Chen Jingbin, a reporter of this newspaper, reported from Guangzhou
How to recover the cultural and tourism industry to a greater extent and develop with higher quality requires comprehensive policy support from the central and local governments, and more importantly, professional guidance from the cultural and tourism system.
On March 5, the government work report pointed out that in the past five years, efforts have been made to expand consumption and effective investment. In the face of insufficient demand or even contraction, promote consumption to recover as soon as possible. Supporting tourism development. Focus on making up for shortcomings, adjusting the structure, increasing stamina, and expanding effective investment.
At the same time, the "Outline for the Construction of a Quality Power" issued by the central government a few days ago proposes to improve the level of tourism management and service, standardize the order of the tourism market, improve the tourism consumption experience, and create rural tourism, health tourism, red tourism and other boutique projects. In the fields of health, pension, culture, tourism, sports and other life services, carry out quality satisfaction improvement actions.
During the two sessions this year, Zhu Dingjian, member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, chairman and CEO of Mission Hills Group, was interviewed by a reporter from China Business News on how the cultural tourism industry will recover and upgrade in the future and how to build the Hainan Free Trade Port.
Zhu Dingjian suggested that the cultural and tourism department should provide special support for the industrial upgrading of scenic spots through active fiscal policies, including the construction of new projects, the upgrading and transformation of old projects, the increase of "live" cultural performance content, innovative tourism consumption scenarios, and digital transformation. In terms of the construction of Hainan Free Trade Port, Hainan should continue to deepen the reform of "decentralization, management and service", improve the convenience and flexibility of government services, build a free and convenient trade and investment environment, and optimize tax and fee reduction measures.
The digital transformation of the cultural tourism industry needs to take into account its own resources
China Business News: After the liberalization of epidemic prevention and control, what development opportunities has Mission Hills Group, including the entire tourism industry, ushered in? How much does passenger traffic boost the tourism industry? In this case, how is the restoration of tourism?
Zhu Dingjian: In the past three years, on the one hand, we have done a good job in epidemic prevention and control, and on the other hand, we have also insisted on doing new development and operation, which can be said to have delivered a relatively satisfactory answer.
In the past few years, we have developed a number of new projects in Mission Hills in Shenzhen and Haikou, such as the addition of "Shenzhen Mission Hills Ocean World", an interactive ocean-themed pavilion; In Mission Hills Haikou, Mission Hills Haikou Duty Free City has newly opened, and China Football (South) Training Base has been launched, expanding the content of "tourism +" and providing tourists with new content to experience.
After three years of customs clearance, Mission Hills has also made various preparations and arrangements. After customs clearance, we will closely focus on four themes: "International Cooperation", "Hong Kong and Macao Interconnection", "Youth Focus" and "Public Participation", and carry out extensive cultural and sports exchange activities for Hong Kong and Mainland residents. For example, a series of Greater Bay Area-themed junior golf tournaments, youth tennis opens, handicraft events, sports industry forums, etc.
Customs clearance is something that residents of the two places have been waiting for for a long time, and with the continuous efforts of the State and the SAR Government, this goal has finally been achieved. I believe that the cultural tourism market in the Greater Bay Area will usher in a recovery, and since the epidemic three years ago, people have accumulated a lot of consumer demands. Recently, the number of inquiries and visits from major online travel platforms and travel agencies has doubled, and the potential is also visible.
Take this year's Spring Festival holiday as an example, the number of domestic tourism trips has recovered to 88.6% of the same period in 2019, and domestic tourism revenue has recovered to 73.1% of 2019. From Mission Hills, after customs clearance, the group of golf, accommodation and entertainment consumers from Hong Kong gradually recovered. At present, many residents need to re-extend their two-place passes, and it is expected that after March and April, there will be a greater increase in tourists.
The Greater Bay Area is one of the regions with the strongest consumption power in the mainland and is also rich in cultural tourism resources. During the three-year epidemic, many scenic spots have also been improved and upgraded, and the support policies of local governments have been intensively introduced, and it can be said that they are basically prepared.
The Greater Bay Area has the same culture and adjacent landscapes, and the trend of integrated development will not change, and the convenience of exchanges is still increasing. I feel that the overall cultural tourism market will continue to develop in the direction of high-end, personalized and youthful, attracting global tourists with greater charm.
China Business News: From the perspective of the efficiency of the use of fiscal funds, how do you think we should make a benign allocation of financial funds, which can not only promote the high-quality development of the cultural tourism scenic spot industry, but also play a role in promoting the goal of industrial digitalization? What are your thoughts or suggestions for this?
Zhu Dingjian: In 2023, the general tone of the country is to fight hard for the economy and promote industrial transformation and upgrading. The tourism industry is an important part of expanding domestic demand, and it is also related to the people's demand for a better life, while providing multi-level direct and indirect jobs (nearly 80 million people were employed in 2019, accounting for 10.3% of the country's total employed population), thereby providing a solid foundation for more families. As the main force of the tourism industry, scenic spots carry economic and social benefits, and need more industrial upgrading and iteration to achieve high-quality development.
Therefore, I suggest that the cultural and tourism department provide special support for the industrial upgrading of scenic spots through active fiscal policies, including the construction of new projects, the upgrading and transformation of old projects, the increase of "live" cultural performance content, the innovation of tourism consumption scenarios, and the digital transformation. In addition, the value-added tax collected on scenic spot tickets, commercial formats, tourism performances, etc., will be refunded through flexible tax deductions and adjustment policies for the overall development of scenic spots.
In terms of new technologies in tourist attractions, AR and VR can be used to increase the convenience and experience of tourists.
However, the digitalization of the tourism industry should also be based on its own resource endowment and actual situation. The tourism industry is a labor-intensive industry, the profit is not high, relying on the scenic spot itself to do digital applications, but also to consider the problem of input-output balance. In addition, in the tourism industry, there are not many talents who take into account digital talents and understand the characteristics of tourism operations, which is also a problem that needs to be faced.
Deepen the reform of "decentralization, management and service" and build a Hainan free trade port
China Business News: According to the proposal of "improving the level of opening up of the professional service market of Hainan Free Trade Port", Hainan is building China's largest free trade port.
Zhu Dingjian: As far as the investment and development process I have personally experienced, the construction of Hainan's business environment has never stopped, and it has achieved better and better results. As far as the business friends I personally have contacted are concerned, everyone has personally felt the continuous improvement of the business environment, and a particularly important point is the improvement of the legal environment, as the so-called "rule of law is the best business environment", including market supervision, protection of the rights and interests of market entities, etc. have made progress. At the end of last year, the country's first Department of Business Environment Construction was inaugurated in Haikou City. This is the first department-level unit in China dedicated to creating a business environment, and I believe this is an excellent embodiment of Hainan Free Trade Port as the forefront of reform and opening up, which makes our investors more confident in Hainan's industrial development and investment attraction.
However, the business environment is not the best, only better. As far as I know, Hainan is still working hard to carry out various actions to optimize the business environment. I believe that Hainan can continue to make efforts to deepen the reform of "decentralization, management and service", improve the convenience and flexibility of government services, build a free and convenient trade and investment environment, and optimize tax and fee reduction measures.
China Business News: What are the reasons that prompted you to put forward the proposal to "improve the level of openness of the professional service market of Hainan Free Trade Port"?
Zhu Dingjian: Because Hainan focuses on the development of the three major industries of tourism, modern services and high-tech, then the modern service industry, including professional services, can best connect the three major industries in Hainan; It best demonstrates the high level of openness of free trade ports; It can also best meet the "needs of Hainan" and dock with "Hong Kong and Macao directors". Therefore, I specifically proposed a proposal to improve the development level of the professional services market of the free trade port. At the same time, I note that Hainan has recently introduced ten measures to open up the professional services market to Hong Kong, which proves that Hainan is constantly providing a more open policy and environment for Hong Kong's service industry.
Therefore, I am not only an investor, I am more willing to play the role of "super contact", "go out and bring in", and attract more Hong Kong enterprises, Hong Kong brands, Hong Kong funds and Hong Kong talents to invest and develop in the mainland with my own story of more than ten years of development rooted in the mainland. In this context, Mission Hills has established the Hainan Free Trade Port Qiong, Hong Kong and Macao Service Industry Cooperation Demonstration Zone to achieve cooperation and investment in tourism services, financial services, cultural services, film and television services, sports services, trade services and other fields, creating a new gathering place for international service enterprises.
China Business News: Finally, what are your messages and prospects for the future development of the domestic tourism industry and Hainan's business environment?
Zhu Dingjian: As I said in my proposal this year, the tourism industry is closely related to the well-being of the people, and the obvious recovery signal of the domestic tourism market during this year's Spring Festival shows that cultural tourism is the consumer demand that the people are most concerned about and happy to see. The public has not only accumulated a lot of demand for cultural tourism consumption in three years, but also put forward higher requirements for the upgrading and transformation of the cultural tourism industry. Next, we will closely match the development pulse of the cultural tourism industry and layout and develop according to the demands of the tourism consumption market. With "tourism + sports", "tourism + education", "tourism + culture" and "tourism + health care" and other big tourism investment ideas.
With the continuous advancement of the construction of the free trade port, not only tourism, modern service industry, high-tech industry and other aspects will usher in huge growth opportunities, and the flow of people (talents), logistics and capital will also accelerate to Hainan. Therefore, I believe that Hainan will enter a long-term, sustained and high-speed development range, and the future Hainan will undoubtedly be the center of the world's attention and the most open region in the world, and I am very confident about this.