Dai Bin | From Scenery to Scene - New Thoughts on Scenic Resort Areas and Leisure Blocks

In the summer of 2022, President Dai Bin was invited to investigate the cultural heritage tourism in Guangzhou, Foshan, Mount Wuyi, Quanzhou and other places, and made a series of speeches with local leaders, tourism groups and industry association leaders, focusing on the development concept from scenery to scene, promoting the high-quality development of tourist attractions, resorts, tourism leisure cities and blocks. The full text of "From Scenery to Scene: New Reflections on Scenic Resort Areas and Leisure Blocks" is as follows: Firstly, scenic spots have always been typical spaces and classic formats for tourism activities, and their contributions to the tourism industry are unforgettable in history and promising in the future. For a long time, tourist attractions have carried the beautiful imagination of the Chinese people towards poetry and distant places, satisfying the irreplaceable classic experience of tourists towards their destinations. Since ancient times, reading thousands of books and traveling thousands of miles has been a fine tradition of the Chinese nation. There are massive articles on mountains and rivers in the thousands of books, and there are classic inheritances of history and culture on the thousands of miles of roads. The Travels of Xu Xiake has built countrymen's good image of the natural scenery and human customs in the journey. Since ancient times, Mount Taishan, Huashan, Songshan, Hengshan and Hengshan, "Five Mountains Return without Looking at the Mountains", Mount Huangshan, "Mount Huangshan Return without Looking at the Mountains", famous Buddhist mountains Jiuhua Mountain, Mount Wutai, Putuo Mountain, Mount Emei, famous Taoist mountains Wudang Mountain, Qiyun Mountain, Mount Sanqing, Qingcheng Mountain, Kongtong Mountain, the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River, Guilin landscape, Hukou Waterfall, Huangguoshu Waterfall, Hangzhou West Lake, Xiamen Gulangyu and other scenic spots, the Great Wall, the Grand Canal, the Forbidden City, the Qin Tombs Terra Cotta Warriors, Yin Xu in Anyang and Pingyao Ancient City, together constitute the tourism background resources of magnificent mountains and rivers and colorful humanities. In the initial stage of the development of mass tourism, tourist attractions that rely on natural resources such as mountains, waters, forests, and grasslands, as well as cultural sites, intangible cultural heritage, cultural and museum venues, greatly meet the needs of the general public to see distant scenery and enjoy local culture. For international and domestic tourists, whether visiting a country, region, or city for the first time or multiple times, it is always regrettable if they have not been to the local iconic scenic spots. For many years, traditional scenic spots, along with hotels and travel agencies, have formed a typical tourism industry, promoting the continuous improvement of tourism service quality. Even today, they still have their survival foundation and development space. In 1979, Comrade Deng Xiaoping made a long speech on the reform, innovation and development of tourism in Mount Huangshan, and made a series of important instructions on the brand promotion, service quality improvement, management system reform, environmental protection and sustainable development of tourist attractions. Since then, the connotation of tourist attractions has no longer been limited to gathering spaces of natural, historical, and cultural resources, but also to high-quality tourism experience spaces and the source of tourism development ideas. High level tourist attractions, represented by 5A level tourist attractions, have become a key support for the construction of tourist destinations and the high-quality development of the tourism industry. Until today, there is still a considerable number of people who demand to see mountains, water, and scenery when it comes to tourism. Many local comrades say that developing tourism is about planning and building scenic spots, especially high-level scenic spots. They always feel that without experts giving scores and superiors giving signs, there is no confidence in developing the tourism industry. The important position of scenic spots in the construction of tourist destinations and the development system of tourism is formed by the combined effects of various factors such as history and reality, economy and society, market and transportation. As long as the quality and diversity requirements of mass tourism coexist, and the market foundation of sightseeing tourism remains unchanged, traditional tourist attractions have their reasons for existence and development. With the arrival of a new stage of comprehensive development of mass tourism and a new era of moderately prosperous tourism, the boundaries between tourist attractions and citizen leisure spaces are becoming increasingly blurred, and scenery is beginning to replace scenery as a key element in the construction of tourist destinations. The research team of China Tourism Research Institute (Data Center of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism) found through a study of policy texts and word frequency from departments such as development and reform, land and resources, forestry and grassland, environmental protection, sports, culture, and tourism in the past three years that the frequency of directly mentioning scenic spots in document content is decreasing, while the frequency of word frequency for similar scenic spots and general scenes that tourists are willing to visit and deeply experience is increasing. Nighttime cultural and tourism consumption accumulation areas, tourist leisure blocks, historical and cultural blocks, cultural parks, art centers, key tourist villages, tourist resorts, theme parks, commercial centers and other scenes, although not directly named scenic spots, can be seen everywhere. As mass tourism enters a new stage of comprehensive development, the connotation of scenic spots and attractions continues to enrich, and their extension is also expanding. Parks, amusement parks, historical and cultural blocks, shopping and leisure centers, public cultural facilities, and nighttime consumption accumulation areas that cater to local residents' leisure have become atypical scenic spots that attract tourists to visit. On map software, there are over a million spaces or scenes labeled with scenic spots, far exceeding the number of A-level tourist attractions announced by the tourism department. Contemporary tourists' demands for scenic spots are no longer just about beautiful scenery, but also about a better life, as well as a future oriented tone and texture. It is worth noting that while tourists continue to enter the living and leisure spaces of destination residents, urban and rural residents also benefit from the improvement of transportation infrastructure and public services, and widely enter traditional tourism spaces. From urban parks, suburban parks, national parks, national cultural parks to theme parks, leisure blocks, and resorts, an increasing number of national land spaces, cultural venues, and leisure scenes are beginning to construct a more diverse and diverse system of pan tourism scenic spots. 2、 Relying on the living scenes of urban and rural residents and the beautiful scenery with added leisure content, they jointly constitute a new direction for the development of tourism destinations and a new driving force for the modernization of the tourism industry

Since the outbreak of the epidemic, the tourism industry has faced unprecedented challenges and experienced the longest recovery. Traditional tourist attractions, especially those dominated by medium and long-distance tourists, have been under greater pressure. My colleagues in the industry and I can empathize with this. During the epidemic, there are also two signals worth paying attention to. One is the rise of close range tourism and local leisure, where people are increasingly concerned about the beautiful scenery and daily life around them; The second is the rise of family self driving and self guided travel, where tourists have gained the right to define tourist attractions, destinations, and even the tourism industry through their consumption choices. "Tourists define the tourism industry, not the tourism industry defines tourists" is becoming a widely accepted consensus in the industry. Everywhere in China is scenery. The epidemic has caused many unexpected and logical changes in tourism demand and consumption behavior. The unexpected epidemic has brought words such as life, health, family, kinship, disease, and death, which seem far from daily life and are too busy to attend to due to work, into our lives up close, prompting people to re-examine the value of life and the meaning of travel. This kind of scrutiny brings obvious psychological changes: the distant scenery is certainly beautiful, and the nearby scenes are even more beautiful. Compared to a person's spontaneous travel, family and affection, interaction and companionship, health and safety are more worthy of our protection. Close range travel, high-frequency leisure, and multi scenario consumption have become significant features of the holiday tourism market since the outbreak of the epidemic. Since the outbreak of the epidemic, the travel distance and recreational radius of tourists have significantly shrunk. According to a special survey conducted by the China Tourism Research Institute (Data Center of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism), the travel radius for New Year's Day, Spring Festival, Qingming Festival, May Day, and Dragon Boat Festival in 2022 is 110.3, 131.8, 95.0, 99.6, and 107.9 kilometers, respectively. The destination recreational radius is 8.7, 8.3, 4.9, 6.0, and 7.3 kilometers, respectively. In 2019 before the epidemic, the travel radius and destination recreational radius for tourists were 270 kilometers and 15 kilometers, respectively. With the reduction of travel distance, the frequency of leisure activities has significantly increased, and consumption scenarios have become more diverse. Tourism and leisure activities can occur in community gardens, urban greenways, urban parks, suburban parks, national parks and other open spaces with scenery, as well as commercial environments such as restaurants, bars, cafes, shopping centers, markets, hotels and homestays. They can also occur in cultural spaces such as libraries, cultural centers, museums, art galleries, cinemas, music halls and theaters. On this beautiful land, there are scenic spots to stop and appreciate everywhere. Tourism is always full of scenes. After the "Golden Week" in 1999, China entered the historical process of mass tourism development. From tourists to tourism practitioners, and even to tourism regulatory authorities, from traditional formats such as tourist attractions, hotels, and travel agencies to online operators such as Ctrip, the main focus of work is basically on the peak tourist seasons such as holidays, summer, and winter, focusing on popular tourist destinations and hot tourist attractions. How to promote the balance between peak and off peak seasons, urban-rural market balance, and regional tourism development balance is a major theoretical issue and a practical problem in the industry. The number of domestic tourists in China has increased from 719 million in 1999 to 6.006 billion in 2019 before the pandemic. With such a large-scale, sustained, and rapidly growing tourism market, and over a billion people traveling for the first time, it is impossible to achieve a modern service industry that satisfies the people more if we cannot balance and extend it in terms of time and space. In fact, every holiday, media reports about the congestion of scenic spots and tourists' fancy roast on the Internet are common, and even have become the "standard configuration" of holiday news. In this situation, the attractiveness of traditional scenic spots to mature tourists and young groups is gradually declining. When the scene integrates into the scenery, a new era of development for tourist attractions and destinations has arrived. Since 2020, the outbreak of the epidemic and the quarantine of leaving have formed a "seesaw effect" between the outbreak of the epidemic and the recovery of tourism. Although the Loong Boat Festival ushered in the "inflection point" of the recovery of the mid distance tourism market, affected by the economic cycle and income expectations, urban and rural residents still pay more attention to short distance tourism and local leisure. The combination of fragmented tourism and leisure demand with dispersed local supply has inadvertently smoothed out the uncertainty of the mid to long distance tourism market, including weekday morning markets, morning tea, movies, dramas, night markets, and square dancing, weekend fishing, camping, and suburban tours. In the eyes of leisure tourists, there are flowers in spring, moon in autumn, cool breeze in summer, and snow in winter, with scenery everywhere and leisure at all times. Short distance, low consumption, high-frequency close range tourism and local leisure not only inject new content into traditional tourist attractions, but also turn traditional consumption scenes into new tourist attractions. The changes in tourist demand have also promoted the concept innovation and market introduction of new tourism and leisure formats, such as the Van Gogh and Monet Light and Shadow Art Exhibition at the Dewey Center in Beijing, the Gefeisong Chocolate Town in Jiaxing, the Hequan Mountain Villa in Bengbu, the architecture readability and urban micro tourism of Shanghai Chunqiu, as well as the Spring Wild and Autumn Dream Camping products launched by Chunqiu Group. They are not traditional scenic spots, but new consumption scenarios that integrate scenery and scenery, while also providing new space and infinite possibilities for scenic innovation and destination construction. The in-depth experience of tourists on the local living environment and lifestyle, as well as the redefinition of tourism and leisure resources, deepens the connotation of tourist attractions and expands their extension. Personalized, high-quality, and diversified tourism consumption demands bring tourist attractions to a broader development space. 3、 Reconstructing a scenario oriented modern tourism development system

Adhere to the contemporary tourism development concept centered on the people, and build a new space for a beautiful life shared by both hosts and guests, from scenery to scenery. Tourism has become a rigid demand and normalized way of life for the people, and there is no force that can stop people's longing for travel. This is where the confidence and strength of the tourism industry lie. At the same time, it should be noted that after this epidemic, the tourism industry cannot go back to the past. Whether cities, rural areas, and tourist attractions can attract tourists and provide them with higher satisfaction and a greater sense of gain does not depend on what signs are hung on them, but on whether there are high-quality living scenes. Returning to daily life scenarios and considering tourism from the perspective of people's livelihood is a stance, viewpoint, and method that theoretical researchers, industry practitioners, and policy makers should and must adhere to. With the widespread entry of tourists into the daily living spaces of destination residents, the boundaries of tourist attractions and even the tourism industry are in the process of disappearance and reconstruction. Defining tourist attractions from the demand side will become an irreversible trend. To adapt to the changes in the new development stage, tourist attractions should place more emphasis on the perspective of tourists, and destination construction should pay more attention to demand orientation and market thinking. Traditional scenic spots need to strengthen scene creation and content creation, while tourist destinations need to strengthen cultural guidance and technological empowerment in order to lead the future direction of tourism development. Culture needs to return to the living environment, technology needs to see people, things, and the future, meet the contemporary needs of tourists, and create new living scenes and consumption content through the combination of capital and commerce. The most beautiful scenery is people, and the best travel is the connection between people. The aerial shots of blue skies, white clouds, mountains, and rivers, coupled with historical commentary in a broadcasting style, can no longer meet the needs of the younger generation of tourists. They will not endlessly reminisce about the past prosperity and hardships, nor will they unconditionally accept established tourism routes, projects, and products. Currently, the equality, freedom, and infinite possibilities brought about by digitization are profoundly changing the way of economic growth and social development, including tourism and leisure, and providing new impetus for building a modern tourism system and promoting high-quality development of the tourism industry. Introduce the business model of community economy and community sharing, promote the classification and innovation of tourist attractions and destinations. Quality and diversity are the market characteristics of the new stage of comprehensive development of mass tourism, while equal emphasis on classification and stratification is the guiding ideology for the construction of tourist attractions and destinations. We should not only pay attention to the development of natural and cultural scenic spots, the introduction of theme parks such as Disney, Universal Studios, Chimelong, Fangte, Happy Valley, Haichang Ocean Park, but also pay attention to the construction of high-level tourist resorts, more attention to the optimization of stock assets in the process of urban renewal, and promote the integration of small and micro culture, leisure and tourism projects into communities and scenic spots. Luobaobao Amusement Park, cultural projects such as World, Madame Tussauds Wax Museum, Lao She Teahouse, Mumu Art Museum, Nanjing Xishi, Dewey Center, etc. can be integrated into shopping centers and leisure districts. Light holiday and pan leisure formats such as Xingledu, Sanhua Li, and Yong'an Daoxiang Village can be integrated into rural construction equipment and common prosperity, and become new spaces for tourism investment and new models for industrial operation. China, which has comprehensively built a moderately prosperous society and embarked on a new journey of socialist modernization, is full of scenery and leisure scenes everywhere in China. All tourists, let us join hands with various sectors of culture, art, technology, education, sports, and industry and commerce to create more scenic spots and integrate them into the scenery, and strive to create a better tourism and leisure life for the people! Note: [1] We would like to express our gratitude to Dr. Zhan Dongmei, Associate Researcher at the Industry Institute of China Tourism Research Institute, for her contributions to the case study, viewpoint formation, and textual organization of this article. We would also like to thank Dr. Ma Yiliang, Chief Accountant of China Tourism Research Institute, and the Statistical Survey Institute for their data support.