Text | Wen Travel, author | Sister X
In 2021, although the control of the new crown epidemic is good, it is still impossible to avoid its repeated outbreaks, which also makes the tourism and entertainment industry continue to jump in the re-performance and suspension, especially in the middle of the year, "Zhangjiajie Charm Xiangxi" will pour out the flame of tourism entertainment recovery due to the confirmed cases of new crown pneumonia.
Although the tourism and performing arts industry, which has been pressed again as a "sharp brake", has frustrated and chafed practitioners, it has also led to more thinking, and how to ensure the smooth progress of performances under the premise of safety under the normalization of the epidemic has also become a barrier that the whole industry has to pass. What is exciting is that the tourism performing arts industry has ushered in a critical period of transformation and development after the pain, "cloud performing arts" has gradually become a reality, and tourism live performances have also become China's "outstanding creations", Henan Satellite TV Spring Festival program "Tang Palace Night Banquet" and panoramic full immersion drama theme park "Only Henan Drama Magic City" are typical representatives.
In 2021, tourism and performing arts have ended in the stumbling development, there are obstacles, there are thinking, and there are innovations, so what will be the development trajectory of the industry left for 2022?
01 Snipe's Travel Show
In 2021, the road to recovery of tourism and performing arts is not smooth, and even in many eyes, it is "falling off the chain at a critical moment".
Under the trend of scenic spots going to tickets, especially in the recovery period after the epidemic, the role of performing arts projects in the drainage of scenic spots and the promotion of revenue has become more and more obvious, including the implementation of the Miao millennium ancient village "Xijiang Festival", the large-scale desert live performance "Dunhuang Festival", the song and dance live drama "Dream Taoyuan", etc. before the "May Day" small long holiday, and even triggered the "viewing fever". According to data disclosed by the China Performance Industry Association, more than 1,600 tourism performance projects were staged during the five-day holiday, receiving more than 2.4 million audiences and box office revenue of 360 million yuan. Under the shadow of the epidemic, this set of data is undoubtedly like a shot in the arm to boost the confidence of many practitioners in the industry.
However, just as everyone was gearing up and preparing to take advantage of the summer peak season and do a lot of work, the summer tour that had been active for only 10 days was pressed the "pause button" due to the outbreak of the epidemic, of which a performance involving more than 2,000 audiences - "Zhangjiajie Charm Xiangxi" pushed the tourism performance to the focus of epidemic prevention and control due to the confirmed case of new crown pneumonia.
Subsequently, according to the needs of epidemic prevention and control work, in order to ensure the health and safety of tourists, more than 50 tourism performances in Shaanxi, Shanxi, Henan and other provinces, autonomous regions and cities were suspended, which made the tourism and performing arts industry, which had just improved, once again cast a haze.
While the tourism show has once again suffered Waterloo due to public health events, it has also forced the entire industry to stop and re-examine past products and business models. It is understood that the theater setting of "Zhangjiajie • Charm of Xiangxi" is densely arranged with 2800 seats; many indoor tourism and performing arts environments represented by the Songcheng Performing Arts "Ancient Love" series are more closed, the air mobility is worse, and the audience seats are as many as 3,000 people.
"Charm of Xiangxi" performance scene Image source: Zhangjiajie smart tourism official platform
Zhou Mingqi, founder of Jingjian Think Tank, pointed out: "This product structure was of course very effective before the epidemic, but unlike the audience size of only a few tens or hundreds of people in cinemas and theaters in the city, large-scale tourism and performing arts in order to better economic benefits, the audience seats should be one to two orders of magnitude higher, reaching thousands of people." The audience comes from all over the country, the mobility is extremely large, and if there is an epidemic, it is easy to have large-scale transmission across provinces and regions. He believes that now, many pre-epidemic business models and product structures should be re-examined at the moment, and timely transformation and transformation can enable cultural and tourism enterprises to operate more stably and survive this long period of sudden changes from time to time.
In the view of Zhong Lina, executive director of the Institute of Cultural Tourism and Planning of Beijing Second Foreign Chinese University and vice president of the China Culture and Tourism Big Data Research Institute, the temporary closure of tourism performances such as "Zhangjiajie Charm Xiangxi" will have a certain and temporary loss to local tourism revenue, but it will not have much impact on the development of tourism performances in the future. At the same time, Zhong Lina believes that tourism and performing arts will still follow the objective laws of macro environment, market supply and demand for development, change and innovation. Therefore, she suggested that tourism and performing arts can be transformed and upgraded in terms of project volume, expression content, and organizational form, so that their own development form can adapt to the current normalized epidemic prevention and control and increase their ability to resist uncertain risks.
02 The epidemic has forced the performing arts to exert force on the "cloud"
In recent years, performing arts products have gradually become an important starting point in the cultural tourism industry. The large-scale consumption role played by the performance industry has greatly driven the multi-time consumption of cultural tourism with performing arts products as the core, especially performing arts products are now often used to fill the night gap, before and after performances, providing a possibility for the re-consumption of restaurants, hotels and commercial streets, and performing arts products have become an important part of driving the night economy.
The tourist show, which was disrupted by the surprise attack of Delta Poison, has gradually returned to the right track after the epidemic was controlled, but this time, it is obviously prepared.
On September 22, 2021, after 55 days of suspension, the folklore drama "Charm of Xiangxi" resumed performance. It is understood that after the resumption of the performance, "Charm of Xiangxi" strictly implements measures such as online real-name ticket purchase, reservation restriction, and audience spacing to ensure the safe and orderly performance.
In addition, the person in charge of brand promotion of "Zhangjiajie Charm Xiangxi" once revealed that compared with the previous simple consideration of product upgrades and better meeting the needs of tourists to watch movies, tourism and performing arts need to be changed urgently: on the one hand, it is necessary to create a folk culture park that "eats, drinks and have fun" as soon as possible, and no longer rely on a single ticket revenue; on the other hand, change the single offline performance model, try the "online + offline" model, enhance brand awareness, and explore a new way to watch performing arts online.
In fact, the suspension of tourism and performing arts due to the epidemic is only a driving force for the expansion of performing arts products to the online, and the more far-reaching background lies in the promotion of digital technology to the tourism and performing arts industry, and in 2021, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology jointly issued the "5G Application "Sail" Action Plan" has clarified the development path of "5G + cultural tourism". Digitalization has become an important means to effectively cope with the impact of the epidemic, resume production and expand consumption, the cultural and tourism industry has begun to shift to digital consumption, and the upgrading of the online performance industry has the long-term significance of "new cultural infrastructure".
In addition, it should be emphasized that "cloud performing arts" is not simply to "move the program to the Internet", but based on offline performances, to re-create a high-quality online performance, which has high requirements for hardware equipment and high technology. Based on this, many producers who have been forced to "go to the cloud" have also begun to take the initiative to change, develop digital performing arts products and digitize performing arts resources. From the initial online testing of a single performance, to deepening the "performance + technology" to improve the quality of content, and then to the emergence of a themed and large-scale performance season, the field of "cloud performing arts" has been continuously upgraded, such as interactive functions such as bullet screen on the wall and real-time connection, which have begun to create an immersive experience and enhance the audience's sense of participation and interaction.
03 Use the form of acting to tell Chinese stories well
To say that in 2021, which tourism performing arts products are thriving in innovation, the "Only Henan Drama Magic City" jointly created by non-Jianye Group and well-known director Wang Chaoge over a period of four years is the only one.
"Only Henan Drama Magic City", with a total investment of 6 billion yuan, covers an area of 622 acres. No longer relying on the landscape, but relying on the theater community, the two arts of live performance and scene experience are skillfully combined to build a new form of tourism and performance, and the overall performance takes the Yellow River civilization as the foundation of creation, the immersive theater art as the technique, the unique "magic city" building as the carrier, and tells the story of "land, food and inheritance" to let more people feel the charm of theatrical culture.
There are 21 theaters in this theatrical magic city, and nearly 1,000 cast members will stage more than 30 plays. All the theaters in the park can accommodate 10,000 spectators at the same time, of which the three main theaters can accommodate nearly 5,000 spectators at the same time, and the Magic City Theater alone has nearly 3,000 seats. The total length of a single performance of all plays is nearly 700 minutes, and the total number of performances in a single day in the peak season can reach nearly 200, and the total duration is nearly 5,000 minutes.
"Only Henan Drama Magic City" opened in June 2021, and once it opened, it caused a sensation, and although it was closed twice due to force majeure, it still achieved good results. According to public data, "Only Henan Drama Magic City" will receive 500,000 tourists in 2021 and achieve revenue of 140 million yuan. It is worth mentioning that on November 20, 2021, the list of "the first batch of national-level night culture and tourism consumption agglomeration areas" officially identified and announced by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, "only Henan Drama Magic City" was listed.
Only Henan Drama Magic City
According to Wei Xiaoan, president of the Leisure and Vacation Branch of the China Tourism Association and chief expert of the Expert Committee of the World Tourism Cities Federation, there is still a lot of room for improvement in immersive performance as the mainstream of future performing arts. He believes that tourism live performance has become a prominent creation in China, first of all, to create a deep combination of local and reality, the biggest benefit is to benefit the people - the local people as extras, not only get benefits in it, but also get the affirmation of personal value; secondly, to create a good combination of culture and the market, this degree of integration is also a pioneering move; third, to create a full experience of Chinese tourism, that is, immersion; finally, to create the highlights of world tourism, as far as the scope of world tourism is concerned, such a system, Large-scale live performances are a highlight of world tourism, and will become a highlight to attract world tourists in the future.
In addition, Wei Xiaoan also pointed out that the development of tourism and performing arts, to gather culture, highlight characteristics, extend the industrial chain, expand the industrial scope, the formation of industrial groups, "tourism performance is really able to tell the Chinese story well, can sneak into the night with the wind, moisturize the fine and silent." ”
In the future, whether tourism and performing arts can continue to tell Chinese stories well on the road of transformation and upgrading, and create more and better "only Henan Drama Magic City", and see the answer sheet of the market in 2022.