An agricultural firm in the northeastern Chinese city of Harbin has come under fire this week after telling employees not to visit the city’s most iconic tourist destination.

In an internal statement issued Saturday, the Heilongjiang Heliang Agriculture Company told employees to suspend their plans to visit the city’s Ice and Snow Festival, which had kicked off earlier that same day.

The company explained it hoped to make it easier for travelers from the south to secure tickets to the internet-famous event and threatened to strip violators of their annual bonuses.

The attempt quickly backfired after leaked copies of the statement circulated widely on Chinese social media. Hashtags related to the story have more than 150 million views on the microblogging platform Weibo as of Tuesday afternoon, with most comments critical of the ban.

“The company’s intentions are good, but they have overstepped their boundaries,” reads one up-voted post. “The company can encourage or suggest employees visit at off-peak times, but it has no right to ban employees from going.”

Fu Jian, the director of the Henan Zejin Law Firm, told local media that the company might be in violation of China’s Labor Law if they went ahead with the policy.

Heliang, which employs roughly 2,000 people, 700 of them in Harbin, quickly reversed course, issuing a second notice Monday stating that employees were only “advised” to avoid visiting the Ice and Snow Festival. Penalties for violating the policy were also revoked, and employees who canceled their plans after purchasing a ticket would be reimbursed.

Shu Xin, Heliang’s media manager, told Sixth Tone Tuesday that the initial policy had been devised after news broke of sold-out tickets to the festival’s first day. “Company management decided to encourage employees not to visit (the festival), aiming to stagger visitor times and reduce competition with tourists,” he said.

According to Shu, the policy was mostly accepted but left employees who had already purchased tickets dissatisfied.

Interest in the Harbin Ice and Snow Festival surged last year, after posts about the event went viral on Chinese social media. This year’s edition has attracted over 106,000 visitors in just two days, with early birds braving subzero temperatures to line up outside the park as early as 3 a.m.

Harbin is not the only Chinese city struggling with a sudden tourism boom. Other non-traditional travel destinations, including the eastern city of Zibo and the southwestern county of Rongjiang, have grappled with a massive uptick in tourists after going viral on social media in the past two years.

Experts have warned about the risks of such “tidal” tourism, in which sudden seasonal tourism flows overwhelm local infrastructure in smaller and more out-of-the-way regions.

In the absence of other solutions, officials have sometimes resorted to asking locals to voluntarily avoid visiting scenic spots during vacations and other peak times. As early as 2007, tourism authorities in the eastern city of Hangzhou asked local residents to vacation in nearby counties and cities, reserving more space at the city’s scenic spots for tourists from other areas.

Last year, officials in Zibo encouraged locals to avoid certain locations during peak travel season.

(Header image: Tourists line up for the ice slide at Harbin Ice and Snow Festival, Heilongjiang province, Dec. 23, 2024. VCG)