BEIJING —Movies may not have the glamor they once possessed,but box office success can still mean a lot of bang for the buck when it comes to promoting places.

The grand panoramas featured in the Lord of the Rings films gave a big boost to New Zealand’s tourism industry, while the box office magic of If You Are The One helped put Xixi Wetland in Hangzhou, East China’s Zhejiang province, on the tourist map.

In a new twist on this marketing strategy, one Chinese city has opted to forgo the hassle of hosting a full-scale movie crew and is looking instead to tap into the audience appeal of animation.

Chengdu, which suffered the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake, has teamed up with one of Hollywood’s most successful animation studios, DreamWorks Animation SKG, for Kung Fu Panda 2, a sequel to the successful Kung Fu Panda, which is the 49th top-grossing film of all time; taking $632 million at the box office worldwide.

“The cooperation between Chengdu and Kung Fu Panda 2 is a part of Chengdu’s marketing strategy aimed at disassociating it in people’s minds from the disaster. The strategy marks a turning point in Chengdu government’s public relations activities,” said Xie Wen, director of the media planning team of the Chengdu city image promotion group.

Chengdu began cooperating with the team of Kung Fu Panda II two years ago and at the invitation of the Chengdu government, the team filmed some famous scenic spots, such as Dujiang Weir, Qingcheng Mountain and Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding that will be shown as part of the film’s behind-the-scenes extras.

“Of course, the Chengdu government also invested a lot of money in the film, no less than 3 million yuan ($454,800),” Xie said.

“In many Chengdu counties, city image promotion has become a very important method for the local governments to attract investment.”

Wang Zhigang, an event planner in China, said: “Cities still splurge on image promotion, although they have begun increasingly promoting their images through slogans, or by hosting forums or evening parties.”

The most popular promotional activities for Chengdu counties are flower festivals, such as the Peach Blossom Festival in Longquan county and the Pear Blossom Festival in Xinjing county.

Such activities are generally hosted by the government’s information office and tourism administration and the average cost of such events is “no less than 2 million yuan per activity”, according to Xie.

“The reason for the Chengdu government investing so much money in public relations is to promote the fact that Chengdu is still a safe investment destination,” said Xie.

It seems to be money well spent, despite the earthquake and financial crisis, in the first quarter of 2009, the GDP of Chengdu experienced a year-on-year growth of 14.3 percent compared with 2008, Xie said.

And it is not just cities that are looking to leverage soft power. In the government work report released in March last year Premier Wen Jiabao emphasized that China was looking to enhance its soft power and cultural influence overseas.

Unfortunately, this hasn’t always gone according to plan.

“The Chinese government’s public relations activities often focus on the promotion of local resources while ignoring the attitudes of the outside world,” said Fan Jianxiu, president of China Apex, an integrated marketing promotion firm.

China ran promotional spots on six giant screens in New York’s Times Square to accompany state visit to the United States of Chinese President Hu Jintao.

Part of a public relations effort to introduce different Chinese cultural elements to the US, the videos were criticized because the images were too quick for anyone of the faces to be recognized, almost all of whom were equally unknown to the majority of Americans.