Report released | "Liaoning's path to high-quality development of travel destinations"

On July 30, 2024, the "Travel and Health Care, Happy Coast, Liaoning Province's Construction of Northeast Asian Tourism Destination Series of Activities" hosted by the China Tourism Research Institute, Liaoning Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism, Yingkou Municipal People's Government, and undertaken by Yingkou Municipal Bureau of Culture, Tourism and Radio and Television was held at the Jintailong Yue Seaview Hotel in Bayuquan, Yingkou City, Liaoning Province. Dr. Jiang Naiyuan from the Planning and Leisure Research Institute of the China Tourism Research Institute released the "Liaoning Path to High-Quality Development of Travel and Residence Destinations" report on behalf of the Liaoning Province Three-Year Action Plan Project Team for the Construction of Northeast Asian Tourism Destination. The main core points are shared as follows:

1. The Origin and Evolution of Living in Travel From the ancient emperors' tours to the literati's travels across the mountains and rivers, the way of living in travel has been popular since ancient times. As time goes by and society continues to change, people's pursuit of the essence of life in foreign places has not changed, and this form of tourism has continued. The formation of the first Golden Week in 1999 ushered in the era of mass tourism. The 7-day+ holiday has become a sufficient time condition to promote the flow of mass tourists from one place to another. Tourists gradually feel the wonderful experience of traveling in the way of life and living in the way of travel; there has been a change in demand from going out of the house to travel to another place for a short life, and the boundary between life and tourism has gradually blurred.

2. Domestic Travel and Residence Development Model The domestic travel and residence market is gradually booming, and the domestic leisure and vacation model has promoted the expansion of the travel and residence market. According to statistics from the China Tourism Research Institute, at least 50% of tourists choose leisure and vacation. Sightseeing tourism has faded, leisure and vacation have emerged, and travel with a longer time span and deeper spatial dimension has become popular. Social changes have also promoted the rapid development of the travel and residence industry, and the aging social structure has driven the strong demand for travel and residence for the elderly. The proportion of the elderly in the travel and residence market is getting higher and higher. Home care, community care and other forms can no longer fully meet the elderly care needs, and the demand for travel and residence for the elderly is increasing. The increase in the randomness of the work space has promoted the development of the travel and residence industry at a younger age: affected by factors such as the accelerated pace of work and the speeding up of traffic, the social work structure has changed, more free work space and more efficient work needs, and the office environment is no longer limited to a fixed place, which has increased the degree of intersection between life and work and blurred the boundaries, increasing the demand for travel and residence among professionals and freelancers. From the perspective of external demand, the international holiday and residence market is gradually recovering, and inbound tourism is unstoppable: On July 5, 2024, the National Immigration Administration reported at a press conference that in the first half of 2024, 14.635 million foreigners entered China through ports, a year-on-year increase of 152.7% (data source: National Immigration Administration official website). Foreign tourists' enthusiasm for coming to China continues to increase. The national open port cities' 24-hour visa-free policy and 72-hour or 144-hour transit visa-free policy have facilitated inbound tourism, increased the frequency of foreigners' entry, and provided forward-looking guidance for foreigners to come to my country to live in the future.

From the perspective of industry distribution, the domestic travel and residence market is booming and reconstructing. Since the travel and residence industry is a new industry, there is no indicator system to measure the level of development of the travel and residence industry. From the perspective of the development of industries and factors across the country and spatial distribution, the development of my country's travel and residence industry is very unbalanced. Generally speaking, the south is rapid, the north is lagging behind, the east is advanced, and the west is backward.

3. Analysis on the Development of Tourism Destination in Liaoning Province An in-depth investigation was conducted on the tourism development policies, tourism ecological resources, industrial structure, transportation infrastructure, and market infrastructure of Liaoning Province, and the current status of tourism development in Liaoning Province was analyzed.

The policy direction clearly defines the destination of travel and residence. In recent years, various policies have provided strong support for travel and residence, health care, housing, vacation, medical care, and the deep integration of culture and tourism. Liaoning's rich ecological resources such as mountains, seas, rivers, hot springs, forests, and wetlands, as well as the humane Liao culture, provide travelers with the ecological and environmental elements to live in their "second hometown".

The supply of tourism and leisure products in Liaoning is becoming increasingly abundant. Liaoning has enough living space such as hotels, homestays, and self-owned properties to accommodate travelers, as well as cultural venues such as cultural centers, museums, public libraries, tourist attractions, national and provincial key villages and towns, and national tourist resorts. The medical and elderly care service system is gradually improving. There are 34,136 medical institutions in the province, including hospitals, health centers, disease prevention and control centers, maternal and child health hospitals, community health service centers, health institutions, medical beds, and other medical and health service facilities covering urban and rural areas, providing a stable medical environment for community life.

Data source: Liaoning Provincial People's Government, Liaoning Provincial Statistical Communiqué on National Economic and Social Development in 2023, Liaoning Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism official website, and research team collection and compilation

The tourism distribution service system is becoming more complete. The province has 6,302 kilometers of railway operating mileage (excluding local railways), with six ports including Dalian Port, Yingkou Port, Dandong Port, Jinzhou Port, Panjin Port, and Huludao Port. It has the most unimpeded and complete airport network in Northeast China, with a total of eight civil aviation airports including Shenyang, Dalian, Anshan, Dandong, Yingkou, Jinzhou, Chaoyang, and Changhai, 453 routes have been opened, connecting 128 domestic cities and 20 overseas cities. Convenient high-speed rail, expressway and aviation conditions provide continuous convenience for domestic and foreign tourists.

The market source of tourists is stable, and the comprehensive tourism income is growing. In 2023, Liaoning Province will receive a total of 510 million tourists, and the total tourism income will reach 502.26 billion. In the first half of 2024, Liaoning Province received a total of 331.561 million tourists, a year-on-year increase of 50.8%; the comprehensive tourism income was 356.51 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 58.9%. The target group has strong demand for vacation and leisure in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the source market in the Northeast is stable, and the traditional source attraction factors are developing in an all-round way.

Data source: Liaoning Provincial People's Government, Liaoning Provincial Statistical Communiqué on National Economic and Social Development in 2023, Liaoning Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism official website, and research team collection and compilation

4. Demand-oriented survey and analysis of Liaoning's travel destinations The high-quality development of Liaoning's travel destinations is ultimately based on the high-quality development of the needs of the groups living in Liaoning. In response to this, the Northeast Asia Tourism Destination Project Team of the China Tourism Research Institute designed a Liaoning travel demand survey questionnaire to analyze the needs from the aspects of travel experience, travel area, travel environment, disposable income, travel form, travel attraction factors, travel service facilities, travel demand channels, consumer satisfaction, and continuous improvement. The following conclusions were obtained:

From the perspective of popular travel destinations, Shenyang, Dalian, Anshan, Fushun, Benxi, Dandong, Yingkou and other places have high interest; Jinzhou, Fuxin, Yingkou and other places are more attractive to target groups who have no travel experience. This means that in the future development of travel in the province, these three cities can be added as key travel development cities.

Data source: Sampling survey data of the research team

From the perspective of the average daily consumption of travelers: the consumption level of travelers is constantly upgrading, and the number of people pursuing a refined and diversified lifestyle is gradually increasing. The questionnaire shows that the average daily consumption of consumers is concentrated between 101-200 and 201-500 yuan; in the future, more attention should be paid to creating high-quality homestay clusters and leisure shopping centers, and creating a hierarchical, diversified and refined living and consumption place for travelers; the length of stay of one month, one to two months can best reflect the travelers' time demand for living in Liaoning, and long-term stay is not attractive enough for travelers; from the perspective of accommodation: the accommodation of travelers has changed from hotels to homestays, providing a broad choice space for the living style, youth hostels, hotels and self-owned properties that travelers tend to choose in the future.

Data source: Sampling survey data of the research team

From the perspective of the purpose of living, a certain proportion of the sojourners choose to travel to Liaoning for leisure and vacation, retirement, visiting relatives and friends, and work. Healing the soul, living environment, and folk customs also account for a certain proportion of the sojourners who choose to travel to Liaoning. It is worth noting that the questionnaire shows that folk customs > coastal environment, which breaks the inherent way of thinking that the environment is the first choice. From the perspective of the sojourners' demand for community services: Sojourners have more service functions for the surrounding communities, such as health services, comprehensive supermarkets, elderly care services, psychological counseling, etc. Sojourners are more willing to integrate into community life and hope that the surrounding facilities are complete; if the sojourners are satisfied with the living environment, they hope to share it with others, which shows that if a good community life and living environment can be continuously provided, the sojourn destination will be spread with good word of mouth.

Data source: Sampling survey data of the research team

Data source: Sampling survey data of the research team

5. High-quality development path of Liaoning Province's tourist destinations With the goal of high-quality development of Liaoning Province's tourist destinations, a 1212 development path is provided, namely, one shaping, two strengthening, one cultivation, and two promotion. Shape and promote the northern tourist brand. Establish a strong tourist IP and create a northern tourist destination brand; take Dalian as the main city to initiate the establishment of the Northeast Asian Tourist City Alliance and the Northern Chinese Tourist City Alliance, and work together to enhance the attractiveness and influence of the Northeast Asian and northern Chinese tourist destination industries through complementary advantages and cross-regional cooperation; establish long-term customer transport cooperation with counterpart provinces and cities, Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, and the Northeast region, and form a word-of-mouth communication effect with early customer satisfaction.

Strengthen the development of leisure and vacation products and project construction. Taking the creation of 5A scenic spots, national tourist resorts, national tourist leisure blocks, Chinese characteristic towns, national research and study travel bases, five-star hot springs, five-level elderly care institutions, and national traditional Chinese medicine health tourism demonstration zones as a starting point, gradually build Liaoning Province's travel and residence brands and demonstration areas; highlight the resource advantages of "sea, springs, forests, cities, and red" and develop leisure and vacation travel and residence products with seaside, health care, ecology, cities, and culture as themes; introduce a number of characteristic main leisure and vacation projects with international brands, strong leading roles, large investment scales, complete service functions, and high market expectations.

Strengthen the construction of supporting facilities for travel and residence. Promote the integration of tourism and urban construction, fully integrate tourism elements into the reconstruction of old cities and the development of new cities, and build urban landmark landscapes that highlight local cultural characteristics and urban leisure spaces shared by hosts and guests; carry out residential construction, and on the basis of standardizing existing hotels and homestays, pay attention to the construction of RV camps, cooperation with short-term rental platforms, and the transformation and sales of existing real estate for travel and residence; accelerate the construction of Dalian Northeast Asia International Shipping Center and increase the number of international passenger flights; build a "fast-in + slow-out" transportation network, focusing on the layout of riverside trails, landscape greening, and landscape sketches.

Cultivate leading travel and residence enterprises. Expand and strengthen the upstream and downstream travel and residence industry chain, and improve the overall benefits of the entire industry chain. Guide travel and residence enterprises to operate on a large scale and in a chain manner, incubate local high-quality travel and residence brands, and cultivate leading enterprises. Combine with the community pension insurance projects of well-known insurance companies to cultivate high-quality travel and residence retirement community bases; promote the strong combination of local leading cultural and tourism enterprises and real estate enterprises, and combine the new cultural and tourism IP created by local leading enterprises to activate the travel and residence market and move towards all-age groups.

Promote the construction of urban and rural elderly-friendly services. Establish the concept of elderly-friendly services throughout the province and increase the configuration of elderly-friendly facilities and equipment. Promote the connection between local elderly care and elderly care service information with household registration, medical care, social insurance, social assistance, cultural tourism and other information resources to achieve cross-departmental and cross-regional information sharing and collaborative cooperation. Provide convenient conditions for large-scale elderly care groups traveling by plane, train, car and other means of transportation.

Promote the province's civilized quality improvement project. The host-guest sharing concept shines into the reality of high-quality development of Liaoning's travel and residence, making sharing Liaoning's quality life a social consensus. Strengthen the training of service industry personnel, and carry out special rectification of taxis, properties, and catering based on the tourist satisfaction survey. Enhance the civilized quality education of citizens and promote civilized concepts to become the consensus and action guide of citizens.

Contributor | Planning and Leisure Research Institute Editor | Xue Shiyi Source | China Tourism Academy (Data Center of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism) Please indicate the author and source for reprinting