Toward Tourists–Media–Cities Tourism: Xi’an as a Wanghong City

This study investigated the phenomenon of wanghong cities in China to illustrate the dynamic relationships between media, tourists, and cities in the new normal of the post-COVID-19 era. Specifically, this study proposes the innovative analytical framework of tourists–media–cities (“ToMeCi”), which is grounded in tourism studies, media studies, and urban studies, but goes beyond the traditional concepts and previous studies of media and city, tourism and media, and tourism and city. Based on a case study of Xi’an, one of the most famous wanghong cities in China, this study attempted to answer the following research questions: how can the deployment of creative media practices create new digital tourism patterns in the specific Chinese context of wanghong cities; moreover, why is this reasonable and possible, and what are the implications? For the purpose of this study, we employed a qualitative research method and conducted online and offline ethnographic fieldwork, textual analysis, and in-depth interviews with 22 tourists and 26 short-video producers or live streamers. The findings reveal that the city of Xi’an was transformed into a wanghong city to attract tourists, who interact with the city through specific media practices of clocking in and live streaming, with a new digital tourism model of the cyberflaneur emerging against the specific backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic. Finally, we discuss the possible contributions and limitations of the phenomenon.