The Paper reporter Qiu Haihong
The pictures in this article are all from the WeChat public account @盱眙Cultural Tourism Information
During the "May Day" holiday, county tourism won hemp. As of the 5th, scenic spots and rural tourism areas (villages) in Xuyi County, Jiangsu Province have received 396,700 tourists, of which 4 A-level scenic spots have received 228,600 visitors, an increase of 225% over the same period in 2023.
Xuyi belongs to Huai'an City, a small county town in northern Jiangsu Province "May Day" tourism is inseparable from the "supper top" crayfish "God assist".
You know, this county, which was once unknown and often misnamed, is now known as the "Lobster Capital of China". Crayfish entered China in the 1930s, and was not welcomed in the early years, and gradually climbed onto the table after the 1990s, from braised to fried, and then to spicy, garlic, chilled, thirteen spices, and was made into dozens of flavors. In 2001, Xuyi, which is dense with water network and rich in crayfish, held the first "Chinese Lobster Festival", launched the square lobster banquet, water wedding, female mounted police performance, etc., which became an instant hit, and began to be deeply tied to the "crayfish", and has been held for 23 sessions of the "Lobster Festival", Xuyi crayfish are also sold from the county to the provincial capital, to the whole country, and go abroad. By 2023, Xuyi lobster will have a breeding area of 910,000 mu and a brand value of 35.3 billion yuan, ranking first among national aquatic public brands for 8 consecutive years.
"May Day" coincides with the season of "lobster and beer", and Xuyi has made enough "lobster" articles to attract traffic for cultural tourism consumption. Before the holiday, the county announced that it would carry out special activities of the night market from "May Day" to August, creating night food, night shopping, night entertainment and night tour scenes for tourists. Relying on the commercial complex's own space, peripheral venues and other public spaces to carry out night displays, carry out theatrical performances, live broadcasts, food carnivals, etc. Relying on the public space of open commercial streets such as business centers, snack night market diversion points are set up, and special snacks such as crayfish, spicy hot, and barbecue are operated. Seven main and secondary roads in the urban area will be opened, and catering stores on both sides of the road will be encouraged to use the public space in front of the store to operate crayfish and other special restaurants.
What's more attractive is that the local area has also prepared "welfare" for tourists: tourists who come to Xuyi "Lobster" for more than 200 yuan can visit the 4A-level scenic spot for free with the invoice issued by the merchant.
"This holiday, a large number of crayfish on the market have attracted tourists from all over the country, becoming a well-deserved 'sales crown' during the holiday." According to a report by Xuyi, the Datong Farmers' Market is the most famous crayfish night market in the local area, gathering dozens of restaurants and food stalls, and on holiday nights, thousands of square meters of open-air plaza are full. In order to cope with the peak of passenger flow, a brand restaurant has increased the number of tables in the square and front hall in advance, but it is still difficult to find one, and the diners are mainly foreign tourists, and the daily sales of crayfish on the day of "May Day" exceed 8,000 catties.
Crayfish has brought fire to Xuyi's all-for-one tourism. Mafengwo big data shows that this "May Day" Xuyi is on the TOP10 in East China, and the first mountain of Xuyi, Ming Zu Mausoleum, Tieshan Temple, etc. attract many tourists. The operating income of the first three days of "May Day" in the Tieshan Temple Scenic Area was 565,000 yuan, an increase of 17% over the same period last year; The number of tourists received was 22,137, an increase of 72%. It is also reported that during the holiday, local tourist hotels and high-quality country houses are extremely popular, and the occupancy rate of tourist star hotels in the county reached 72.54%, and many characteristic homestays continued to be full.
County tourism is favored by tourists, and Xuyi is not alone. According to data from the Jiangsu Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism, the passenger flow of Yixing, Lishui, Kunshan and Liyang during the May Day holiday increased by 109%, 85%, 74% and 71% respectively year-on-year.
From a national point of view, the trend of "May Day" tourism sinking is more obvious. According to reports from platforms such as Ctrip and Fliggy, the year-on-year growth rate of travel orders in first- and second-tier cities is smaller than that in third- and fourth-tier cities, and the growth rate of third- and fourth-tier cities is smaller than that in county-level markets. Cheng Chaogong, chief researcher of the Tongcheng Research Institute, analyzed that the first reason is that the transportation accessibility of small cities, especially counties, has been greatly improved in recent years, such as high-speed rail, which has covered more than 90% of cities with a population of more than 500,000. At the same time, under the trend of diversification of tourism consumption, consumers' travel preferences have gradually shifted from "big destinations" to "small destinations", avoiding super-large passenger flows has become a "rigid need" for more and more people, and relatively niche and unpopular small cities have become "treasure destinations".
"The popularity of tourism in the county reflects the trend of optimizing the tourism supply structure, and there are 'cost-effective' factors behind it, such as more cost-effective hotels, catering services, and fewer tourists than larger cities." Han Yuanjun, an associate researcher at the China Tourism Research Institute, said in an interview with China News Weekly that the sudden emergence of county-level tourism requires three hardware, the most important of which is the uniqueness and difference of tourism resources. There is also the convenience of transportation, as well as the "main element" to attract tourists - at present, the "food" effect is vividly reflected, such as Zibo has barbecue and small cakes, Tianshui has spicy hot, in addition, music festivals, village super (village football super league), marathons, cross-country races, camping, etc. are also quite attractive.
Source: The Paper