BUENOS AIRES - With an outbound tourism that has shown strong sustained growth in the last decade, China represents endless development possibilities. In line with these indicators, the arrival of Chinese tourists in Argentina has tripled in the same period.
Thus, in order to position the touristic offer in the Chinese market even more, and within the framework of the promotion agreement that Argentina has with Fliggy, the touristic platform of Alibaba Group, our country is the main character in the documentary called Banquet Planet, transmitted through Youku.
Launched in 2006, Youku is China’s largest video platform. This platform, which has 300 million active users, is part of the entertainment and digital content ecosystem of the above mentioned Alibaba. In this platform, www.youku.com, users can see series, reality shows, movies, documentaries, sport events and kids shows, among other offers.
Argentina has the privilege to be the only country outside of China to participate in the Banquet Planet documentary, a production devoted to the gastronomic world, in 12 chapters of 30 minutes each. Our country is the main character in chapters 3 and 4, which were launched in the Youku platform on October 30th and November 6th, respectively. Up to now, 81 million users have already seen these chapters.
“China is one of the most important outbound markets at present. In the last years, we have made significant progress so that Chinese tourists can get to know about us and visit us, such as the facilitation of visas, the agreement with Fliggy and, in this case, the promotion through Youku. The digital strategy has been one of the priorities of our administration and the positive results we have reached encourage us to continue in this way”, said the Secretary of Tourism, Gustavo Santos.
In a trip along typical local gastronomy, the presenter of the program, Alan Yu –a well-known chef in China, with experience in 2 and 3 Michelin star restaurants, and nominated for preparing the best Michelin dishes in 2018 and 2019 – took a trip from September 15th to 25th along the culinary offers of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, Ushuaia, capital city of Tierra del Fuego, Antarctica and South Atlantic Islands, and El Calafate, Province of Santa Cruz.
In the capital city of Argentina, the grills, the typical bars, Tango and the passion for soccer were part of the experience. The idea of the documentary was not only to show the dishes to be tasted, but to interpret the whole chain of the product until it finally reaches the end public. Therefore, in Buenos Aires, the tour also included a visit to Liniers Market, famous for cattle trading, and a tour of Don Julio grill, owned by Pablo Rivero.
In Ushuaia, the End of the World City, Yu took the challenge to sail along the Beagle channel and search for some of the top Fuegian delicious offers: spider crab and red shrimp. Together with Lino Adillon, from Volver restaurant, he could taste the dishes and explain how delicious they were.
Patagonian lamb, the unbeatable offer of Patagonia, was not left out. In Morada del Aguila, the restaurant of Cerro Castor ski center, the Chinese group could experience from up close the preparation of this Patagonian delicacy.
The production ended in El Calafate, the National Capital of Glaciers. This is where Yu delights users with a spectacular asado in front of the Perito Moreno Glacier.
The realization of the Banquet Planet chapters in Argentina is part of a large digital strategy carried out by the National Institute of Tourism Promotion (Instituto Nacional de Promocion Turistica - INPROTUR). This project was supported by the National Parks Administration and the Cerro Castor.
