Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, May 18 Question: County tourism is "on fire", how to "keep on fire"?
Duan Jingjing, Yang Siqi and He Leijing, reporters of Xinhua News Agency's "Xinhua Viewpoint"
This round, the "sky shattering flow" of tourism is the county seat.
"County tourism" is quietly coming to position C. On social media, the topic related to this also continues to heat up. After the May Day holiday, Xiao Jing, a Beijing resident, chatted with his colleagues and found that five people in the same office had "clocked in" a county seat.
Behind the popularity of county tourism, there are multiple factors such as time, location, people and so on; What is more worth thinking about is how to "keep the fire going" in the "fire rising" county seat?
Tourists are boating in the Small Seven Arches Scenic Spot in Libo County (taken on May 16, with drone photos). Photographed by Tao Liang, a reporter from Xinhua News Agency
Small county town quietly occupies the tourism C position
Before the May Day holiday, Xiaojie, a girl from Hubei Province, studied the map for a long time to find a "small place" and stay quietly for a few days. "You don't need to be famous, you don't need to have too many scenic spots, you will be satisfied to see green mountains and green waters."
There are many people with similar ideas. When choosing tourist destinations, more and more people do not want to go to big cities to crowd people, but start to dig "treasure" county and look for the beauty of the county.
During the "May Day" golden week just passed, the downward trend of China's tourism market was more obvious. In terms of the year-on-year growth rate of tourism orders, the first tier and second tier cities were smaller than the third tier and fourth tier cities, and the third tier and fourth tier cities were smaller than the county markets.
7941 cups of coffee a day! During the May Day holiday, the "Dark Blue Plan" cafe in Anji County, Zhejiang Province, which was rebuilt from abandoned limestone mines, became "boiling" again. Miss Lin from Shanghai is walking by the lake. "This is my second time here," she said, where you can listen to music, read books, and enjoy your own time quietly.
Zhejiang Yiwu International Trade City Five District Import Commodity City gathers 150000 kinds of "foreign specialties" from more than 100 countries and regions. During the five days of the holiday, more than 900000 people poured into the Trade City. "Three or four times a day" and "too busy to eat" became the norm for bosses.
"We specially carried two empty bags." Tourist Zhang Qiang said that Yiwu's surprise lies not only in the experience of "inbound tourism", but also in the delicious food of all countries with different flavors. "It's not that Turkey can't afford to go, but Yiwu is more cost-effective."
During the May Day holiday, tourists and citizens taste lobster and other delicacies at the night market of Datong Agricultural Trade Market in Xuyi. (Photographed by Zhou Jiayue)
At the Datong farmers' market in Xuyi, Jiangsu, there are dozens of restaurants and stalls mainly engaged in crawfish. As dusk fell, thousands of square meters of open-air square was full of tourists, and the air was filled with pungent fragrance.
Compared with the "hot and hot" in the south, May in a small town in the north is the best time for "Spring Mountain". In Shangzhi City, Heilongjiang Province, not far from the central urban area of "Erbin", a popular website, tourists flock to the beautiful Yabuli Resort and Maoershan Scenic Area to experience the magnificent scenery.
Zhang Jun, director of Shangzhi Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism, said that the local tourism market continued the popularity of winter ice and snow tours, and eight scenic spots were opened at the same time. As of May 10, Shangzhi City has received more than 1.62 million tourists in 2024, with a direct tourism revenue of 388 million yuan, up 175% year on year.
On the Little Red Book, there are more than 380000 notes on "County Tourism". People enthusiastically share the county town worth visiting: after reading Shen Congwen a thousand times, it is better to go to the ancient city of Phoenix; Seeing blue tears in Pingtan Island is like a broken diamond thrown into the sea, or a star falling into the world; In the ancient village of Nuodeng for thousands of years, we wake up every day with smoke curling from the kitchen, and everything slows down
"Enjoy China and live a happy life" is the theme of this year's "China Tourism Day", and it is also the portrayal of current county tourism.
According to statistics, the county coverage of national A-level tourist attractions will increase from 73% in 2012 to 93% in 2023. County tourism constitutes the basic plate of China's tourism, and the development level of county tourism reflects the real development level of China's tourism industry.
"Time", "Location" and "Harmony" behind the popularity
Behind the popularity of county tourism, there is a trend to create opportunities, a trend to create opportunities, a "geographical advantage" of the county, and a "harmony" of people working together in both directions.
New changes at both ends of the supply and demand of China's tourism industry are breeding new opportunities all the time.
Wang Yalei, an industry analyst at Ctrip Research Institute, said that consumers are growing, from pursuing "clocking" to focusing on experience; From a single product to multiple play methods, tourism is returning more to the essence of life. It is against this background that the county tourism craze came into being.
High cost performance and ease are the important reasons why the county town is favored by young people.
During the May Day holiday, Ding Zhihui, the "post-95" in Wuxi, went to Quzhou, Zhejiang Province with friends. In the past years, when traveling with parents, they always went to big cities and made a thorough travel plan. The per capita expenditure was at least 2000 yuan, which was "costly and laborious".
"Cost performance is the absolute principle. We choose our destination very casually. When our friends said that the duck head in Quzhou was delicious, they came on a walk and talk trip," Ding Zhihui said.
Anyone who has experienced the "conformity" during the holiday will know how rare the quiet and comfortable time is. The small county town is becoming a "spiritual habitat" for many tourists. Li Xue, associate researcher of the Planning and Leisure Institute of the China Tourism Research Institute, believes that the county is not only a beautiful landscape, but also contains high-quality living space, which is exactly the core element of the county tourism competitiveness.
Many counties are "gifted", and their characteristic IP makes them a "clocking in" destination for tourists.
The "village super" event was deeply integrated with cultural and tourism resources. During the "May Day", Rongjiang County received more than 400000 tourists and achieved a comprehensive tourism income of more than 400 million yuan. In Pengshui Miao and Tujia Autonomous County, Chongqing, the Huashan Festival has gradually become a beautiful cultural tourism card.
On May 15, Miao compatriots uploaded songs and dances (UAV photos) on the traditional festival of Stepping on Flower Mountain. Photographed by Tang Yi, a reporter from Xinhua News Agency
Not to mention, some counties were once ancient capitals with a long history; Some counties are "hidden" and rich in cultural heritage.
On the other hand, the improvement of traffic infrastructure has also made the distance between the county seat and the big city shorter and shorter.
Cheng Chaogong, the chief researcher of Tongcheng Research Institute, pointed out that the traffic accessibility of county-level cities has improved significantly in recent years. For example, high-speed rail has covered more than 90% of cities with a population of more than 500000, and many counties have gradually increased the number of buses, shuttle buses, bike sharing and other transportation facilities to improve the travel experience.
"Smile at tourists with 'very' services", "Try to be the favorite small county"... The county towns inspired by tourists' enthusiasm also offer better products and services to tourists one after another.
During the May Day holiday, Xuyi did enough "lobster" articles to attract cultural tourism consumption. Before the holiday, it was announced that special night market activities would be held from May Day to August to create scenes of night food, night shopping, night entertainment and night travel; "Welfare" has also been prepared: tourists who have spent more than 200 yuan in Xuyi "Ki Lobster" can visit 4A level scenic spots free of charge with invoices.
The enthusiasm of tourists for exploration meets the service sincerity of the county town, which realizes a two-way rush between people and the city.
"Fire up" should be "Fire down"
Being seen is only the first step.
The National Research Report on the High Quality Development of County Tourism 2023 shows that in 2022, there will be only 79 major tourism counties with a total tourism revenue of more than 10 billion yuan and a total number of tourists of more than 10 million. The counties with a tourism revenue of less than 3 billion yuan will account for 65.86% of the total counties included in the statistics. From this point of view, the county tourism market still has much room for development.
Zhang Jun said frankly that the county tourism development, which is trying to grasp the "tuyere", still faces some constraints.
The carrying capacity and service level often become the watershed for the county to become "popular" or "black recruit". Zhang Jun said that in some scenic spots, the transformation and improvement of public toilets, parking spaces and other supporting service facilities can not keep up, and it is often difficult to access toilets and park during the peak tourism season; Some employees have insufficient professional quality and non-standard service standards, which will also affect the impression and evaluation of tourists.
How to keep the "fire up" county tourism "fire down"?
First, fully tap its own characteristics. The tourism market is changing from popularity to refinement, differentiation and personalization. The county seat needs to be based on its own unique advantages to meet the diversified needs of tourists who are constantly upgrading.
Experts interviewed said that some ancient villages and rural scenic spots often "break the circle" on social media through one scene and one thing. These tourism destinations that can carry "nostalgia", on the one hand, need to protect the traditional texture of the village and improve the appearance, on the other hand, they need to integrate special cultural and tourism elements, create a new IP that "people have no me, people have my special", and form a unique label of the town.
Secondly, we should speed up the upgrading of facilities.
Han Yuanjun, associate researcher of China Tourism Research Institute, said that county tourism should achieve host guest sharing, which can meet the needs of both local people and tourists. Whether the infrastructure is perfect and the supporting services are matched is often the key to the development of county tourism. Local governments should constantly improve their governance capabilities and work hard and soft.
At the same time, we should also avoid the impulse of blind development to create traffic. Some places, in order to create online celebrity attractions, collect old houses in ancient villages and towns at will for transformation or even demolition, which is easy to fall into the stereotype of "one thousand villages and one side", making old villages and towns too commercialized.
Finally, we need to anchor the long-term development pattern. "For tourism destinations that cannot be moved, they need to adopt a nurturing development model and take the path of sustainable development." Li Xinjian, executive director of the Capital Culture and Tourism Development Research Institute of Beijing International Studies University, said that county tourism should "go down in flames", need to anchor the "long-term principle", focus on creating in-depth cultural experience, and let the destination continue to release attraction.