The Spring Festival is the most solemn and distinctive traditional festival of the Chinese nation. With the continuous development of national policies, the gradual recovery of the confidence of market players, and the accelerated recovery of consumption expectations, during the Spring Festival this year, the masses have a stronger willingness to travel, and the demand for tourism consumption is stronger. With the blessing of the 8-day holiday, many places across the country will dress up the Spring Festival of the Year of the Dragon with wonderful New Year activities and diversified product supply, which will allow the masses to start a happy Chinese New Year in a safe, warm and comfortable travel experience.
Highlight the theme of the New Year
The cultural supply of the Spring Festival is rich and colorful
Celebrate the New Year together, and go together with mountains and rivers. Relying on New Year, Chinese New Year's Eve, Lantern Festival and other annual festivals, many places have launched highlight products around the theme of Spring Festival reunion, provided heart-warming services, and made the New Year taste stronger.
Nanhu Intangible Cultural Heritage Welcomes the Year of the Dragon "2024 Spring Festival Garden Activity Site Photo courtesy of Nanhu District Culture and Tourism Bureau.
Enjoy the Chinese New Year Lantern Festival, watch intangible cultural heritage performances, and visit the art space ......As the Spring Festival approaches, Huzhou City, Zhejiang Province, has launched a series of activities such as the "Qile Longlong" New Year Cultural Festival, the "Xianglong Welcoming Spring" intangible cultural heritage skills display, the "Hucheng Spring Dawn" theatrical performance, and the "Dragon Traveling" theme cultural exhibition, so that the masses can "come to Zhejiang for the New Year". In order to attract more young tourists to celebrate the New Year, Huzhou City also takes "National Tide + Spring Festival + Folk Activities" as the entry point to launch projects such as National Tide Park to enrich tourists' New Year travel experience with trendy gameplay. In Huzhou South Taihu New Area, the Chinese New Year's Eve Lantern Festival with the theme of "Light Enlightens the Future" held in combination with the scenery along the coast of Taihu Lake will allow tourists to experience the fireworks in the New Year Lantern Festival with 13 themes such as Dragon Prosperity and Future City and 17 check-in points. All parts of Huzhou also launched New Year joy parties as scheduled, focusing on paper-cutting, candy blowing, river lanterns, dragon and lion dances and other characteristic intangible cultural heritage customs, attracting tourists to celebrate the New Year.
2024 Xincheng Railway Station - Daming Palace New Year Cultural Tourism Carnival Photo by Qin Yi, a reporter from China Culture Daily in Shaanxi.
On January 29, the 2024 Xincheng Railway Station - Daming Palace New Year Cultural Tourism Carnival kicked off at the "Happy New Town Qile Longlong" in Xincheng District, Xi'an City, Shaanxi Province, and the activities will last until the end of February, including six major themes such as "Receiving Longfu and Welcoming the New Year with Intangible Cultural Heritage and the National Tide" and "Xinglong Yun, Lighting and Shining in the New Year". On the opening day, calligraphy masters and calligraphy lovers splashed ink to write Spring Festival couplets and the word "Fu", and presented the audience with cultural New Year's goods with the fragrance of calligraphy and ink. The inheritors of the intangible cultural heritage paper-cutting in the new city also showed off their skills, using a piece of red paper and a pair of scissors to create a number of groups of New Year paper-cut works, so that citizens and tourists can fully feel the charm of traditional culture and the atmosphere of joy and reunion. Before and after the Spring Festival and the Lantern Festival, Taihua Road Street and Ziqiang Road Street in Xincheng District will also hold gongs and drums to welcome the New Year, and Lantern Festival activities on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, presenting a cultural and tourism feast with temperature, connotation and New Year's flavor everywhere. "We will continue to enrich the product format of the New Year, maintain the enthusiasm of consumption through activities, promotion, etc., and make every effort to create a rich cultural atmosphere of the 'Xi'an Year'. The relevant person in charge of the new city railway station - Daming Palace plate said.
Rich and diverse experiences
Gameplay innovation has given rise to new hot spots in the market
While enriching the theme products of the New Year such as folk tours and cultural tours, cultural tourism departments and cultural tourism enterprises in many places also focus on the rising new needs of tourists such as ice and snow tours, hot spring tours, and customized tours, promote scene innovation and gameplay, and launch a series of actions to benefit the people, such as ticket reduction and exemption of scenic spots and promotion of consumption, so as to provide more cost-effective options for tourists to travel during the Spring Festival.
Recently, some travel agencies in Hubei Province have launched a New Year tour of the Year of the Dragon, including the Yellow Crane Tower, the first of the three famous buildings in the south of the Yangtze River, and Shennongding, the "roof of Central China". In addition, the province has also launched a number of winter tour boutique routes such as the Warm "Spring" World Winter Health Care Tour and the "Thriving" Happy Jingchu Food Tour, allowing tourists from all over the country to visit Hubei. In Yichang, Hubei, hot soup and snow melt into a "winter love song". Before February 28, the local ice and snow hot spring consumption coupons with a total amount of 15 million yuan will be issued to tourists from all over the country in five batches to attract people to enjoy the body and mind in close to nature. In Jingzhou, Hubei Province, the "New Year of Sports" ignited the vitality and passion of the public. The city recently held a series of activities for teenagers to welcome the New Year, opening 11 youth events and experience display projects such as football, badminton, tennis, roller skating, etc., creating a festive, harmonious and joyful New Year atmosphere with the deep integration of culture, tourism, business and sports.
Ice lanterns, ice skating, and cosplay shows in the ancient city ......A few days ago, with the launch of the theme activity of "I spend the New Year in Shijiazhuang", Shijiazhuang City, Hebei Province carried out more than 50 activities in 10 series, such as "Visiting the New Year" and "Celebrating the New Year in the Scenic Area", including the most fun and cost-effective tourist destinations in Shijiazhuang. For example, the 14th National (Shijiazhuang) New Year's Shopping Festival was held in the form of "1 main venue + 30 sub-venues" in the form of "1 main venue + 30 sub-venues", during which Shijiazhuang City and various counties (cities and districts) will organize nearly 20 commercial complexes to carry out leisure experience activities such as lantern array art exhibition and New Year's goods market to create a strong festival consumption atmosphere. In order to further release the vitality of consumption and enrich the experience of tourists, Shijiazhuang has also promoted more than 20 tourist attractions to implement preferential policies such as ticket reductions and exemptions, and simultaneously launched a number of themed boutique tourism routes and a series of activities to celebrate the New Year, attracting tourists from inside and outside the province to experience the beauty of Shijiazhuang in winter and the joy of the New Year.
Pay close attention to safe production
Ensure that the masses are comfortable and happy to celebrate the festival
During the Spring Festival holiday, with the increase of various travel, tourism and festival activities, the safety management of the holiday cultural tourism market cannot be relaxed. Many places have strengthened the implementation of safe production, market order, organizational guarantees and other links, consolidated the main responsibility, paid close attention to key areas, paid attention to risk prevention, promoted high-quality development and high-level safety and benign interaction, and ensured that the masses had a comfortable and happy holiday.
On January 25, Shandong Province held the 2024 Spring Festival Cultural and Tourism Industry Safety Production and Holiday Market Work Conference, and made arrangements for the safety and security of the cultural and tourism market during the Spring Festival. According to the relevant person in charge of the Shandong Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism, during the Spring Festival this year, the cultural and tourism departments at all levels in Shandong will strengthen the safety management of facilities and equipment, guide tourist attractions and resorts to increase the investigation of potential safety hazards in facilities and equipment such as sightseeing cars, cableways, and cable cars, and implement key supervision on passenger vehicles such as ferry vehicles, cruise ships, and small trains in tourist attractions. At the same time, strengthen the safety management of festival activities, tourism transportation, and outbound travel teams, and do our best to prevent and resolve all kinds of major safety accidents.
In Heilongjiang, the Spring Festival is a good time to enjoy ice and snow. In order to ensure the safety of tourists from all over the country, the Heilongjiang Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism has set up six working groups, including a comprehensive coordination group, a supervision and implementation group, and a law enforcement inspection team, to carry out visits to A-level scenic spots, travel agencies, public cultural venues, Internet service venues, etc., focusing on supervising and compacting the main responsibility of safety production, fire risk prevention and control, safety management of team tourists, and safety management of special equipment.
Especially for some difficult and blocking problems, for example, whether there are low-cost solicitation, peddling of goods to tourists, private scenic spots and other chaos around A-level tourist attractions and key points, whether there are taxis, online car-hailing bullying and "black cars" in "two stations and one station", whether travel agencies and tour guides have unreasonable low-cost tours, false advertising, inducement or forced shopping, unauthorized changes in itinerary and other illegal business behaviors, etc., the working group will find out and supervise again. For the problems found that can be rectified immediately, it is required to be rectified immediately, and if it cannot be rectified immediately, it is required to be rectified within a time limit, and the clues of violations of laws and regulations are promptly handed over to the law enforcement department, so as to effectively ensure the stability and orderliness of the cultural tourism market during the Spring Festival.
Coordinator: Sun Congcong Contributors: Xu Jihong, Zhou Chuanren, Qin Yi, Qu Xiangtao, Li Qiuyun, Fan Haigang, Su Rui, Zhang Jianyou).
Expert perspectives
Seize the trendy highlights and do not forget to deepen the connotation
Xu Feng, professor of the Department of Culture and Tourism, Shandong University.
With tourism as an important starting point for expanding domestic demand and boosting consumption, and continuously introducing support policies and carrying out promotional activities, the tourism market is expected to usher in a new stage of prosperity and development in 2024 after rebuilding confidence in 2023. At present, whether it is the hot "out of the circle" of "Erbin" or the new trend of Spring Festival travel such as "north-south exchange" for the New Year, it reflects that the integration of culture and tourism is moving from the surface to the depth.
Nowadays, tourists to a certain place no longer stop at sightseeing, but more hope to seek some kind of emotional resonance, in the meantime, the first merchants and people have even become the main body of direct attraction of consumers. Consumers are more likely to be attracted by the best publicity and the good image of merchants and communities, and then stay and go deeper, and discover the beauty of the city and the prosperity of humanity. This also enlightens the local cultural and tourism authorities, to do a good job in the Spring Festival cultural tourism market, we need to focus on the diversified and refined needs of consumers, whether it is through the **, merchants, community residents which way to attract tourists, should let tourists deeply feel the local enthusiasm and heritage, while infecting their emotions, but also to practice their internal skills, the introduction of core attractive products, high-quality services, rich and diverse activities, etc., so as to better call the local cultural tourism brand.
For tourism enterprises, with the rise of consumers' sense of autonomy and the transformation of consumer behavior from product-oriented to service-oriented in the past, enterprises should understand the laws of the market and understand the changes in the needs of mainstream consumers, especially in response to people's desire for health, family, leisure and nature, and make timely adjustments in product design and development. At the same time, in the face of the era of Internet big data, whether it is product promotion or scene creation, we should make good use of new scientific and technological means to impress young people with more fashionable and novel gameplay. For example, recently, Shandong's "Lighting up Mount Tai" and the night view of the ancient city wall of Qufu have attracted a lot of attention on the Internet, which reflects the impact of technology empowerment. Therefore, by seizing the highlight of the new trend of science and technology, and not forgetting to deepen the connotation, cultural tourism enterprises can launch more products with market share and popularity.
China Culture Daily reporter in Shandong Sun Congcong interviewed and organized).
The dissemination of traditional culture should be targeted
Jin Wugang, professor of the Department of Information Management, East China Normal University.
Led by the year of 100 festivals. The Spring Festival is the most loved, grand and lively traditional festival of Chinese. During the Spring Festival, people remove the old cloth and the new, receive blessings and add jubilees, and pray for a good year, covering the humanities and natural aspects such as agricultural civilization, primitive beliefs, calendar and solar terms, etc., for thousands of years, forming a long-standing, dazzling, elegant and common appreciation of the annual custom culture, which has become an important component of Chinese civilization, and is also a unique spiritual identity of the Chinese nation, and it is also the spiritual bond that maintains the Chinese people all over the world. In the Spring Festival cultural tourism market, according to the characteristics of the people's needs for family reunion, we will focus on the popularization and publicity of the New Year's custom culture of the two groups of "at home" and "on the road".
With the Spring Festival cultural activities as a link, do a good job in popularizing the New Year's culture among the masses "at home". Facing the needs of all kinds of people who are "at home" and present, we will actively mobilize and organize different subjects such as cultural centers, libraries, museums, art galleries, art galleries, cultural relics protection units, and tourist attractions, and make full use of the important time node of the Spring Festival to actively carry out cultural and tourism activities such as theatrical performances, garden tours, New Year parades, folk performances, fireworks and lantern displays, dragon and lion dances, research and tourism, and humanistic day studies. In particular, we should do a good job in organizing cultural activities closely related to the traditional culture, such as key lantern festivals and characteristic temple fairs, so that the masses "at home" can feel the atmosphere of the traditional culture in the amusement and inherit the culture in the participation. Encourage the use of new platforms, innovative use of hot topics, fan communities, interactive comments and other new communication methods to expand influence and increase participation.
With public transportation services as a link, do a good job in publicizing the traditional culture of the masses "on the road". For all kinds of people who return to their hometowns and travel "on the road", do a good job in public services rich in the cultural atmosphere of the Spring Festival. In terms of tourism services, it can integrate all kinds of cultural tourism resources and design diversified and multi-level cultural tourism routes for the Spring Festival; In terms of transportation, the design and decoration of the Spring Festival-themed culture will be carried out inside and outside the carriage and cabin; In terms of tour guide services, strengthen training and guidance, so that tour guides can become the first disseminators and promoters of traditional culture; In terms of public signs, the Spring Festival and local cultural elements are integrated to make it an effective carrier of New Year's culture; In public places such as highway service areas, tourism distribution centers, and parking lots, Chinese knots, lanterns and other elements are used to create a festive atmosphere. Especially in terms of smart tourism services, it is necessary to highlight the cultural characteristics of the Spring Festival, with the help of technical means, to carry out a variety of cultural introductions and interactive services, and to provide personalized and diverse immersive cultural tourism experiences.
Interviewed by China Culture Daily reporter in Guangxi Binyang).
Travel trends during the Spring Festival holiday in 2024
Trend 1
"North-South exchange" for the Spring Festival
The snowflakes of Harbin and the "flowers" of Shanghai will bring a good start to the tourism industry in 2024. According to the "2024 Spring Festival Travel Market** Report" released by Ctrip, the upcoming 8-day Spring Festival holiday will be the first peak of travel in the 2024 Jiachen Year of the Dragon. The "north-south exchange" type of tourism will become popular for domestic tours. According to the "2024 Spring Festival Holiday Travel Report" jointly released by maps and other departments, the total number of population migration during the Spring Festival holiday in 2024 will far exceed that of last year, and it is expected to increase by more than 40%.
In addition, according to a number of OTA platforms**, the most popular travel theme during the Spring Festival holiday in 2024 is ice and snow travel, and the number of orders for related products has increased by more than 10 times year-on-year. Harbin continued to be hot during the New Year's Day, with travel bookings for the Spring Festival holiday increasing by more than 14 times year-on-year. As of now, travel bookings in Sanya, Kunming and other cities that northern tourists like to escape the cold have increased by more than 2 times and 6 times year-on-year respectively.
Comments: The large demand for travel has prompted destination cities to continuously optimize supply and upgrade services. For example, Sanya has launched a series of activities for the Spring Festival tourism and cultural season, and created a New Year discount matrix by combining the platform and the merchants, so that tourists can spend the Spring Festival in Sanya with peace of mind and happiness.
Trend two
Staggered peak reverse travel is more cost-effective
With the heating up of "Erbin" tourism and the fancy promotion of cultural and tourism resources in various places, various destinations have attracted a large number of tourists to rush to the destination, which has also driven the hot travel booking during the Spring Festival holiday. According to Fliggy's "2024 Spring Festival Holiday Travel Vane"**During the Spring Festival, in addition to Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Harbin, Chengdu and other popular destinations in China, Quanzhou, Zhuhai, Foshan, Beihai, Luoyang, Ningbo and other non-provincial capital cities have increased by more than 20 times year-on-year, and will become the "dark horse" of the Spring Festival holiday.
According to the reservation information, Ctrip suggests that Baise, Jiamusi, Sanming, Wuyuan, Dunhuang, Kashgar and other destinations with few beautiful scenery and small hotel ** increase and sufficient room volume are suitable for reverse travel during the Spring Festival.
Comments: Avoiding the "tides" and planning reasonably, tourists may usher in a more comfortable travel experience. For example, Qunar data shows that the average air ticket payment ** is more than 30% lower than that of Harbin in the north and Sanya in the south to avoid the "north-south swap" passenger flow and fly to central cities. In addition to the direction of travel, from the time dimension, avoid around February 9 (Chinese New Year's Eve) before the festival or February 17 (the eighth day of the first lunar month) after the holiday, and it is more cost-effective to travel off-peak.
Trend three
Parent-child and experiential products have grown explosively
The Spring Festival condenses the deep emotions of the Chinese people and places people's ardent expectations for a better life. Affected by multiple factors such as returning to their hometowns and visiting relatives, parent-child and family travel is still a highlight during the Spring Festival in 2024. According to Ctrip data, 47% of the tourists traveling during the Spring Festival in 2024 are families with children, and renting a car, customized tours, and chartered tours with local guides are the preferred choices for family travel. According to Fliggy's data, the number of bookings for domestic group tours traveling with families increased by 16 times compared to last year. Cultural tours, folk tours, and park tours, including markets, folk customs, intangible cultural heritage, performances, and other experiences, are the most popular among young users, and their popularity has increased by more than three times compared with last year.
Comments: As more and more people expect to perceive the traditional New Year's flavor through immersive and experiential New Year's products, many places have recently announced the implementation of scenic spot ticket reductions and exemptions during the Spring Festival, and through the holding of lantern festivals, temple fairs, skiing, hot springs, food and other colorful activities, the atmosphere of the New Year Festival is rendered with new scenes and new gameplay, which has also driven the growth of comprehensive consumption such as hotels and restaurants. For example, on the Mafengwo platform, the "One Night Fish and Dragon Dance" at the Shanghai Yu Garden Lantern Festival profoundly interprets oriental aesthetics, attracting local and foreign tourists to "check in", and the search popularity is **113%.
Trend four
International friends experience the Year of China
With the Chinese New Year culture widely spread around the world, experiencing the Chinese New Year has become a new highlight in the inbound tourism market. The five newly introduced entry facilitation measures and China's visa-free and visa simplification policies for some countries since 2023 have further driven the inbound tourism market during the Spring Festival. On February 9 (Chinese New Year's Eve), China and Singapore will officially take effect on mutual visa exemption, and ordinary passports can enter each other's countries visa-free for tourism, family visits, business, etc., for a stay of no more than 30 days. The rollout of the visa facilitation initiative has led to a 66% month-on-month increase in bookings for travel products from Singaporean visitors to China. According to Ctrip data, inbound travel orders during the Spring Festival in 2024 will increase by more than 10 times year-on-year, with Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Chengdu, Harbin and other destinations popular with foreign tourists.
Comments: The heating up of the inbound tourism market with the support of favorable policies has prompted destinations and merchants to accelerate the deployment of new products. For example, in the Spring Festival tourism and cultural season, Sanya launched special activities such as the "Lantern Festival Carnival" in line with the consumption habits of foreign tourists, so that international friends can enjoy the Chinese New Year happily. Relevant experts suggest that in order to "add fuel to the fire" of inbound tourism, it is also necessary to strengthen the blockages in payment, transportation and other aspects, and launch more attractive and good experience products, so that foreign tourists can better understand China.
Trend Five
The popular destination for outbound travel has expanded to the "12-hour flight circle".
During the Spring Festival in 2024, short- and medium-haul outbound routes from Southeast Asia, Japan and South Korea are popular choices, and popular tourist destinations include Thailand, Japan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Australia, Singapore, etc. In addition, compared with last year, the popular destinations for outbound travel are expanding from a "4-hour flight circle" to a "12-hour flight circle". According to data from the Fliggy platform, more than half of the top 20 outbound travel destinations are countries and regions with a "12-hour flight circle". Russia, Egypt, Serbia, Morocco, Norway and a number of other outbound destinations far away from China are rapidly emerging. According to Ctrip data**, cruise ships are the "dark horses" of outbound travel during the Spring Festival, and the average advance booking period at home ports this year is 35 days earlier than in 2019.
Comments: Affected by factors such as the increase in visa-free countries and the resumption of international flights, the popularity of outbound travel during the Spring Festival in 2024 has risen, and the booking of various outbound travel products has entered a peak. For example, during the Spring Festival of the Year of the Dragon, Hong Kong, China will hold the "Chinese New Year International Parade Night", and Macao, China will also hold a series of activities such as the New Year Float Parade. Attracted by the welcome event, the booking of packaged tourism products such as "Hong Kong and Macau 4 nights and 5 days tour" is hot. With the increase in the frequency of routes to Europe, in-depth travel to Europe has also become a new direction for outbound travel during the Spring Festival in 2024.
China Culture Daily reporter in Shandong Sun Congcong).
February 3, 2024 China Culture Daily
A special report was published in the third edition.
"Cultural Tourism Dresses Up Happy Chinese Year".
Editor-in-charge: Chen Chen.