Thinker Spencer Johnson famously said:"The only constant is change itself".
The same applies to the cultural tourism industry. From 2020 to 2022, micro-vacations, script killing, ticket blind boxes, digital collections, and camping have exploded, but few people mention them in 2023;The keywords of 2023 cultural tourism have changed: special forces tourism, city walk, cross-dressing cultural tourism director, village super, Zibo barbecue, etcThe focus of the industry has gradually shifted from "product innovation" and "new gameplay" to destination marketing and consumption concepts and consumer behaviors.
However, the "outlet" has not disappeared, but has precipitated from "innovation" to "normality", and has gradually become an important part of the mainstream format of cultural tourism. Judging from the overall market performance in 2023, local suburban micro-vacations are still in full swing after the resumption of long-term travelScript killing, digital collections and camping-related enterprises have closed down in batches, but "camping +", script killing and similar immersive role-playing gameplay have become the "standard" of scenic experience and content composition, and leading enterprises and platforms are still continuing to explore the development directionCultural and tourism companies will also sell digital collections and product blind boxes from time to time to bring freshness to consumers.
Many new concepts are born in the cultural tourism industry every year, and many of them may lose their popularity within two or three years and be overtaken by the "back waves". However, a diminished sense of presence does not mean "vanishing":They still represent the development trend of the cultural tourism industry and are still participating in the reshaping of the industry.
1. Digital Collections and the Metaverse
Previous reports from the new travel industry:
Cultural and tourism enterprises follow the trend of digital collections: "cutting leeks" or a new outlet?The "digital collection" of the museum is in danger!On October 29, 2021, Facebook announced that it would change its name to Meta and go all out to do the metaverse, and the concept of "metaverse" began to sweep the world. This concept of "global virtual reality space" has brought a digital collection boom to the cultural tourism industry that has lasted for nearly two years. With the attributes that content carriers and transaction scenarios rely only on online, as well as the characteristics of convenient in-depth integration with various cultural IPs, digital collections have become an important channel for brands to maintain consumer stickiness and enhance brand tonality.
In addition, its "clear ownership of the blockchain, the only one that cannot be copied" makes it not only a private ornament, but also has NFT (non-fungible token, "non-fungible token") attributes, which can be easily speculated. For example, the two NFT digital paintings jointly launched by Alipay and the Dunhuang Fine Arts Research Institute were traded at a price of less than 10 yuan, but they were speculated to 1.5 million yuan in the second-hand commodity trading market.
After 2022, the market will gradually be standardized, and relevant norms such as "preventing speculation and financialization risks" and "cultural and museum units should not directly sell the original data of cultural relics as limited commodities" have been introduced, and the transaction of digital collections in the second-hand market has gradually stabilized. While losing their hype value, digital collectibles are starting to fall cold. In the second half of 2022, digital collection trading platforms began to collapse one after another, with 21 going bankrupt in September 2022 alone.
In the case that the digital world that can be "socialized and experienced" has not been built, the significance of digital assets is limited, and the essence of "can only be collected and difficult to use" and "the essence is only a piece or a paragraph" is gradually revealed.
*In 2023, when tourism is recovering rapidly, the halo of "digital collections" will fade. But on the other hand, it's not so much that the digital collection is completely "outdated", it's better to say that it's justBreaking away from the inflated heat and returning to the essence - that is, the carrier of brand promotion and emotional communication.
In 2023, there are still many cultural and tourism companies "playing" with digital collections, so as to strengthen the link with brand users, especially young users, and expand the traffic entrance. For example, in July 2023, Zhongxin Tourism, which is gradually back on track, released digital collections such as the "U2Go Cultural Tourism Digital Platform" and "U2 Cultural Tourism Energy Card", "U2Polar Polar Series Emperor Penguin Energy Card", and "UNIX Digital Nomad Community 'Life Wunderlist Series' Access Energy Card", and created an exclusive virtual space in the metaverse platform "Infinity Box".
2. Micro vacations
Previous reports from the new travel industry:
1.21 trillion summer travel market micro-vacations to get a few cups of soup?Behind the popularity of micro-vacations, how can practitioners avoid becoming "pigs on the tuyere"?How to cultivate sustainable vitality after the micro-vacation after "out of the circle"?The "micro-vacation" with short travel distance, high frequency and low consumption has developed rapidly under the condition of restricted outbound travel and long-term travel in the past three years of the epidemic, and representative projects such as Kaiyuan Senbo Resort Park, Shunde OCT Happy Coast Plus, and Changchun This Youshan have been born. For example, Club Med has created a series of Club Med Joyview products located around developed cities, and has received a good market response.
In 2023, the cultural tourism market will gradually recover, and the market attention of "micro-vacation" will decline, but this does not mean that "micro-vacation" will disappear, on the contraryIt has become the core format of the cultural tourism industry alongside long-term travel and destination vacationsIt includes a variety of product types ranging from cultural, commercial and tourism complexes, resorts, and theme parks, to cafes, art galleries, and immersive entertainment spaces.
With the continuous upgrading of products, micro-vacations and long-term tours show a trend of "complementing each other, eliminating the other's strengths", and the "second half" of the summer vacation with a short travel time and the release of long-term travel demand still occupies the C position.
After 2023, there are some new trends in micro-vacations:
The positioning distance is further reducedFrom the suburbs to the city, it gradually integrates with local leisure. The popularity of City Walk and the city's marketing-led cultural tourism drainage model have allowed tourists to concentrate more in the city than in the suburbs. Some companies have begun to step into this market and create products in the city that can not only provide exquisite living, but also provide rich leisure and entertainment, such as Club Med has launched the city vacation product line "Ark of the Day" and landed in Nanjing.
The trend of cultural and tourism integration is more significant, and the theme is more obvious:In the early days, the micro-vacation products were focused on outdoor sports equipment, non-powered parent-child parks, etc., and now they are more humanistic and themed, equipped with a variety of activities such as script killing, ** festival, carnival, tide play festival, pet competition, fireworks show and other activities as a supplement to the experience content. For example, CTS International Anji and Le Valley will hold a series of activities in the summer of 2023, such as the China Animation Centennial Film Festival, the Capybara IP Theme Exhibition, and the Contemporary Illustration Art Exhibition.
Highly reliant on new ** marketing:In 2023, tourism will return to normal, and some micro-vacation projects and suburban homestays that have enjoyed the "location dividend" during the epidemic will be cold, and they will begin to accelerate the development of new ** marketing, begin to carry out systematic brand and project promotion, and expand the incremental customer base of the young market through landing activities and cooperative Internet celebrities.
3. Ticket blind box
Previous reports from the new travel industry: "How popular is the blind box of 98 yuan air tickets?".Tongcheng Travel server has been crowded several times!》
After Bubble Mart brought the blind box gameplay into the public eye, OTA first became interested in "everything can be blind box". On April 3, 2021, the "Ticket Destination Blind Box" campaign launched by Tongcheng Travel attracted more than 10 million users to participate, and after that, Ctrip and Fliggy joined one after another, making the "Travel Blind Box" represented by the "Ticket Blind Box" a popular game in the industry.
"Ticket blind box", that is, the user buys a ticket to redeem the right, but the specific destination can be redeemed, and even when it departs, only know when the box is "unpacked". Worried, surprised, happy or disappointed, frustrated, mixed with complex emotions is where the fun of blind boxes lies.
On the one hand, the blind box has attracted more young customers to participate by relying on trendy gameplay, and on the other hand, it has maintained the brand publicity volume and customer stickiness. What's more, this kind of play can sell some remaining seats on "unpopular routes" and achieve consumption drainage for unpopular destinations. Although ** may seem "ridiculously low", it does not lead to a loss for a product with a high profit margin, such as airline tickets.
In 2023, the "ticket blind box" will gradually become normalized, and it will use innovative gameplay to detonate the new ** communication, attracting more Generation Z customers to help sell unpopular products. But on the contrary, how to protect the rights and interests of consumers has become the core issue of this product.
Some merchants' ticket blind box products include random departure, random date, non-transferable, and many other restrictions if you need to refund until a month later, and it is difficult for consumers to see it directly, resulting in ** incidents, and consumers have laughed at themselves for changing from "wool players" to "wool" itself. How to make the blind boxes of cultural and tourism products free from suspicions such as "infringing on consumer rights and interests" and "inducing consumption" is an urgent issue for cultural and tourism enterprises.
4. Camping
Previous reports from the new travel industry:
"New regulations are introduced to end the wild growth of camping".
"Who wins in the era of camping and competition?".》
"The Rising Tide of Camping Closures?".Don't panic
"Fourteen ministries and commissions jointly issued a document, why the camping industry may become a trillion market?".》
In 2022, the camping craze will "go out of the circle at the speed of light" and sweep the country. Especially during the May Day holiday, people set up tents to make tea around the stove in the central park, city riverside, and even dusty streets. Campsite operators such as Da Hot Wilderness and Hi King have achieved "fame and fortune", and camping-related products such as tents and sleeping bags have also increased their sales.
In 2023, camping will begin to fall into the "wind". Rumors that "camping has fallen into a wave of closures" have caused "turmoil" in the industry. Although the actual situation is not so exaggerated, it is also an indisputable fact that 5%-10% of "followers" have completely quit.
It was also in this year that camping ended its "wild growth" and gradually entered the normative stage. Beijing, Nanjing, Shanghai and other places have issued policies to clearly regulate the definition of camping products, accommodation permits, business qualifications, land use nature, environmental protection, and tourist safety. On the other hand, the issuing department of some policies and the law enforcement department are not the same entity, and the final implementation of the plan still needs to be verified by time.
Most of the players who are still standing today are really interested in cultivating the camping track. They have been further refined in terms of customer group positioning and product price:
Products: In addition to the "classic" camping tents, there are also "luxury tent hotels" similar to hotel standard rooms, such as "camping cafes" and "camping restaurants" located in the cultural and tourism complex in the center of the city that serve high-frequency daily consumption.
Supporting facilities: In addition to regular facilities such as tents, sleeping bags, water, electricity, etc., there are also complete and comfortable community-based camp facilities such as cute pet parks, racing tracks, coffee houses, book bars, and travel photography.
Activities: In addition to the standard games such as barbecue and bonfire party, rich activities such as hot air balloons, kayaks, paddle boards, and board games are added.
Marketing: Co-branding of well-known cultural IPs in line with the tonality of its own products, establishing most of the mainstream new platforms such as WeChat, Weibo, Xiaohongshu, Douyin, etc., and normalizing the output of high-quality original content.
Service: Promote standardization and standardized management, and do a good job in the full-cycle experience by creating a park atmosphere, improving the quality of catering and service, and doing a good job in after-sales return visit services.
Some of the leading players have also cultivated the ability to form a full set of solutions, and replicate their own products and business models in major scenic spots.
At this stage, camping has become an important part of the cultural tourism consumption industry. While camping has "gone one step further", there is still a lot of room for growthChinese consumers are still a long way from truly forming a camping consumption habit. To truly penetrate and open up the Chinese camping market, the relevant entities are still hindered and have a long way to go.
5. Script killing
Previous reports from the new travel industry:
"25.2 billion bet script killing, what kind of outlet should cultural tourism + script killing?》
"90% of the script kills the store and loses money, why do the cultural tourism scenic spots still play so well?".》
"Immersive Tourism, Can You Rely on "Script Killing" to Kill a Way?》
In 2021, "Script Kill Offline Stores Have Exceeded 30,000" detonated the attention of the society to Script Kill, and this emerging gameplay quickly became a "trend". In addition to the independent script killing stores in the city, script killing has also quickly entered the cultural tourism industry, becoming an important starting point for scenic spots and even traditional hotels that have transformed from sightseeing destinations to experience destinations to increase interesting experience content, attract Generation Z consumers, and realize brand value-added.
In 2023, after more than two years of "soaring" growth, script killing is also rumored to have fallen into a wave of "bankruptcy tide", the number of cancelled enterprises is gradually increasing, and capital is beginning to calm down. On the one hand, script killing is gradually entering the era of formalization, and it is strictly supervised in terms of creative content and operation methodsOn the other hand, there is an oversupply of stores, and most of the products are involved in the first war, which is not conducive to the formation of a virtuous circle of industrial supply.
However, whether the operation of the script killing store is good or bad, it does not prevent "+ script killing" from continuing to become the biggest bright color of cultural tourism destinations such as hotels, scenic spots, and ancient towns.
Although the profit margin of script killing seems to be not high, the empowering effect on the destination is immeasurable: script killing can not only reflect the local cultural characteristics, but also connect scenic spots and shopping spots, guide consumers to visit while enhancing consumer immersion, and provide them with more interesting experiences and emotional interactions. More importantly, if it is a script killing with a time span of more than one day, it can also effectively guide consumers to stay overnight in local hotels and B&Bs to increase their stay time.
Now, for many large-scale scenic spots and ancient towns, the immersive experience of "script killing" is no longer a simple content, but the "soul part" of the project, such as "Weijiang Kyushu Real Scenery Jianghu" in Jiezi Ancient Town of Chengdu City, "Anren Paradise Impression Today" in Anren Ancient Town, etc.
At a time when the experience economy has become the core consumption driver, consumers have completed a series of identity transformations of "** person, interactor, participant, and content creator", and script killing is the best way to achieve this "immersion".
Taking stock of the past, we can see thatAlthough these "old concepts" are no longer on the cusp of capital and leadership, they have been internalized into a solid foundation to support the development of the cultural tourism and large consumption industry. In 2024, we may expect companies in the corresponding tracks to bring more bright colors to the industry.
Unbounded symbiosis
The 3rd New Tourism Innovation and Development Forum.
and the 2023 Cultural Tourism Fashion List Award Ceremony
January 11, 2024 Chengdu, Sichuan
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