The old year is over, and the new year is slowly unfolding. In 2024, what kind of development environment will the cultural tourism industry meet?What are the opportunities and challenges?In this issue, Zhiku Cultural Tourism will look forward to 2024 with colleagues in the industry.
2023 is the first year after the end of epidemic prevention and control, and as the cultural tourism industry returns to the right track, all tourist attractions, cultural tourism destinations, cultural tourism groups and listed companies have achieved high growth. However, as the industry recovers, some pressures and dilemmas are gradually emerging, which will continue into 2024.
First of all, a pressure that cannot be ignored is the lack of growth momentum for cultural and tourism consumption caused by the weak economic environment.
Looking at the cultural tourism market in 2023, there is a significant gap between the first half of the year and the second half of the year, and the business situation in the second half of the year is weaker than that in the first half of the year. Previously, Zhiku Cultural Tourism analyzed the phenomenon of insufficient growth momentum of tourism consumption from the third-quarter performance data of ** tourism enterprises ("A bad signal, ** tourism enterprise revenue growth is slowing down significantly"), and the revenue growth rate of ** tourism enterprises in the third quarter of 2023 has weakened significantly, compared with the growth rate of the second quarter, the hotel occupancy rate of major hotel listed companies, Huazhu, Jinjiang, BTG, etc. in the third quarter of 2023 is also lower than the same period in 2019.
In the survey of Zhiku Cultural Tourism, a large number of tourist attractions said that the number of tourists in the second half of the year was less than expected. Another proof is the tourist data of Hainan tourism, as an island-type tourist destination, Hainan has accurate statistics on entry and exit, and the data basically does not contain water. From January to June 2023, Hainan received 31.58 million overnight tourists, 101% of the same period in 2019, showing a good recovery momentum. In the second half of the year, things began to change. The number of overnight tourists in Hainan in August 2023 was 94 in the same period in 20198%, compared to 83 in September7%, and by October it was only 751%, 84 in November2%。
As a mid-to-high-end tourist destination in China, Hainan has a certain market situation. This shows that the consumption momentum of the cultural tourism market is weakening. The reason behind this is mainly due to the weak domestic and global economic environment, and the growth rate of ** consumer goods such as mobile phones, automobiles, and luxury goods will shrink or slow down to varying degrees in the second half of 2023. For example, the global smartphone market fell by 8% in the third quarter of 2023, the worst figure in a decade. In the domestic auto market, under the condition of unconventional price cuts by major car companies in 2023 and the low base in 2022, the retail sales of domestic passenger cars from January to November 2023 will only grow by 53%。
In the context of weak consumption, how can cultural and tourism products, as the most advanced consumer discretionary products, break through in 2024?It is an important pressure factor faced by cultural and tourism enterprises.
What are the opportunities for the cultural tourism industry in 2024?Zhiku Cultural Tourism summarized three points.
First, the growth opportunity of the revitalization of cultural and tourism stock assets. In 2023, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism will successively introduce policies for the development of the cultural and tourism industry, covering the release of tourism consumption potential, the improvement of tourism infrastructure, the optimization of management methods, and the prosperity of the cultural tourism market.
In particular, industrial policies related to the revitalization of stock assets. In 2023, policy documents will be issued at all levels, requiring all localities to optimize and improve the revitalization methods, take revitalization measures according to the classification of project conditions, make good use of various fiscal, financial and investment policies, and support tourism enterprises to revitalize the stock of tourism projects and stock tourism assets. The gradual implementation and refinement of relevant policies will provide significant development dividends for the development of cultural and tourism enterprises in 2024.
For example, in the past two years, Guizhou Province has carried out a tough action in the revitalization of cultural and tourism production assets, and all cities, districts, counties, and townships have comprehensively investigated and eliminated the suspension of production and the inefficient operation of tourism projects, registered one by one and conducted in-depth research and judgment one by one, and gathered the best functional departments to provide policy assistance, financial assistance, investment docking, project restructuring and other revitalization plans for tourism projects in difficulty. At present, Guizhou Province has made remarkable progress in revitalizing inefficient idle tourism projects, and 60 inefficient idle tourism projects will be revitalized in 2023, driving the high-quality development of a number of tourism projects.
Guizhou's inefficient tourism project revitalization action not only promotes the development of local cultural and tourism enterprises and the activation and utilization of cultural tourism resources, but also provides opportunities for various enterprises in the upstream and downstream industrial chain of cultural tourism, such as cultural tourism investment companies, financial institutions, planning and planning agencies, scenic spot management and operation companies, cultural and tourism equipment manufacturers, smart tourism, marketing and travel agencies, etc., can participate in the action. In the future, all provinces, localities and cities will successively carry out actions to revitalize the stock assets of cultural tourism, which will become a major opportunity for cultural and tourism enterprises to expand their business and influence.
Second, growth opportunities for urban renewal. In the past, the investment in many cultural tourism projects actually relied on the prosperity of the real estate market, and the "cultural tourism + real estate" model drove cultural tourism investment, injecting demand and business opportunities into the cultural tourism industry chain. Nowadays, the real estate market is "dumb fire", and cultural tourism projects and industrial chains need to change their thinking in time and find new investment models. Urban renewal is a new industrial field that can be closely integrated with cultural tourism, providing channels, carriers and space for cultural tourism investment.
"Urban renewal" was first proposed at the ** Economic Work Conference in December 2019, and was written into the outline of the National 14th Five-Year Plan and the Long-Range Goals for 2035 in March 2021, elevating it to a national strategy and comprehensively promoting it. In 2023, the relevant policies and development goals of urban renewal will be gradually refined and implemented. In the detailed rules for urban renewal and development formulated by various provinces and cities, the construction of vibrant neighborhoods, the improvement of urban functions and ecological restoration, the protection and inheritance of historical contexts, and the shaping of urban characteristics are highlighted, which are all areas in which cultural tourism projects can play a role.
According to the estimation of relevant research institutions, urban renewal will bring 10 trillion yuan of new market space, which will provide the majority of cultural and tourism enterprises with business space and development opportunities no less than those created by real estate in the past.
For example, the transformation and upgrading of the Jinshui River "one river and two banks" that Zhengzhou is promoting is the scope of urban renewal. In the past, the Jinshui River had problems such as large fluctuations in water quality and quantity, insufficient ecology, fragmentation of public space, and lack of supporting facilities, and the overall hydrophilicity was poor and the image quality was poor. The length of the "One River and Two Banks" project along the river is about 138 kilometers, revitalize the idle land and inefficient space on both sides of the strait, and improve the two core leading industries of commercial services and cultural tourism. It is planned to make use of old factories, cultural relics, and inefficient buildings on both sides of the strait to build characteristic cultural spaces and build tourism belts.
"One River and Two Banks" is expected to have a total investment of 38.8 billion yuan, which will provide business opportunities and create development space for a large number of upstream and downstream enterprises in the cultural and tourism industry. It should be pointed out that after the completion of the transformation and upgrading of 38.8 billion yuan of "one river and two banks", 13The 8-kilometer waterfront vitality space will drive a large amount of indirect investment in cultural tourism, and continue to inject strong demand and opportunities into the cultural tourism industry chain.
At present, there are some cultural and tourism enterprises that have seized the development opportunities in the field of urban renewal, such as Dalian Botao Culture and Technology Co., Ltd. in Dalian Bingshan Huigu Industrial Park, which was transformed from an abandoned factory, to build a cultural, commercial and tourism complex with the giant IP "Giant Bear Beibei" as the core - Xiongdong Street, with an investment of about 80 million yuan, and 1.3 million people in one year after opening, and also attracted more than 2 million fans on the whole network, with a short volume of more than 500 million people. A "Bear Cave Street" has activated an industrial park of nearly 200,000 square meters, and a number of urban renewal projects are currently approaching Botao Culture, and it is expected that 2-3 trendy play blocks with giant IP will be landed within two years.
Third, changes in the trend of the cultural tourism consumer market. The change in the trend of the cultural tourism consumer market is both an opportunity and a challenge. In 2023, new and alternative cultural tourism products will emerge more and more frequently in the field of cultural tourism, or it can be called a "cultural tourism phenomenon", such as Zibo barbecue, City Walk (city walk), Guizhou Village BA, etc. Behind the emergence of these cultural and tourism phenomena is the advent of the era of great leisure. This will be the most important trend change in the cultural tourism consumer market in the coming period, and cultural tourism enterprises must seize this opportunity to overcome this challenge.
With the advent of the era of great leisure, it does not mean that tourism formats such as sightseeing and vacation are no longer important. The era of great leisure has two connotations, one is that sightseeing, vacation, these formats need to be fully integrated with leisure formats, and the other is urban life, public services, commercial spaces and other areas that are originally non-cultural tourism, which can be implanted and improved through leisure functions, making it a new scene of cultural tourism shared by hosts and guests.
For example, in terms of sightseeing, vacation into the leisure format, Hangzhou New Century Senbo Resort Park has made a good demonstration, Hangzhou opened Senbo equipped with a number of different types of restaurants, Chinese food, Western food, buffet for tourists to choose, the quality of the restaurant is high, and even become the ceiling of local wedding banquet catering. Catering is an important part of the leisure industry, and the rich, diverse and distinctive catering itself has the attraction of passenger flow. Hangzhou New Century Senbo also integrates professional resources such as outdoor camp development, performing arts shows, and children's vocational experience, and has launched a wealth of interesting experience activities, which fill the vacation time of tourists, which is an important reason why New Century Senbo allows tourists to stay overnight.
It should be noted that domestic vacation tourists have not yet formed a static vacation habit of "doing nothing", so domestic vacation projects need to provide tourists with a large amount of leisure play to fill time, and "vacation + leisure" can be favored by tourists.
In terms of urban life, public services, and commercial space incarnated into cultural tourism and leisure scenes, a large number of cases have emerged in the past two years, such as Changsha Wenheyou and Changchun, which have transformed traditional shopping malls into themed and scene-based cultural tourism projects, which better serve local consumers while also attracting a large number of foreign tourists to check in. In recent years, museums, libraries, city parks and other urban public service institutions in popular tourist cities have also become Internet celebrities, such as Suzhou Museum, Sanxingdui Museum, Tianjin Binhai New Area Library, etc., which have become urban leisure spaces shared by hosts and guests.
The market size and product types of the leisure format are broader and richer than those of sightseeing and vacation, with the characteristics of being launched at any time and everywhere, and the degree of personalization, diversification and theme is more in-depth. Tourism, vacation and leisure together support the vast market of the cultural and tourism industry, and the trend of mutual integration is becoming more and more significant. Cultural and tourism enterprises should grasp this important trend and stand at the forefront of the rolling forward of the cultural and tourism industry, so as to continue to obtain development opportunities and strengthen themselves.
In 2024, the cultural tourism industry will face a lot of pressure, and weak consumption will make some companies tighten their belts even more and grit their teeth to live a hard life. However, in 2024, the opportunities in front of the cultural tourism industry will be broader, and the various industrial support policies of the first industry, and the measures and measures to promote the release of the potential of cultural tourism consumption will greatly encourage the confidence of cultural and tourism enterprises. The revitalization of cultural tourism stock assets solves the dilemma faced by some cultural tourism projects, and also provides many business opportunities for the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain. The era of urban renewal and leisure integrates and promotes each other, opening up new growth space, investment carriers and development directions for cultural and tourism enterprises. Seizing opportunities, meeting challenges, and overcoming pressure will become a moving picture for the development of the cultural tourism industry in 2024.
Author |Edited by Wang Xinyu |Zhikujun design |joe image source |Photo provided by affiliated enterprises, official Weibo, etc.