Photo provided by the interviewee on the cross street of the ancient county town of Taiyuan.
The 14th Five-Year Plan for Culture and Tourism Development proposes to build a number of national-level tourism and leisure cities and blocks with distinctive cultural characteristics, carry out the construction of national-level tourism and leisure cities and blocks, and launch a number of national-level tourism and leisure cities and blocks that take into account the needs of tourists and local residents. In November 2021, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the National Development and Reform Commission jointly launched the first batch of national tourism and leisure block designation. In November 2023, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism announced the list of the third batch of national tourism and leisure blocks. Up to now, a total of 166 units across the country have been selected as national tourism and leisure blocks. Under the trend of comprehensive recovery of the tourism industry, these tourism and leisure districts have seized the opportunity to show their talents, continue to stimulate the vitality of cultural tourism consumption, and inject new momentum into tourism development.
The empowerment effect of cultural tourism in the third batch of national-level tourism and leisure blocks is highlighted
In the context of the deep integration of culture and tourism and the continuous recovery of the market, the third batch of 54 national tourism and leisure blocks have shown new highlights, new achievements, new characteristics and new trends in terms of business development, product innovation, service optimization, and model exploration, and the effect of cultural tourism empowering urban renewal and helping industrial development is highlighted.
Wei Yun, dean of the Tourism Research Institute of the National Research Think Tank, believes that the third batch of national-level tourism and leisure blocks will be more diversified in business innovation, and will actively introduce new business formats such as cultural creativity, art space, and scientific and technological experienceProduct innovation has become more digital, and some neighborhoods have introduced digital technologies such as VR and AR, actively focusing on technology empowermentThe service quality is more humane, and with the continuous strengthening of the standard guidance role of tourism and leisure blocks, the services of each block are more refinedThe exploration of the model is more integrated, and the integration of many neighborhoods with local culture, history, ecology and other resources has been deepened, and the local characteristics have been highlighted.
In terms of business innovation, Tiexi Hongmei Cultural and Creative Park in Shenyang City, Liaoning Province focuses on the development of "cultural industry + art business", implants a new space system and modern architectural language into old factories, and integrates creative design, fashion catering, art exhibitions, and creative incubation to create a comprehensive cultural park full of artistic vitality and commercial atmosphere. The park has introduced cultural and creative brands, handicraft shops, motorcycle clubs, Internet celebrity cafes, catering streets, etc., and the cultural and creative entertainment facilities and tourist area account for more than 60%, becoming a benchmark for the upgrading and transformation of Shenyang Tiexi Old Industrial Park into a modern international cultural and creative park.
In terms of digitalization, the Hetou Old Street Cultural Block in Tangshan City, Hebei Province, takes Hetou culture as the core and Tang Dynasty elements as the main line, and repackages and upgrades modern trend culture, local folk culture and temple fair culture, creating an immersive cultural tourism block integrating "food, tourism, shopping, entertainment, sports, exhibition and performance". Through the empowerment of science and technology, the block has built a water dance show theater, a Ferris wheel, six themed cultural squares, a business banquet, an old car persimmon market, etc., and is equipped with nearly 100 Tang lantern arrays and more than 100 interactive micro-interpretations, etc., to bring a new immersive experience to tourists.
In terms of service quality, Jinan Spring World Cultural Tourism and Leisure Block in Shandong Province has intelligent and complete block supporting facilities and public service system, creating a safe and comfortable block environment for tourists. The neighborhood sign guidance system is complete, the tourist service center integrates consulting services, cultural display, leisure and cultural creativity, medical aid, convenient services, multilingual manual explanation, intelligent navigation and other service functions, at the same time, the block free wifi signal is fully covered, providing online consultation, reservation, payment services, equipped with multilingual intelligent voice explanation robots.
In terms of mode integration, the cross street of the ancient county town of Taiyuan, Shanxi Province follows the architectural pattern of "Fengxiangyu City" in the ancient city of Jinyang, and is divided into four main roads: east, west, south and north, with a clear pattern of main streets and perfect street texture. North Street is dominated by local snacks and theme courtyards of 11 cities, South Street is dominated by special snacks and intangible cultural heritage research, West Street is dominated by characteristic retail and VR experience, and East Street is surrounded by cultural attractions such as the Confucian Temple, Duan's Flagpole Courtyard and County Ya, with snacks, cold drinks, meals and other catering to meet the "light" and "slow" play experience of tourists. The cross street integrates the functions of living facilities, intangible cultural heritage, catering and food, special retail, hotels and homestays, as well as various performances and light shows, forming a pattern of culture in the courtyard, highlights in the streets, and wonderful everywhere.
Yang Dejin, deputy dean of the School of Tourism and Service of Nankai University, believes that the new characteristics and trends of the third batch of national tourism and leisure blocks can be summarized into three aspects: first, the role of cultural tourism in empowering a new round of urban renewal is more significant, the effect is more obvious, and it has made a greater contribution to enhancing the vitality of urban blocksSecond, the effect of cultural inheritance and innovation is more prominent, the sense of time and space travel experience of the block is stronger, the cultural emotion of the scene experience is richer, the sense of fireworks and fashion is more deep, and the new forms of local culture and creative culture are more diverse, reflecting the new trend of upgrading national tourism and leisure blocksThird, the third batch of national-level tourism and leisure blocks presents a number of iconic and original new formats and new scenes, reflecting the ability of the block to grasp the traffic password to make cultural tourism "out of the circle", and exploring more new experiences in how to turn traffic into "retention".
Located in Jinhua City, Zhejiang Province, the Wuzhou Ancient City Historical and Cultural District is quite representative in showing the empowerment of cultural tourism in urban renewal, cultural inheritance and innovation effects, and the emergence of new formats and new scenes. The block used to be the gathering place of the government office, supervision, trial institute and Confucian Temple in history, and it was the political, cultural and military center of Jinhua in the past dynasties, and it was also the place with the most cultural heritage in Jinhua. In order to better inherit the thousand-year-old historical context of the ancient city, the block has carefully built the "Six Intangible Cultural Heritage Halls" and the Xichun Lane Museum Cluster, including the Traditional Chinese Medicine Museum, the Shortbread Museum, the Fujiu Daoqing Museum, the Jinhua Wine Museum, the Wuzhou Kiln Ceramics Museum, etc., and the museums and many cultural relics in the streets and alleys have built a platform for citizens and tourists to understand the history and culture of Wuzhou. Since 2019, the Wuzhou Ancient City Historical and Cultural District has launched more than 1,000 activities such as Wufeng Song Yun Cultural Plot, Ten Thousand Buddha Pagoda Underground Palace Unearthed Cultural Relics Exhibition, New Year Temple Fair, Beer ** Festival, and Thousand Bowls of Food Competition in 100 Counties. The interweaving of tastes has built a live performance space, which has become one of the most vibrant neighborhoods in Jiangsu and Zhejiang.
Continue to stimulate the vitality of the national tourism and leisure block market
After being selected as a national tourism and leisure block, many neighborhoods are still facing the challenge of continuously improving the competitiveness of the neighborhood and stimulating the vitality of the city around regional differences, demand differences, and characteristic cultural differences. In this regard, Yang Dejin said that after being selected into the list of national tourism and leisure blocks, the block should continue to maintain a high-quality development trend, further polish the "golden signboard" of the national tourism and leisure block, and form a stronger resource integration ability and radiation driving effectIt is necessary to consolidate the foundation of the vitality of the block of sharing, co-creation and win-win between the host and guest, strengthen the interaction, mutual trust and integration of the host and guest, from retaining tourists to retaining tourists, so that tourists can become new citizens to participate in the innovation and entrepreneurship of the block, and form a new driving force for the development of the blockIn order to further improve the tourism experience, from sensory experience to spiritual experience, scene creation needs to pay more attention to the emotional needs, psychological experience and life perception of touristsPromote the renewal of the block to carry out exquisite design, lean service, and refined management, deeply describe the details that determine the quality, continuously improve the quality of service, strengthen intelligent, humane, and standardized management, highlight the operation and management capabilities, and help improve the quality, character and taste of the block.
In the context of the continuous recovery of the tourism industry, how to seize the opportunity to stimulate the vitality of cultural tourism consumption and inject new momentum into tourism development is also one of the focuses of the industry. "We must do a good job in expanding consumption power. Wei Yun said that the national tourism and leisure block should be further characterized, deeply cultivate local cultural resources and historical heritage, create a cultural block with unique charm and attractiveness, and stimulate differentiated cultural and tourism consumption demand. At the same time, it is necessary to further digitize and actively introduce AR tour guide shopping guides, artificial intelligence customer service, unmanned supermarkets, unmanned payment and other technical means to provide more intelligent and convenient tourism services. In addition, it is necessary to further synergize, strengthen cooperation with surrounding scenic spots, cultural venues, hotels and homestays, carry out joint marketing, and enhance the overall attractiveness of tourist destinations.
Yang Dejin believes that the main body of the national tourism and leisure block should continue to work from three aspects, first, to identify the new consumption preferences of tourist market segments, actively open up new consumption areas of cultural tourism, and launch cost-effective experience products and scenes to enhance tourists' desire to consume;Second, we will continue to strengthen the innovation, creativity and creation capabilities of block operators, introduce corresponding incentive policies, give special financial support, support small and medium-sized micro innovative start-up enterprises and cultural and tourism content creators in the block, maintain the continuous update and iteration of new products, new formats and new projects, and lead the continuous upgrading of the vitality of cultural and tourism consumption in the blockThird, strengthen the branding and marketing of national-level tourism and leisure blocks, recommend them to domestic and foreign tourists and entrepreneurs, attract more investors, businessmen, makers and tourists, and build the block into a hot land for cultural tourism investment and consumption. (Xi reporter Wang Weijie) (*China Culture Daily).