Dai Bin | My Dream of Building a Well-off Tourism Homestay

On July 18th, the Northern Homestay Cluster Industry Development Forum was held in Qingdao. President Dai Bin, at the invitation of the organizers, participated in the event online and delivered a keynote speech. The full text is as follows:

My dream of running a comfortable tourism guesthouse

-- Keynote Speech at the Northern Homestay Cluster Industry Development Forum (July 18, 2020) Director of the China Tourism Academy, Dai Bin

Dear colleagues in the tourism industry,

Good afternoon, friends from the media! The last two decades of the last century were the golden age of inbound tourism, and also the heyday of star-rated hotels—officially known as "foreign-related star-rated hotels." With the entry of international hotel management groups such as Peninsula, Holiday Inn, and Sheraton, coupled with the influence of inbound tourists' spending habits, star-rated hotels quickly became synonymous with high-end accommodation. In 1984, under the promotion of the national tourism administration, the tourism hotel and foreign-related reception industry launched a vigorous "Learn from the Jianguo Hotel" campaign. Batch after batch of "going out" and "bringing in" finally established star-rated hotels as a synonym for the tourism accommodation industry and a benchmark for the lifestyle service industry, in the form of national standards (GB/T). In 2007, the China World Hotel in Beijing, the Garden Hotel in Guangzhou, and the Portman Hotel in Shanghai were awarded the first and last batch of Platinum Five-Star hotels, marking the pinnacle of star-rated hotels' historical development. For a considerable period, whether five-star, three-star, or one-star, regardless of the number of foreign tourists visiting throughout the year, hotels in various regions were basically built and operated according to independent living scenarios. Aside from necessary outings, guests can use chain hotels as their shells for traveling the world, like snails, providing a sense of security while effectively isolating themselves from the local community. For a considerable period, the general public's perception of hotels was like that of Zhu Ziqing's poem "Lotus Pond in the Moonlight": "The liveliness is theirs, I have nothing." Indeed, back then, dreams of travel, including those of hotels and guesthouses, existed but had nowhere to go. This was because the main consumers of tourism at that time were foreigners, compatriots from Hong Kong and Macau, compatriots from Taiwan, and overseas Chinese. The participation of Chinese citizens in tourism consumption only began after the "Golden Week" of 1999. In long-distance outbound travel, scenery and culture may differ, but food and accommodation require similarity. For example, European and American tourists look for an ice bucket upon entering their rooms, while we look for hot water; when they turn on the TV, they watch CNN and BBC, while we watch CCTV News and Hunan TV's "Sisters Who Make Waves." It's simply a difference in lifestyle. Just think about how many Chinese people carried instant noodles and chili sauce when outbound tourism first emerged, and you'll easily understand why. The coupling of market economy and consumer sovereignty inevitably requires products and services to follow demand, not to mention the era when "the customer is king" and "the guest is always right" were considered golden rules. Another important factor in hotels being viewed as independent living spaces is that the destination's commercial environment cannot support tourists' needs beyond accommodation. Hotels have to internalize the provision of transportation, currency exchange, specialty dining, shopping, fitness, communication, and sightseeing. The result is that all hotels are large and comprehensive, taking on many responsibilities that should be borne by industry and society. The seven-day National Day holiday in 1999 ushered in the era of mass tourism and a new wave of hotel construction. Unlike the previous two decades, this was driven by national consumption and jointly promoted by private enterprises and social forces. The rise of budget hotels represented by Home Inns, Jinjiang Inn, 7 Days Inn, and Hanting marked the beginning of a historical process of local innovation in the accommodation industry and redefined what constitutes the tourism accommodation industry. While strengthening core functions such as beds, showers, and free Wi-Fi, budget hotels have drastically reduced ancillary services such as restaurants, dance halls, bookstores, room service, luggage handling, and taxi services, not to mention the exorbitantly priced but underutilized amenities like presidential suites, swimming pools, bars, and cigar lounges. The significant result of this cost control is that more young business travelers and leisure tourists are enjoying entry-level accommodation brands for the first time, and more franchisees are making the most of their resources and profits. Thanks to the involvement of industrial capital such as Sunac, R&F, Wanda, and Jinmao, China's voice and influence in the global high-end hotel market have been steadily growing over the past decade. The innovative development of the accommodation industry in the first two decades of the 21st century mainly benefited from two incremental factors. First, the post-70s and post-80s middle class replaced inbound tourists as the main consumer group for tourism, gradually eroding the brand advantage of international hotel groups under the price advantage of budget hotels. Second, the increasingly完善的urban and rural infrastructure, public services, and business environment made it realistically possible for the non-accommodation functions of traditional hotels to shift towards social specialization. Whether it's chain restaurants like McDonald's, Starbucks, Haidilao, and Kungfu, or local delicacies like Cantonese morning tea, Hangzhou xiaolongbao, Peking duck, and Chongqing hot pot, all can be conveniently enjoyed outside the hotel. For transportation, there are numerous options including subways, buses, taxis, car-sharing, and bike-sharing. For leisure and entertainment, there are cinemas, theaters, museums, art galleries, specialty bookstores, and cafes scattered throughout business districts, historical and cultural blocks, and communities. In this process, the national will embodied in the Tourism Law, the national strategy carried by the State Council's "Opinions on Accelerating the Development of the Tourism Industry," the new concept of "a better life shared by both locals and guests," new technologies represented by big data, artificial intelligence, and 5G, and the new integration of "integration where possible, integration to the fullest extent; shaping tourism through culture, and showcasing culture through tourism" have all brought new momentum to the high-quality development of the tourism accommodation industry. Colleagues and friends, in this era of mass tourism where the national average annual travel rate exceeds 4 times, the average travel time is 7.65 days, and the average travel radius is 73.7 kilometers, we have solved the problems of "whether tourism consumption exists" and "whether accommodation brands are lacking." In the upcoming era of tourism driven by a moderately prosperous society, which is also an era of high-quality integration and development of culture and tourism, tourist satisfaction will be higher, market players will be more competitive, and the potential for industrial development will be more fully released. People's tourism rights will enter a new realm: they will not only appreciate the beautiful scenery of distant places but also experience the beauty of local life. Tourists will have more wonderful accommodation dreams during their trips abroad: "Give me a hotel where my taste buds will swell and my dreams will blossom." Such a dream of our times cannot be realized through the traditional paths of star-rated hotels and budget hotels. Only by integrating the beautiful life scenarios represented by the Chinese Dream with tourism consumption can we forge a new path of "tourism, accommodation +". Currently, it seems that the homestay industry, with its platform support, brand growth, and embedded development, is likely to be the first to break through. Today, as the dream of a beautiful China's tourism gradually becomes a reality, there is an urgent need for large-scale investment in the homestay industry to promote a major transformation in the tourism accommodation industry. Homestays need both humanistic sentiment and commercial rationality. Tourism is not only about the attraction of beautiful scenery, rich history, and diverse culture, but also about people's yearning for and experience of a better life in other places. The natural landscapes and historical and cultural heritage upon which tourism development relies are both local and national, and their aesthetic value should be shared by all humanity. Hotels and guesthouses not only provide accommodation and have commercial value, but they also serve as important windows for tourists from other countries to connect and interact with local residents. More and more people recognize that the best travel experience is about connecting with people, and hotels and guesthouses should be integrated into community life, rather than existing independently of the destination's economic and social development. This development concept was first proposed and practiced by guesthouse owners, who love life and travel, and are often artists and designers. They invest in, design, and manage their own guesthouses, each with a name that sounds artistic, brimming with passion and ideals. Many have achieved commercial success, but for most, guesthouses are simply a vessel for personal sentiment. In fact, from Guilin Yangshuo, Lijiang Ancient Town, and Dali Erhai Lake to Xiamen Zengcuo'an, we see too many passionate guesthouse owners repeatedly tormented by reality. We don't need to cite examples of guesthouses in certain places charging thousands of yuan per night and still being fully booked; business is not like writing self-media articles, it's about the norm and its replicability. Mr. Luo Jun, co-founder of Tujia, and I share a consensus: sentimentality is too fragile; it needs the armor of commerce to protect it. In this sense, we need more entrepreneurs-led, market-oriented, and commercially operated businesses like Sunac, Swiden, and Ador Town. Homestays need both accommodation and tourism attributes. Besides the homestay clusters that have spontaneously grown based on scenic areas like Moganshan, and the homestay projects systematically developed by tourist cities like Beidaihe based on real estate, most are affiliated with operators like Airbnb and Swiden. Homestays on trading platforms like Tujia and Xiaozhu, especially in large cities, primarily focus on accommodation. From the perspective of national tourism industry policies and industry standards, we must emphasize both the "homestay's" and "tourism" aspects; otherwise, they are no different from short-term rentals of residential housing. What are tourism attributes? It means that spatial design should creatively meet the localized living needs of tourists, scene creation should have exotic cultural connotations and artistic expressions, and in terms of customer service, it should always maintain a timely response to the travel needs of sightseeing, leisure, business, health and wellness, transportation, and study tours. To simultaneously meet so many demands while maintaining quality, a systematic integration of project investment, platform operation and maintenance, product development and service supervision, as well as tactical units and professional institutions such as legal, human resources, and public relations is essential. This requires top-level design and environmental creation by the state through laws, regulations, industrial policies, and industry standards, and even more so, the broad participation of social forces and collaborative innovation by market entities. The introduction of Swedon's professional operation into the Ado Town project developed by Sunac is a good example of this. Homestays need to rely on the urban commercial system and also need to integrate into the community living environment. As travel experience matures and the living environment of urban and rural residents improves, everything from theaters to farmers' markets will become new spaces for tourists and residents to share a better life. The best travel is about connecting people; only when tourists integrate into local life scenarios will their sense of gain and satisfaction with the quality of life increase. There seems to be some misunderstanding in the industry regarding the word "community," as if it is not high-end or sophisticated enough. I once chatted with the person in charge of a northern coastal resort real estate project, and he seemed reluctant to let me call a popular place a community, repeatedly emphasizing the concept of a resort. In fact, the transition from resort to community is an upgrade, not a downgrade. It seems the concept of independent living spaces in star-rated hotels still has a tenacious vitality, as everyone wants to detach themselves from daily life. Wouldn't that just turn European and North American tourists into vacation destinations in the Caribbean, Southeast Asia, and South Pacific islands? Inside the red line is a tourist paradise, while outside lies poverty and backwardness for the locals—this kind of tourism development model is not what we need. The people-centered development philosophy and the people-centered coordinated development require inherent consistency. Sociality is an essential attribute of human beings. Good homestay clusters that can satisfy tourists' social interaction, sharing of community life, and in-depth experience of the destination environment are what the times need, representing innovation in tourism accommodation and upgrading of tourism quality. People's yearning for a better life is the eternal driving force for the innovative development of homestays. This driving force will only strengthen with economic and social development, and will not weaken due to temporary difficulties such as the pandemic. Soon, the first centenary dream of China will be realized. Let us take action and innovate for the people's dream of a modern, well-off tourism homestay!