Tourism Big Data and Academic Think Tank Construction - Speech at the Commemoration of the 95th Anniversary of the Founding of the Communist Party of China and the Special Conference on "Tourism Data

Comrades, with the approval of the leadership of the National Tourism Administration and the Party Committee of the organization, the decision to hold the mid year meeting of the China Tourism Research Institute (National Tourism Administration Data Center) at Mafengwo Network Technology Co., Ltd. is the result of multiple discussions by the branch committee and a special session of the "Two Studies, One Action" theme joint learning and joint action activity. The Party Committee of the institution has always attached great importance to the Party building work of our hospital, and this time, Comrade Duan Guoqiang, the Deputy Secretary, has been specially appointed to provide on-site guidance. Mafengwo is a data-driven online travel service enterprise led by Mr. Chen Gang and other entrepreneurial teams. It is also a private high-tech enterprise that has achieved distinctive and effective results in Party building. We are here to learn from it. Below, on behalf of the branch committee and the administrative team of the institute, I would like to share some opinions on "Tourism Big Data and Academic Think Tank Construction".

Practice has shown that data-driven is the strategic support and basic requirement for the development of the tourism industry in the new historical period. I have been thinking about how the "new" of new think tanks can be reflected, and after careful consideration, I have started from several aspects such as academic ideas, policy and strategic recommendations, and their expression methods. Where do the academic ideas formed by the research team based on professional abilities come from? How to build it? All of these cannot be separated from the creation of a new national strategy and its macro foundation, the strategic decisions of the central government on the prosperity and development of philosophy and social sciences, the development of characteristic new high-end think tanks, and even more importantly, the observation, thinking, and theoretical refinement of the tourism industry practice. When studying the relationship between tourism and economic and social development, we should not only emphasize the driving role of tourism in related industries and national economic development, but sometimes also look back at the country's economic and social development, especially the support of some infrastructure improvements for the tourism industry. In terms of data construction, tourism statistics and big data applications - including academic applications for basic research and development, as well as commercial applications for the market - also require basic engineering construction such as network broadband, telecommunications base stations, the Internet of Things, and organizational networks for statistical work. After the implementation of multiple national innovation projects such as 863 and 973, the social foundation of data application in China is gradually taking shape. Transportation infrastructure such as highways, ports, docks, airports, and electricity are prerequisites for the takeoff and development of countries and regions. In August 2013, the State Council issued the "Broadband China" strategy and implementation plan, emphasizing that "by 2020, the gap between our broadband network infrastructure development level and that of developed countries will be significantly narrowed. If we cannot see the strategic deployment and great achievements of the Party and the state in the construction of big data technology infrastructure, we may lose our direction and think that we are remarkable. In fact, it is the country that has done a lot of basic work to push our entrepreneurship and innovation, and our academic thinking to the current level. In fact, under the guidance of the "Chinese Dream", the accelerated implementation of the strategy of network power, including the already implemented "Internet" action plan, big data strategy, mass entrepreneurship, innovation, etc., are closely related to the construction of tourism data centers and academic think tanks. The practice of the tourism industry cannot be separated from the interaction of the three major entities: consumption, market, and administration. The current consumer body is the general public, who consume daily tourism and leisure activities. The foundation of this consumption is becoming increasingly solid. The annual national travel rate of three times, over 4 billion tourists, and over 4 trillion tourism consumption are sufficient to support the argument of the "era of mass tourism". But we can't always flip over these macro data, we also need to understand the region, age, and consumption structure of the tourism and leisure population. We need to study the influencing factors of tourism decision-making, travel modes, travel radius, organizational forms, and satisfaction evaluation of statistical data. Last month, the research group led by Comrade Wu Pu and the Public Service Center of the National Meteorological Administration jointly released a report on summer tourism. Based on comprehensive meteorological data since the founding of the People's Republic of China, temperature, weather, and climate data from various places, as well as accumulated tourist satisfaction survey data from the research institute, a series of research results were obtained, including the best summer tourism city in China. Without data support, laws and regulations related to tourism may lose their direction for adjustment, and it may also be difficult to identify the focus of micro control. If more and more comrades, more and more market players, like Mafengwo, have strong scientific and technological research and development capabilities, and firmly put Internet thinking, data-driven growth strategy in the middle of the industry. Nowadays, more and more tourists use intelligent communication tools and Internet platforms to widely collect tourism related information and complete destination selection, transportation and accommodation consumption decisions before leaving. Stochastic and fragmented decisions such as catering, entertainment, souvenir and small commodity purchase, as well as post purchase evaluation during travel, are also highly dependent on mobile communication and the Internet. While relying on data for travel decisions and purchase evaluations, consumer behavior itself generates massive amounts of data. The policy design and strategic research departments need to be highly sensitive to this and adept at identifying the future of industry development from the complex tourism and travel big data. We not only need to master the basic principles and methods of big data, collect relevant data on markets, industries, government management, and international comparisons, but also need to have academic insights, learn and be good at predicting the future of industries from the complex tourism and travel big data. Otherwise, market entities will be ahead of us, and consumer entities will be ahead of us. As a strategic research department directly serving the government's tourism decision-making, our proposed solutions are still stuck in the past era, the pre mass tourism era, the pre mass innovation and entrepreneurship era. We will fail the Party and the country, and the two big brands entrusted by the Party Group of the National Tourism Administration, the China Tourism Research Institute and the National Tourism Administration Data Center. If the era of mass tourism is the overarching framework for us to grasp consumer entities, then mass entrepreneurship and innovation are the main keys to opening the door to market entities. Today, as capital, technology, and knowledge play an increasingly important role in the evolution of industries, the development of tourism resources and the production process of tourism services have become more circuitous, and the overall business environment between market entities and destinations, as well as the forward and backward connections between other fields and sectors, have become more complex. This is a good thing. The more complex the production and circulation process, the higher the modernization level of the tourism industry. From an economic perspective, indirect production can improve economic efficiency. For today's tourism industry, traditional production methods will to some extent hinder the development of modern service industries. If you want to make the right decision, you must require a corresponding improvement in the completeness of information, including data. For example, in terms of investment, from macro to national investment in tourism infrastructure, and micro to the research and development of new tourism finance products by online tourism companies like Tuniu, without models, data, and professional teams, relying solely on brainstorming as in the past may not be feasible. From the perspective of its entrepreneurial and growth process, whether it is the early UGC (user generated content), PGC (content generated by tourism experts/influencers), or the current strategy of becoming the first brand of independent travel in the leisure tourism field, Mafengwo, which is the object of our Lianxuelian project, cannot do without the application of big data and the hard work of entrepreneurial teams. In fact, both online travel companies such as Ctrip, Tongcheng, Tuniu and Jingyu, traditional travel agencies such as CYTS, Guangzhilv, Spring and Autumn Festival and Kaiser, and large tourism groups such as Disney, Hong Kong China Travel Service, HNA, Jinjiang and Lingnan, including communication and Internet enterprises such as China Telecom, Baidu, Tencent, Alibaba, iFLYTEK, etc., are strengthening the innovation of tourism services based on big data. Various signs indicate that the tourism industry is exploring a data-driven development system with Chinese characteristics. Without a clear understanding of this, researchers will soon be unable to engage in dialogue with the industry and may be abandoned by the times. Administrative entities, including government tourism administrative departments, people's governments at all levels, and broader national governance institutions, have placed unprecedented emphasis on basic and professional data in the macro and micro regulation processes related to tourism. Whether it is explaining the economic impact and social functions of tourism, or striving for the support of financial, land and other resources for tourism, statistical data and quantitative research results are indispensable. To this end, the Central Compilation and Translation Office specifically approved the establishment of a national level tourism data center by the National Tourism Administration relying on research institutes last year. Li Jinzao, Secretary of the Party Group and Director of the Bureau, said: It has been proven that placing the data center in the research institute is the correct strategic decision of the bureau's Party Group. Director Li also wrote a special editorial for "China Tourism Big Data" titled "Tourism Needs Development, Statistics Needs Revolution". Comrade Du Jiang, the leader of the supervisory bureau, has also listened to the work reports on tourism statistics and data center construction multiple times and provided specific guidance. This reflects the trust of the Party group in the research institute team, and more importantly, the Party group's great trust in us. Now the construction of local tourism data centers at the provincial, municipal, and county levels has also started. In cities such as Hangzhou, Sichuan, and Jilin, significant achievements have been made in statistical reform, data production, dissemination, and application through cooperation with telecommunications, banks, and universities. Comrades, the Party and the state have always attached great importance to the construction of government think tanks. In recent years, a series of documents have been issued to strategically deploy the guiding ideology, development goals, construction methods, and guarantee measures for think tank construction, clearly stating the roles of information technology, big data, and laboratories. In 2004, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China issued the "Opinions on Further Prosperous Development of Philosophy and Social Sciences", which clearly stated that "we should make full use of information technology, improve research methods, and enhance research level". In 2015, the central government's "Opinions on Strengthening the Construction of New Type Think Tanks with Chinese Characteristics" required the construction of a number of social science thematic databases, laboratories, and soft science research bases. The construction of tourism data centers and academic think tanks is generally inseparable from this direction and requirement. We must always remember that new characteristic think tanks and tourism professional think tanks without data support cannot go far. Compared to this requirement, there are indeed too many areas worth reviewing in the current so-called think tank construction. If we still rely on making vague arguments to decision-making departments and leaders, telling them how important tourism is; If we go to places and enterprises, we will only be able to interpret documents and say some wise and great language from the government and leaders; If we participate in international exchanges and cooperation, and only introduce foreign theories to China and China's situation to overseas peers, thinking that this can build a first-class think tank, no one will believe it. With the implementation of the rule of law, especially the concept of "no action without authorization" by the government, the space for adjusting industrial policies and the arbitrariness of administrative actions will be greatly reduced. Even for the sake of ensuring government credibility and improving administrative efficiency, tourism think tanks must have systematic and verifiable data support when producing ideological products, especially specific policy recommendations, and conduct professional simulation experiments on policy implementation effects. Otherwise, there may be suspicions of deception, hype, bragging, and even being a rogue. We can take a look at high-level think tank products in the fields of international and domestic finance, finance, foreign trade, business, and social development, all of which are based on extensive professional research. A considerable portion of research reports can be directly published in top international academic journals. We often say that tourism is a comprehensive industry with strong correlation and driving force, and many policies require repeated negotiations between different departments and governments at all levels. The negotiation process involves both political, academic, and technical aspects. Other departments and local governments will also rely on their own think tank institutions to undertake academic discussions and technical support. If tourism professional think tanks do not have academic background and data support, it is difficult to achieve the maximum common denominator through dialogue and discussion. The ideological products of think tanks are not only used by governments, especially the central government, but also by tourism investment institutions and operators. The research institute is a public institution that enjoys financial subsidies, and most of its annual budget of tens of millions relies on our intellectual services to local governments and enterprises. This requires our research methods, tools, and results to be ahead of the market. In the tourism market, personalized demand will inevitably drive the formation of differentiated tourism products and service projects. Whether it is travel service providers such as travel agencies and OTAs, or tourism suppliers such as hotels, theme parks, airlines, as well as general travel and remote lifestyle operators, today's tourism market entities have begun to recognize this differentiation and have the ability to provide effective supply for differentiated demand, as well as price personalized products well. In this multi factor interactive process of demand and supply, efficient, mobile, secure, and ubiquitous information infrastructure, as well as an intelligent business environment based on it, will be necessary. To this end, we need to establish a system for effective analysis and commercial application of tourism related data, in order to improve the intelligent market level of the tourism industry and effectively lead the innovative development and digital growth of tourism enterprises in terms of business ideas, research center construction, and technology transfer. Regarding crisis awareness, it has been emphasized many times before. Today, I want to emphasize it again, otherwise I still can't sleep: in terms of data construction and application, market entities have already come ahead of us. If we don't make efforts to build our tourism data center and national tourism economy laboratory, we will always face the danger of being abandoned by the market and the times. After eight years of construction and development, the research institute has achieved some accomplishments in discipline construction, academic achievement construction, academic ideology construction, academic platform construction, talent construction, social services, and internationalization. However, it still lacks strategic scholars, original tourism ideas, and especially strategic design that can affect the overall situation. Not bad, over the years we have trained a group of academic leaders in senior professional and technical positions, as well as several young scholars who can compete with industry conferences and tourism enterprises in a decent way. We also claim to have published the landmark achievement system of "18X", which has received a good social response. So what? How many people came here for this golden signboard with a middle prefix, how many were lucky and accidental "no tigers in the mountains, monkeys call kings", and how many others saw institutions and personnel as young and gave more encouragement and tolerance? After understanding these questions, let's think about the statement I made at the 2016 China Tourism Science Annual Conference in April, 'Talent is the most unreliable aspect of the tourism industry.' Calming down and focusing on data production, processing, modeling, and analysis can help alleviate some of the anxiety in people's minds. In the future, once the statistical center and laboratory are established, every comrade, including researchers and administrative staff, should work in these two institutions for a period of time, repeatedly honing everyone's "calm and clean" qi from the surface to the inside.

Comrades, data construction is the foundation of the Legislative Yuan and an important guarantee for realizing the 13th Five Year Plan. It is related to every researcher, postdoctoral fellow, visiting scholar, and administrative staff. I hope that comrades will continue to promote the construction of basic platforms with the courage and wisdom of "building another research institute", adhere to problem orientation, accumulate small achievements as big theories, use big data to draw holographic industry images of the era of mass tourism, scientifically analyze and warn the operation trend of the tourism economy, provide more applicable and observable policy reserves for the Party and the country's tourism work, summarize and extract shareable Chinese experience for the innovative development of world tourism, and provide more original tourism academic ideas for the prosperity and development of philosophy and social sciences. To this end, we need to further clarify the guiding ideology, key areas, and key tasks of tourism data construction. Persist in strengthening the foundation and continuously improving the technical platform for tourism statistics and data construction. With the increasing attention from local governments, universities, and enterprises, the tourism industry is experiencing a wave of data construction. Enthusiasm is not a bad thing, only with enthusiasm can there be motivation. To remind the industry, but also to warn oneself not to overheat and act recklessly. I have visited several laboratory and data center projects built by universities, and with billions of special investments, I have purchased a large number of high-end computers, display systems, and simulation tourism projects. It feels like I have entered an electrified classroom from many years ago. Some local governments have approved dozens or even hundreds of acres of land for tourism data centers, invested millions or billions of dollars, and installed large and dazzling screens that provide a strong sense of "inspection" when taking photos. To be honest, I feel very uncomfortable in my heart. I always feel that I cannot withstand the professional inspection of my peers. The construction of the research institute's data center and laboratory must not take this path. As is well known, we initiated the construction of the National Tourism Economic Operation and Policy Simulation Laboratory project even before the addition of the National Tourism Administration's data center. The National Development and Reform Commission and the National Tourism Administration are very supportive, with an annual budget of 8 million yuan. I just told Comrade Xiaoyun that we need to use this fund in key areas, starting from the basics. Specifically, it means "two more and two less": investing more in human brains and less in computers, which means forming a team to conduct basic research, including the construction and optimization of analytical models; Collect more grain and cook less, gather white and gray literature and data through multiple channels, don't rush to publish papers or research reports, believe that success will come naturally. The next step is to adhere to this direction, including the Tourism Literature Intelligence Center, Data Collection and Monitoring Center, Grey Literature Database, Oral History Database, Tourism Corpus, as well as the computable general equilibrium model, tourism statistical indicator system, tourism statistical work manual, and tourism economic and social impact measurement work manual. We must work hard to promote them one by one. The basic engineering of tourism statistics and data construction also includes the platform foundation of the National Laboratory for Tourism Economic Operation Analysis and Monitoring, as well as the guidance for the construction of local and industrial statistical institutions, and the organizational foundation for personnel training. Since the establishment of the tourism data center, our every move has been scrutinized and monitored by all parties. Once done, everyone can learn and draw inspiration, and the efficiency will be very high. A slight deviation, according to the principle of system amplification, can also lead to major mistakes in industry guidance. What should I do? With so much preparation and limited energy, we can only rely on standards and processes to ensure that the results of system coupling are as error free as possible. In order to minimize system errors and potential risks to the greatest extent possible, it is necessary to demonstrate the true spirit of craftsmanship. Dingding Maomao has put in place the basic work of indicator system, platform group, data collection, cleaning, production, desensitization, release, monitoring and feedback. Enable researchers, technicians, and staff in every position to know what to do at a specific point in time, what methods and tools to use, how to achieve standards, and who to report to after completing their work. In a group dominated by high-level intellectuals, making such demands may not seem so lofty, and some people may even say in their hearts, 'What is the job of us PhDs and researchers?'? We went to see Yuan Longping, Deng Jiaxian, Shi Yigong, Fei Xiaotong, and Tu Youyou. Everyone who asked questions about Cheng Kung University was personally involved in the details. Without such requirements and actions, there will be no tangible experience when conducting specific quantitative research and abstract theoretical construction. Adhere to problem awareness and firmly grasp the overall direction of data center construction. Whether it is tourism statistics or big data construction, they must be based on China's national conditions, face the strategic needs of national tourism development, and meet the practical needs of tourism industry reform and innovation. This sentence is not only intended for science and technology workers across the country, but also has practical guiding significance for the actual work of research institutes and data centers. The country has invested so much manpower and resources to accumulate data, establishing platforms such as the Tourism Economy Laboratory, Tourism Library and Information Center, Tourism Data Collection and Economic Operation Monitoring Center, etc. Is it just to encourage researchers to publish more quantitative research SCI and SSCI papers? no It is aimed at the establishment goal of the professional think tank of the research institute, directly facing the tourism development theory needed by the country and industry, focusing on solving the macroeconomic regulation, micro supervision, and entrepreneurial innovation data support of tourism economic operation. In the process of data construction, every researcher, especially those in the statistical center and laboratory who directly produce core data, is advised to study the achievements of the "Two Bombs and One Satellite" and their deeds. Compared with some peers, they have the same talent and effort, but they did not choose to stay in the scientific laboratories of developed countries in Europe and America, climb the peaks of the Nobel Prize and Fields Medal along the path of traditional scholars, but buried their lives in obscurity, even paying the price of their lives, to build the scientific foundation of a strong country. Of course, the times and disciplinary backgrounds have changed. Xiaoyun, Yiliang, and professional teams from various research departments should always learn from their spirit and consciously practice the ideal of "serving the industry and serving the country" in the establishment of the institute. We can demand of ourselves in this way, but in real life, there is no need to always make ourselves sad or even tragic. We believe that organizations will create conditions to better meet the research conditions of research institutions and the living requirements of researchers. Even if all the optimal conditions for scientific research cannot be met for a period of time, it will gradually be realized. Of course, we cannot all wait for the allocation of all resources and conditions by the state and organizations. Often, we still need to have the determination to 'create conditions even if there are no conditions'. Adhering to a problem oriented approach also requires our researchers to be willing and able to start from the big picture and small details, accumulate solid projects, and ultimately form a macro system. In theory, people from all over the world can be connected through mobile phones, which will bring about many business revolutions and significant changes in people's way of life and communication. We must always keep an eye on these changes. Once new technologies and industries merge, they may give rise to new business models and completely overturn existing ones. The Tourism Big Data Laboratory, a collaboration between China Tourism Research Institute and China Telecom, released its first research results in May regarding rural tourism projects during the May Day holiday, including data on tourist numbers, travel radius, per capita consumption, consumption structure, and other aspects. After the release of such a public welfare data foundation report, both academia and industry have received good feedback. Without the cooperation of the telecommunications department, such applied research results that may seem small but have a solid foundation and are highly needed by the industry cannot be produced. Last month, I asked Comrades Xiaoyun, Yiliang, and Guo Ning if we could use WeChat and Weibo clients to conduct some simple and intuitive surveys. They quickly created a small questionnaire about industry expectations for this quarter, the next quarter, and the next six months, and posted it on WeChat. The results were available immediately, and within 24 hours, more than 200 industry insiders filled out their opinions. As time goes by, the value of these minimally invasive innovations and application achievements accumulates one after another. In fact, scientific research and innovation, like historical progress, are not driven and evolved by too many grand narratives that are actively set, but rather by these daily lives and specific work? Adhere to the principle of "research without restrictions, publication with discipline", and learn to view the objectivity and authenticity of data from different perspectives. Thinking that the data is in hand and the truth is in the mouth is just seven dissatisfactions, eight dissatisfactions, and a face of 'I am a scholar, who am I afraid of'. This is not acceptable, comrades. Whether it's tourism statistics or data applications, there are scientific or natural attributes, as well as artistic or social attributes. Which discipline, especially philosophy and social sciences, is not like this? Management can go in the direction of operations research, management engineering, and Taylor's scientific management principles, as well as in the direction of corporate governance, organizational behavior, and leadership art. Economics can move towards instrumental rationality that is unethical, or towards value rationality in the welfare triangle. Every once in a while, there are always people who want to come up with an "absolute truth" or a unified framework, in order to achieve the goal of "eliminating all schools of thought and revering Confucianism", but the results always end in failure. Even if it is unified in the short term, there will still be new theories emerging, but in the end, we will still enter the 'jungle of theories'. The process of constructing tourism data will also face these problems. For example, in the face of a set of data on tourist arrivals and consumption in the three major markets, there are absolute numbers, year-on-year and month on month growth rates, and have been verified by statistical errors, price indices, exchange rates and other tools, or have ensured the objectivity, accuracy and timeliness of the data as much as possible. However, when to release, how to interpret, and especially how to apply these data to the practice of macroeconomic regulation and micro supervision of the tourism economy, we need not only the professional ability obtained through academic training, but also the political wisdom based on national conditions and tourism situations. We need to maintain consistency with the strategic decisions of the central and national tourism bureau party groups in terms of value orientation. That is to say, the setting of indicators, data collection, cleaning, and processing must be scientific, but the frequency, nodes, and interpretation of data release have their own positions. To this end, the institution has revised its confidentiality system and issued management measures specifically for data confidentiality. With discipline, one must abide by it, and whoever violates it must take responsibility. Don't be presumptuous when the time comes. Comrades,

Since the establishment of the research institute, data construction has been regarded as a fundamental task and gradually permeated into specialized projects and daily details such as discipline construction, academic achievement construction, platform construction, talent construction, and social services. Since December 3rd last year, when the research institute added the brand of National Tourism Administration Data Center, tourism statistics and data center construction have become an organic part of the national tourism development strategy. I hope everyone will not forget the original intention of "serving the industry and serving the country", and continue to move forward to build our institute into a data supported, academic, and characteristic new tourism think tank as soon as possible!

Dai Bin, Secretary and President of the Party Branch of China Tourism Research Institute (National Tourism Administration Data Center) (July 14, 2016, Beijing)