In the development of traditional cultural tourism projects, people are accustomed to the location of the project determining the property value, and the top-level design determining the substructure. The planning, architecture and design of global cultural destinations and brands follow their own standards and segment their customers by price.
The three-year epidemic is like a receding tide, and a large number of stock assets have emerged. How to systematically solve the problems of industrial planning and design, resource introduction, project operation and other problems of cultural tourism projects has become a pain point proposition for torturing cultural tourists.
Under the great changes in the cultural tourism market, what are the changes in the market? How can investors realize the true value of cultural tourism projects?
2023 is the first year after the peak of the epidemic, and for the current changes in the cultural tourism industry, it is necessary to think deeply from the strategic level and think pragmatically from the market and demand side, rather than the supply and demand side and resources that the cultural and tourism industry has been accustomed to for decades from top to bottom, from host to guest, from scenery to chain, and from officials to people.
The global economy is a chess game, and cultural tourism is no exception. Under the background of changes in the international economic situation and globalization, the sustained and rapid development of tourism and the increasingly active cross-cultural communication have made the deep integration of culture and tourism more feasible and urgent. In the Spring Festival of 2023, some cultural tourism scenic spots have tasted the sweetness of recovery, but for most traditional cultural tourism enterprises, the future development road is still very difficult. Lack of innovation, single cultural level, and accustomion to traditional EPC thinking are important factors in generating a large number of existing assets.
At present, all localities are building culturally strong provinces and culturally strong cities. The in-depth integration and development of culture and tourism has become an important measure to boost the urban economy and enhance cultural influence. Some time ago, the Asian Travel and Accommodation Big Data Research Institute released a data that since February 2023, China's tourism industry has entered a stage of high opening and steady walking, and many places have set off a boom in tourism investment. Zhejiang, Fujian, Hubei, Shanxi and other major tourism provinces of cultural tourism investment and financing projects and amounts, the total project reached "422+", the total investment reached 2 trillion yuan!
So many investment projects and such a large investment amount show that all localities have always maintained confidence in the development of cultural tourism. In the "Blue Book of China's Tourism Economy" released by the China Tourism Research Institute, it is expected that the number of domestic tourists and tourism revenue will recover to 70% and 75% of the pre-epidemic 2019 in 2023, which shows that China's tourism market will recover and recover steadily, which is a huge opportunity for the cultural tourism industry, but it is also a huge challenge, because the great changes in the market will inevitably affect the development direction of the entire industry. In the future cultural tourism market, there will definitely be a thorough wash. If you do not think about change, do not forge ahead, do not innovate, and do not develop, there is no way to live.
In my opinion, 2023 is a breakthrough year to promote the deep integration of culture and tourism, which contains two meanings, one is the integration of the industry, and the other is the segmentation of the market. To solve the problem, we must first find the root of the problem, and if we can't find the problem, how can we "break"? I think there are several main aspects of the changes in the travel market today.
First, the pattern of tourism consumption has changed. Short-distance travel, self-driving tours, and leisure tours are rising rapidly, and tourist destinations are choosing immersive tourism with experience and participation, rather than shuttle back and forth and fancy sightseeing tours.
Second, the consumer group has changed. In the future cultural tourism market, the "Z generation" and "Y era" dominated by the post-90s and post-00s generations will occupy an important position, and their focus on tourism is personalization, differentiation and participation. Their channels for obtaining information in this regard have also changed from traditional media to new media and self-media, and platforms and opinion leaders such as Douyin, Xiaohongshu, MCN, and KOLs play a huge role, and any cultural tourism project must be deeply cultivated in this regard.
Third, cultural tourism enterprises will accelerate their transformation. With the continuous introduction of policies and the continuous increase of strength, a number of "cultural tourism aircraft carriers" will appear in the future, and some small cultural tourism enterprises, including scenic spots, travel agencies, etc., will have a wave of bankruptcy and mergers and acquisitions. However, large-scale cultural tourism enterprises will also be differentiated, and those enterprises under the traditional EPC operation model are bound to be eliminated, and those who can really break the circle and succeed are those enterprises that seize the market, rapidly transform, and take the front-end operation as the core. Because only by "pre-operation" can we break the bottleneck of cultural tourism "more sightseeing tourism products, few leisure experience tourism products, more hard products, few soft products, more beautiful scenery, and lack of cultural connotation".
Fourth, the night tourism economy will become the mainstream of the market. In 2023, the prosperous "Year of Xi'an", the stunning Forbidden City "Shangyuan Night", a series of night tour products detonated the market, marking the rise of "night economy" consumption. The bustling night-time economy is not only a symbol of the vitality of the city, but also conforms to the expectations of citizens. Night tourism has become an important part of the nighttime consumption market of tourist destinations. At this stage, the average duration of domestic travel for mainland tourists is about 3 days, and the per capita stay time is 2.03 nights, and the night tour project has released huge market potential and energy. In the future, the demand for night tourism in mainland China will continue to be strong.
Fifth, cross-border integration is a new trend. The realization of cross-border integration of the cultural and tourism industry has a far-reaching impact on the development and upgrading of all walks of life, and industrial integration is a major trend of global economic development and a new choice for domestic cities to promote industrial development. The cross-border integration of the tourism industry can form a new industrial system. Let tourism, culture, sports, medical care, pension, agriculture and other industries penetrate each other, give play to the "carriage" pulling effect of consumption, so as to attract more tourists and enhance the core competitiveness of tourism.
Without the support of multiple formats, global tourism is a castle in the sky. In the future, through the implementation of the "tourism +" strategy, we need to vigorously promote the integration of tourism with culture, agriculture, industry, forestry, commerce, education, sports, health and other related industries and industries, and do a good job in global tourism articles through "tourism +".
How can the true value of cultural tourism be realized? My view is that the market is always first, resources second, starting from the demand side, the market pushes the product backwards. Eating, living, traveling, shopping, entertainment, novelty, the nine elements independently develop as the core, attract and symbiotic coexistence. We all know about eating, living, traveling, shopping and entertainment, but as the 6 elements of cultural tourism, its development and change must keep up with the times, and now they are talking about immersion, and the focus of immersion is that the project should be new, the content should be strange, and the culture should have feelings, and the newly opened Chang'an 12 o'clock block in 2022 is a good example of innovation. The core of future cultural tourism is the transformation from "tourism +" to "+ tourism", the transformation of factor driven to innovation driven, and the transformation of EPC, EPCO to OEPC.
Can "pre-operation" thinking change the current problem of existing assets in the travel industry?
At present, from the national level to the local level, they are advocating the use of culture to shape tourism and use tourism to highlight culture. But what is a cultural and plastic travel, and a travel highlighting culture? How can we truly shape tourism with culture and highlight culture with tourism? Where is the deep integration of culture and tourism? These are all issues that require in-depth consideration by local governments and the cultural and tourism industry.
Cultural attributes are one of the most important factors that attract consumers. We always talk about cultural empowerment and enriching the connotation of cultural tourism with culture, each of the 691 cities in China has its own culture, but cultural tourism projects should pay attention to the public attributes of culture while giving full play to their own cultural advantages. When I talk about projects in many cities, local investors say that it is okay to explore their local culture and spread local culture, but they also need to clarify the relationship between "local culture" and "cultural mainstream", and the relationship between "regional culture" and "mainstream culture". For example, why is the Chang'an 12 o'clock block on fire? Because he grasps the popular attributes of culture, the interpretation and implantation of Han and Tang culture, and the influence of Han and Tang culture in China is deeply rooted, so if you can dig into the culture with popular attributes of Han and Tang culture and find out the differences, you will definitely be popular.
Further subdivision, that is, the investors of cultural tourism projects must also have a deep cultural heritage, and must integrate the current culture and traditional culture, only in this way can they use culture to shape tourism. Chinese culture and human civilization are inseparable, "look at humanities, in order to become the world." "Employing people culture into the world is the authenticity, role and meaning of culture. Culture stems from humanities, its essence is the civilization connotation created and given by "people", inseparable from the "public" knowledge, thoughts, concepts, customs, etc., popular culture is a deep foundation of a national culture, only tourism based on this foundation can achieve travel and culture.
Therefore, cultural tourism projects should achieve the deep integration of culture and tourism, and if you want to get out of the circle, your cultural communication must have the basic characteristics of popular culture, such as popularity, popularity, indoctrination, and openness, only in this way can we achieve the vitality of wide dissemination and long-term inheritance. Otherwise, it can only become a "niche culture" that a few people talk about for a while, in one place, and a small number of people, and the weakening of its vitality can be imagined.
I have contacted government agencies in many cities and large state-owned enterprises such as local urban investment and cultural tourism groups, and there are many cultural tourism projects, which are tall at every turn, but the projects are not hot and have no traffic. This brings us to another core issue of cultural tourism projects, the problem of pre-operation. At present, there are thousands of cultural tourism projects in China, and 3,000 have been invested in the past two years alone, but no more than 10% can catch fire, and half of the remaining 90% are maintained in operation, and the other half is basically deserted and has become stock assets. The reason for this situation boils down to the fact that the original top-level design did not put the operation in. Cultural tourism projects in many cities are still following the traditional real estate thinking model, that is, the EPC model or EPCO model.
Why is the EPC and EPCO model not suitable for the development of cultural tourism projects? A cultural tourism project, from planning to project approval, from implementation to construction, to operation, is a process from 0 to 1. Cultural tourism projects under the EPC mode will lead to deviations in project market positioning, disconnection between project planning and practical operation, and eventually make the operation unable to keep up with the rhythm of market changes, making the initial project planning become a paper talk.
The development of the cultural tourism industry is a national strategy, but the generation of a large number of stock assets is basically difficult in operation. An important reason for the lack of operational entities and operational thinking is that many investors usually regard planning as top-level design and operation as post-execution.
The construction of a project, including planning, planning, design, construction, operation and many other links, as the project enters the operation stage, the previous process is to serve the later operation, without sufficient research on the later cultural tourism market, blind planning and construction, will cause the disconnection between planning and operation. Therefore, as a cultural tourism project, investment and operation should be considered in an integrated manner, and limited funds should be focused on operation, so as to fully achieve the front of operation. Emphasizing investment over operation is the lowest level of practice, and more long-term operation is the "big picture".
How to solve the problem between top-level design and operational front-end? In the actual operation process, what should be done to have the conditions for "out of the loop"?
At present, the transformation, upgrading and integrated development of the tourism industry is not only the upgrading and innovation of products or formats, but also reflected in the top-level design and survival logic behind cultural tourism projects. We can see that such as Huanhuawan, This Youshan, Chang'an Twelve O'clock Block, including Wen Heyou and Aranya, which have been popular in the past two years, are all models of operation in the front. In particular, the Chang'an 12 hours project has always put operation at the forefront from 0 to 1.
As a cultural and tourism integration project for creative transformation and innovative development of culture, Chang'an 12 o'clock theme block has brought us a lot of thoughts. The integration of culture and tourism I mentioned earlier, with cultural plastic tourism, with tourism highlighting culture, the public attributes of culture, the front of operation, including the later formats, products, etc., are all extended from this top-level design. For example, at the beginning of the construction of Chang'an Twelve O'clock, it was positioned as the first immersive Tangfeng city living block in China, with the front operation as the core, and with this core, there was later business planning, format planning and performing arts planning. In terms of the integration of culture and tourism, it is a culture with public attributes based on the historical context of Shengtang Chang'an and the inheritance of traditional context, which carries a rich humanistic spirit and cultural connotation, and the planning of the entire block is also a deep integration of culture, business and tourism under the top-level design logic.
It is worth noting that at present, many cultural tourism projects in China, the value and role of "operation" have begun to have an essential change, no longer a vassal of a certain stage or stages of the project, but more and more play the role of "commander". If a cultural tourism project wants to be successful in the circle, it must abandon the top-level design thinking of the supply and demand side from top to bottom, from officials to the people, and shift to the top-level design thinking of the demand side centered on the market and tourists. Only in this way can we provide tourists with a new cultural tourism experience project that can be immersed, touched, experienced and consumed by the operation team with strong planning ability and practical experience.
Why operate through a team with strong planning capabilities and hands-on experience? It's like going to war, and only teams that have been through a lot of battles, countless failures and setbacks can really understand the market and grasp the future. A team without any practical experience is difficult to accurately grasp the future market.
How can cultural tourism projects get out of the loop? First of all, we must clarify a truth: cultural tourism projects are not well built, there will be tourists flocking to it, and simple high standards and high appearance can no longer meet the needs of today's tourists. Today's consumers are more willing to pay for "experience" and "lifestyle", cultural tourism projects are not built and left, must be result-oriented, which requires government agencies and investors to have clear top-level design thinking.
When 10,000 people go to a city, there are 10,000 different feelings. China's cultural tourism market has developed to the present, and it is no longer the era of collecting tickets in enclosures and watching flowers and scenery in the past. In the new era of cultural tourism, from the overall project to a format and a performing arts program, tourists pay attention to immersion and experience, and enjoy a personalized "lifestyle". To do this, we must start with the "seven dimensions of cultural tourism". To sum up, it is necessary to do a good job in seven aspects of cultural tourism project planning, design, architecture, investment, interpretation, marketing, and publicity under the "leadership" of the core model of OEPC.
To sum up in one sentence, cultural tourism integration is now the era of "cultural tourism +", while cultural tourism projects are the era of "operation +". Whoever catches it first will be ahead of the times.