitors' backs.

"Many companies have arranged for employees to play the game here as a team-building activity. And schools send students here to play," Liu says.

The May episode of Where Are We Going, Dad? filmed at the Chimelong International Ocean Tourist Resort in Guangdong province's Zhuhai sparked double-digit growth in visits to the resort.

"Most guests are from outside Guangdong," Chimelong's publicity manager Yang Hua says.

Many are parents with kids, since the episode featured celebrity fathers with their children.

Beijinger Zhang Jinling planned to take her daughter after watching the episode.

"I'd heard of Chimelong but it wasn't until I watched the show that I knew what it was like," Zhang says.

She loved the scenes where kids interacted with such creatures as elephants and pandas.

"I saw it and wanted to take my child there to play with, and learn to love, animals," she says.

Yunnan province's Xishuangbanna Dai autonomous prefecture also experienced a boost in visitors－especially parents－after an episode of Where Are We Going, Dad? filmed there aired in early July.

Ctrip launched a travel route based on attractions featured in the show.

The five-day trip takes visitors to the tropical garden, Mengle Buddhist temple and Wild Elephant Valley.

Ctrip credits a more-than 200 percent surge in visits to Inner Mongolia this summer to the February blockbuster, Wolf Totem.

Many tourists book charter planes to get panoramic views of the prairies as seen in the film, which features breathtaking aerial shots.

Ctrip also attributes a 50 percent rise in purchases of packages to Jilin's Changbai Mountains to the Lost Tomb TV series.

Nearly 60 percent of the five-day itineraries designed around attractions featured on the program are booked. About 70 percent of customers were born in the 1990s, the company says.

Turkey has risen on Chinese tourists' itineraries following the Sisters over Flowers reality-TV series, in which seven celebrities spend two weeks overseas with limited budgets and without assistants.

Chinese accounted for 80 percent of Turkey's inbound tourists this summer, says Dou Liqiong, general manager of Turkey-based Crystal DMC Tour's Beijing office.

"Many Chinese didn't know how beautiful Turkey was before the show," Dou says.

The June episode showed hot-air ballooning in Cappadocia, and Istanbul's resplendent Christian and Islamic architecture, she says.

Ctrip also reports doubled growth in Chinese tourists heading to Turkey since the show aired.

Over 1,000 have signed up for trips replicating the show's itinerary.

Since sites featured in TV and film have proven fertile ground for luring China's traveling couch potatoes, it seems likely more destinations will pitch to producers to try to cast themselves as stars.

Contact the writers through yangfeiyue@chinadaily.com.cn