A farmhouse in Chengdu provides parent-child tours, group building dinners, etc. (source network)
Cover News Reporter Song Xiao
The once popular farmhouse is now collectively "cold". A few days ago, according to a report by CCTV, more than 15,000 farmhouses in Sichuan and Chongqing have disappeared, among them, there are factors such as the homogenization of farmhouses and the change of mass consumption psychology and demand, as well as the superposition of problems such as stealing customers and difficult transformation.
The decline of farmhouses seems to have become an obvious fact. However, in the eyes of some farmhouse owners, the decline in customer traffic is not caused by a single factor, and how the farmhouse transforms is the key. Some tourists said that many of the recommended tourist check-in places today have the shadow of farmhouses, but now many young people's consumption methods and concepts are changing, and farmhouses also need to change from time to time. On April 10, the reporter interviewed the owners of a number of farmhouses in Chengdu Tianfu New District, Longquanyi District and other places.
A farmhouse in Chengdu provides parent-child tours, group building dinners, etc. (source network)
Farmhouse owner: It's hard to make money because of business difficulties, so it's better to go out and work
Mr. Tan, 46 years old this year, runs a farmhouse in Dantu Village, Yongxing Street, Tianfu New District, Chengdu, he widened the cement dam in his yard, and built a number of greenhouses, firewood stoves and open-air gardens on the basis of the original house construction, which are used to make firewood turkeys, etc., but Mr. Tan has found that in the past two years, fewer and fewer people have come to his house to consume, and even on holidays, there are only a few regular customers who come to eat.
Firewood turkey in a farmhouse in Chengdu (provided by the interviewee)
In fact, according to the reporter's investigation and investigation, in Mr. Tan's village, there are no less than 20 similar farmhouses, which are basically run by the people in the village, either hanging the sign of "farmhouse courtyard" or placing billboards such as firewood turkey and braised fish at the door.
Mr. Tan told reporters that the business of his family's farmhouse before 2019 was okay, at that time, any family in the village would book a banquet with him, and there were also tourists who went out to drive and eat here collectively, "When the business is good, it is basically booked a week in advance, and if there is a banquet, it must be said two months in advance." ”
Today, Mr. Tan runs a farmhouse at home alone, he plays multiple roles, responsible for the roles of cook, waiter and boss, his wife works on the street, and occasionally there are sporadic cycling enthusiasts who come here, and only order a few stir-fried dishes, and his monthly income is not enough to make ends meet. ”
Similar to Mr. Tan's situation, the reporter previously visited a place in Dayi County and found that even with the arrival of Chengdu's "jungle" and hiking boom, the operation of the farmhouse here is no longer what it used to be, and the owner of the farmhouse said frankly that many hikers come here, basically bringing their own lunch and food, and there are not many people who choose to eat at the farmhouse, and some farmhouses choose to receive "group tourists", supplemented by the reception of "individual guests", and need to book in advance for meals or accommodation.
There are often very few "individual customers" in farmhouses (provided by the interviewee)
The owner of a farmhouse told reporters that the number of tourists on weekends and holidays will increase, but on the whole, the income brought by ordinary consumers is not proportional to the investment in farmhouses. ”
Tourists: The consumption of farmhouses is too high, and you have to "try your luck" when you encounter conscientious merchants
Ms. Zhu, a citizen of Chengdu, is a hiking enthusiast, and every weekend and holiday, she and her family take their pets to play around Chengdu. She leaves after work on Friday, drives for one to two hours to stay in a farmhouse in Pengzhou or Chongzhou, and then goes hiking the next morning, or playing mahjong with friends and family on the mountain.
Ms. Zhu told reporters that compared with a family visiting shopping malls or scenic spots in the city, this consumption method is quite cost-effective, and she is more willing to go to the farmhouse to eat farmhouse meals and get close to nature. However, in the past two years, she found that many of the farmhouse owners she knew before had closed, and when she called some of the owners to make reservations, they told her that the farmhouse at home could no longer be opened.
"There are a lot of factors, and it's true that a lot of farmhouses are not doing well. Ms. Zhu said that in fact, every time they go to the farmhouse to order food and stay, the cost of a family of five adds up to a few hundred yuan, 120 yuan for a night's accommodation, 80 yuan for a meal, the boss gives a meal, meat and vegetables, but now such a price can not be found in many farmhouses. She found that many farmhouses are now being converted into homestays, and some owners are starting to expand their farmhouses into family farms and shared kitchens to earn a little income.
A farmhouse in Chengdu provides parent-child tours, group building dinners, etc. (source network)
In the view of Mr. Wu, a post-90s consumer, it is now necessary to "try your luck" if you encounter one or two farmhouses with good taste and experience outside. Reporter Mr. Wu, in March 2024, after he consumed at a farmhouse in Chengdu, he gained a bad consumption experience, "The four of us ordered a chicken to eat, including cold local chicken, taro roast chicken, a chicken offal and soup, and we ate more than 600 yuan in one meal." In Mr. Wu's view, young people now go out with classmates and friends, often choose the AA system, or "tie", everyone brings some food, everyone picnics, camping and having fun, there is no need to go to the farmhouse to consume, so this consumption made Mr. Wu make up his mind not to go to the farmhouse in the future.
The reporter noticed that many farmhouses have repeatedly reported problems such as stealing customers, high consumption and lack of freshness and experience, and the continuous appearance of bad reviews has led to a plummeting reputation, and a variety of factors are superimposed.
Experts talk about the "difficult transformation" of farmhouses:
Behind it is the changing demand
Chen Guang, a member of the Sichuan Provincial Party Committee and Provincial Government Decision-making Advisory Committee and a professor at Southwest Jiaotong University, told reporters that the fundamental reason for the "collective exit" or transformation and adjustment of farmhouses is the change in demand.
The first is the change in the market itself, the improvement of the level of consumption, and the emergence of diversified choices, he said. In recent years, people have become more diversified, such as homestays, self-driving, and camping, which are very few compared to before. With the popularization of smart communication and family cars, people have more diverse choices and enough ability to go to more places for leisure and vacation.
Young people prefer camping when traveling, and spend less at farmhouses (provided by the interviewee)
Second, the internal management model of the operator has not been upgraded. Whether operators can avoid homogenization and create their own characteristics, and whether operators can update their operation and management models to cope with market changes.
What is the future development direction of the farmhouse? I'm afraid it is not a simple plan to upgrade and update can be solved, it is necessary to re-examine the current external new development situation, especially should be combined with rural revitalization to think, Chen Guang believes that it is necessary to take care of the changes in the needs of residents now, now everyone consumes not only a thing itself, but a spiritual value, leisure is not a time, leisure is a kind of culture, at this time to provide more diversification, "such as parent-child play, Renting land, or participatory consumption, participatory crop planting, and a more ecological and natural way of obtaining crops, is a direction for future development. ”
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