When it comes to creating a hit travel vlog, the personal touch is what makes all the difference.

It's quite routine for Liu Hongjia and Liu Yuxi to post video blogs online about their travels around China and abroad, whether it's a romantic picnic under cherry-tree blossoms in Japan or a trip to an elegant coffeehouse in China.

The couple's beautifully edited travel vlogs are proving popular on such platforms as travel website Qyer, while their personal accounts on Sina Weibo jointly have more than 810,000 followers.

In this booming era of social media, more and more "media travelers" are joining their peers online in producing creative videos of their tourism experiences. And the growing popularity of short videos in China is a trend that's also encouraging ordinary tourists to follow suit.

"Filming a travel vlog is like making a documentary of your own, where you record beautiful scenery, interesting experiences and honest feelings," Liu Hongjia, 29, says.

"The essence is about personal experience. Like writing a composition, you have to observe things that touch you, even something as small as a withering flower. When you present a vlog, it's more like performing a solo cross-talk rather than delivering a lecture."

Vloggers want to highlight some things minute and vivid in the hope that others will feel empathy for them and join them in taking time to savor the smaller things in life.

"What is appealing to audiences is that the personality of the presenter comes across in the vlog. It's like watching movies. When you like a director's style, you will follow their new work," Liu Yuxi says. She says their vlog fans are usually younger than 30. Some people watch them to learn how to take beautiful photos, while others want to find out more about popular travel destinations. Female viewers enjoy learning about how to dress up and pose for photos on their trips, while male viewers seem to have a stronger interest in photographic skills and equipment.

When they were visiting the Isle of Skye in Scotland, the couple recorded the entire process of them getting up at 3 am to climb a mountain to catch the dawn at the summit. Audiences enjoy these kinds of vlogs because it makes them feel like they're actually on the trip with them.

For newcomers, Liu Hongjia suggests that they set a theme, a beginning and an end for their vlogs in advance.

"The editing doesn't have to be excellent. The main idea is to record your feelings and touch others," he says.

As "travel experts", they are often invited by tourism bureaus to take part in familiarization trips. They find that their clients find their less formal approach to shooting travel videos promote their destinations in a more down-to-earth way.

Pei Cai, a full-time travel vlogger, agrees.

"Reality travel shows featuring celebrities are often scripted and follow a formula that involves some sort of conflict. Travel vloggers, however, just showcase their real personalities and the audience thinks of them more like friends," says Pei, who lives in Beijing. Since quitting her bank job in early 2018, she has attracted 247,000 followers on Sina Weibo through her vlogs.

"Content is king. When audiences have empathy with your vlogs, they are more likely to visit the destination you are covering in the future," she says.

Her vlogs run for between five and 10 minutes and focus on her overseas travel experiences, such as food tours and hotel reviews. She interacts with the locals and tells interesting stories whenever she visits a scenic area.

"You have to always appear lively in front of the camera, even if you spend the whole day walking. When something upsets you, you need to deal with it rather than let it affect you."

Pei's vlogs are created by a team of five members, including a video editor. They draft an outline for each shoot in advance and adjust their plans according to circumstances. One vlog shows how Pei grew a little anxious when her tour guide in Vietnam turned up an hour late. But Pei soon came up with a plan B and opted to tour around on her own.

To embrace the growing trend for shooting short videos in China, travel website Mafengwo started to encourage its users to post vlogs about their trips in 2018, which has now become an important part of its user-generated content.

"It's easy to upload a short video via our app-our users can choose from various video formats, filters and background music to polish their work. When you browse our app, you soon come across an original short video uploaded by our users," says Zhao Qian, head of Mafengwo's short-video content.

According to her, its users have uploaded over 2 million short videos online, covering a wide range of themes, such as food, scenic areas and hotel experiences.

"For a long time, tourists often shared their trips online via photos and words. However, short videos have become the new trend because they're bright, direct and fun. It's also an efficient way for visitors to find information about local travel experiences," she says.

In June 2018, travel website Qyer unveiled its video column, working with more than 20 partners to offer professionally generated content across a number of fields. In 2019, it aims to encourage travel influencers and ordinary users alike to upload their own short videos via its app.

Qyer's vice-president Cui Li says their users are becoming increasingly willing to share their travel stories by video-about 30 percent of the daily content generated by their users are short videos. She's confident that this will only increase as China rolls out its 5G network.

"When travel influencers on social media are promoting destinations through high-quality and engaging short videos, ordinary tourists will want to have the same experiences thanks to this kind of 'celebrity endorsement'. It's a main strategy for destination marketing in 2019."

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