Dai Bin | Continuously improve the level of cultural and tourism integration development

Recently, Dai Bin, President of the China Tourism Academy, was invited to accept an exclusive interview with the China Discipline Inspection and Supervision News. The fifth edition of the China Discipline Inspection and Supervision News "Benling Weekly" was published on October 29, 2024, and the full text was released in the news column of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the National Supervisory Commission website. The full text is shared as follows:

Recently, General Secretary Xi Jinping stressed during his inspection in Anhui that we should further promote the integrated development of culture and tourism, develop all-region tourism, and build cultural tourism into a pillar industry. Prior to this, during his visit to Fujian, General Secretary Xi Jinping also stressed the need to promote the in-depth integrated development of culture and tourism and cultivate cultural tourism into a pillar industry.

How do we understand the significance of promoting the integrated development of culture and tourism? What is the integration of culture and tourism? How can we improve the level of integrated development of culture and tourism? The reporter interviewed Dai Bin, President of the China Tourism Academy and Director of the Data Center of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

In recent years, from cultural venues to commercial blocks, from red tourism to rural tourism, new cultural tourism formats and new scenes have continued to emerge. The picture shows tourists touring the Binzhou Railway Bridge in Harbin, Heilongjiang Province. Xinhua News Agency

Let tourism become a process for people to appreciate Chinese culture and enhance cultural confidence

Reporter: General Secretary Xi Jinping has repeatedly stressed the need to promote the in-depth integration of culture and tourism. How do you understand its significance? In your opinion, what is the integration of culture and tourism?

Dai Bin: Chinese-style modernization is a modernization that coordinates material and spiritual civilization. In order to better meet people's yearning for a better life, we need to strengthen cultural construction, launch more excellent literary and artistic works, and accelerate tourism development to provide more high-quality tourism products for the people. Culture and tourism are both organic parts of a better life. Since the reform and opening up, they have developed rapidly on their own tracks. There are conditions and necessity to achieve parallel development. Cultural construction should learn and implement Xi Jinping's economic thoughts. In the process of developing advanced socialist culture, promoting revolutionary culture, and inheriting the excellent traditional Chinese culture, cultural industries should be developed to meet the actual needs of national leisure and tourism consumption. Tourism development should learn and implement Xi Jinping's cultural thoughts, develop natural resources and historical and cultural resources, adhere to cultural guidance, empower science and technology, rely on cultural space and business environment, and meet and enhance people's spiritual and cultural life. The core of the integrated development of culture and tourism lies in integration, and the key lies in development. In essence, it is to continuously promote "shaping tourism with culture and highlighting culture with tourism" through integrated development, and finally realize "making tourism a process for people to appreciate Chinese culture and enhance cultural confidence" and "let people appreciate the beauty of culture and cultivate the beauty of the soul in appreciating the beauty of nature."

Since the 18th CPC National Congress, the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core has made important strategic arrangements for the integrated development of culture and tourism based on the overall situation of my country's economic and social development, with a deep insight into the laws of development of cultural undertakings, cultural industries and tourism. In March 2018, the CPC Central Committee issued the "Plan for Deepening the Reform of Party and State Institutions", proposing the establishment of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. In October 2019, the Fourth Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee reviewed and adopted the "Decision of the CPC Central Committee on Several Major Issues Concerning Upholding and Improving the Socialist System with Chinese Characteristics and Promoting the Modernization of the National Governance System and Governance Capacity", which set "improving the institutional mechanisms for the integrated development of culture and tourism" as an important task. In March 2021, the "Outline of the 14th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development of the People's Republic of China and the Long-Term Goals for 2035" was announced, requiring the promotion of the integrated development of culture and tourism, "adhering to the use of culture to shape tourism and tourism to promote culture, and creating a unique Chinese cultural tourism experience", "strengthening the integration of regional tourism brands and services, building a number of world-class tourist attractions and resorts with rich cultural heritage, and creating a number of national-level tourist leisure cities and blocks with distinctive cultural characteristics. Promote the innovative development of red tourism, cultural heritage tourism, and tourism performances". In October 2022, the report of the 20th CPC National Congress further emphasized that "we should adhere to the principle of using culture to shape tourism and tourism to promote culture, and promote the in-depth integration and development of culture and tourism". In July 2024, the Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee reviewed and adopted the "Decision of the CPC Central Committee on Further Deepening Reform and Promoting Chinese-style Modernization", proposing to "improve the system and mechanism for the in-depth integration and development of culture and tourism". Under the leadership of the CPC Central Committee, all regions and departments have taken prompt action and made important breakthroughs in the integration of concepts, functions, products, markets, business formats, and foreign exchanges. The quality of tourism development and the efficiency of cultural development have been significantly improved. Tourism has become more and more a process for people to appreciate Chinese culture and enhance cultural confidence. Appreciating the beauty of nature, appreciating the beauty of culture, and cultivating the beauty of the soul are increasingly unified in the process of people's travel.

In July 2024, "Beijing Central Axis - A Masterpiece of China's Ideal Capital Order" was included in the World Heritage List, and the various heritage sites on Beijing's Central Axis also ushered in a peak of tourism. The picture shows tourists visiting the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests in the Temple of Heaven. Xinhua News Agency

Tourism carries the new mission of cultural inheritance and civilization creation. Enhancing cultural confidence and improving cultural soft power are the requirements of the times for a tourism power. To promote the integration and development of culture and tourism at a deeper level, wider scope and higher level, we must carry out systematic theoretical construction from the strategic height of building a tourism power, and also pragmatically promote the construction of national cultural parks and world-class tourist attractions, resorts, cities, blocks, villages, routes and world-class tourism enterprises from the practical level. We can neither equate the integration of culture and tourism with the general industrial integration, and simply apply the industrial integration theory to promote resource integration, technology integration, product integration, market integration, etc., nor pay too much attention to the surface characteristics of tourism products, such as red tourism, tourism performances, theme parks, cultural heritage tourism, cultural and creative tourism products, cultural tourism complexes, study tours, etc. In fact, the "culture" of "cultivating tourism with culture" includes not only culture and art in a narrow sense, but also material and non-material culture, as well as culture at the level of propaganda and thought. They can enhance the attractiveness of tourism products, the competitiveness of the tourism market, the communication of tourism image and the innovation of study tours in different ways. The "travel" in "promoting culture through travel" includes not only tourists as the main demand body and their behaviors, but also enterprises as the main operating body and their behaviors. They can help expand the cultural market, promote cultural exchanges, improve cultural education, and innovate cultural production in different ways.

Explore a unique cultural and tourism integration model to meet the diverse tourism needs of the people

Reporter: Since the new era, my country's cultural and tourism undertakings have achieved historic achievements, and various regions have frequently taken measures to promote the in-depth integration of culture and tourism. According to your observation, what typical models have been formed in various regions in the process of exploring the integration of culture and tourism, and what good experiences have been gained?

Dai Bin: In recent years, with the deepening of the integration of culture and tourism, various places have explored and formed some typical experiences and practices.

From the perspective of cultural leadership, the most extensive and typical model can be called the cultural enhancement tourism attractiveness model, which is to enhance the core attractiveness of tourism products by enriching cultural experience. The scope of cultural experience is very wide, including not only visiting historical buildings and cultural relics, but also visiting museums, experiencing intangible cultural heritage activities, watching performances, etc., which can become relatively independent attractions in themselves. With the improvement of people's living standards and the increase in travel opportunities, people's demand for cultural experience during travel has become stronger, and the forms of participating in cultural experience have become more diverse. Museums, historical and cultural cities, ancient towns and blocks, live performances, concerts, and concerts have become important attractions for many tourist destinations. For example, "Impression Liu Sanjie" has been performed for more than 8,000 times in the past 20 years, and has received more than 20 million audiences in total. Intangible cultural heritage experience is in the ascendant. Xiapu Village in Quanzhou, Fujian is famous for its hairpin flower custom. A small fishing village will receive more than 3.5 million tourists in 2023, and the highest number of tourists per day during holidays will reach 50,000.

The second type is the model of enhancing the competitiveness of tourism elements through culture, which is to add cultural symbols to tourism elements, enrich cultural connotations, and thus enhance tourism competitiveness. The main forms of expression include theme hotels, theme restaurants, theme trains, tourism cultural creation, etc. Taking the characteristic homestays that have emerged in recent years as an example, the supply of homestays such as Huanghe Suji and Huashan Yunshe is in short supply. One important reason is that they provide a lot of aesthetic and cultural interest.

The third type can be called the model of cultural promotion of tourism image communication, which is to promote tourism publicity and promotion through cultural forms, especially literary and artistic carriers. Literary and artistic works have always been an important carrier of tourism communication due to their artistic imagination and appeal. Since ancient times, many tourist destinations have become famous because of a poem or an article.

The fourth category can be called the cultural enhancement of the research and study tourism innovation model, which is to consciously organize more cultural tourism activities so that tourists can learn and grow in the tourism. What is mentioned here is the pan-research and study tourism, which includes the research and study of primary and secondary school students, as well as the popular science tourism of tourists of all ages and any learning and self-improvement behavior in the process of tourism. Today, people pay more and more attention to the role of tourism activities in promoting the all-round development of people. Visiting science and technology museums, scientific research bases, colleges and universities, and traveling with professional guides have become popular tourism activities.

From the perspective of tourism expression and creation, the in-depth integration and development of culture and tourism has formed a model in which tourism expands the cultural market, promotes cultural exchanges, improves cultural education, and innovates cultural production.

The tourism-expanded cultural market model is to take the tourism market as an important market target for the development of cultural undertakings and cultural industries, such as art troupes launching innovative programs for tourists, sending actors to scenic spots for performances, and art galleries and cultural centers setting up special exhibitions for tourists. At present, cities and villages have become new spaces for a better life that attracts people from near and far and is shared by hosts and guests, and citizen leisure and foreign tourism are increasingly integrated.

The second type is the tourism-promoting cultural exchange model. Tourism is an embodied activity. The richness, subtlety and stimulation of cultural information that tourists experience during the tour are incomparable to cultural exchange methods such as movies, novels, etc. The process of tourism is also the process of tourists constantly accepting and spreading culture. Tourism is an important channel to promote ethnic exchanges and integration. Each nation has its own unique lifestyle and rich cultural heritage. Through two-way tourism, we can deepen the understanding and friendship between different ethnic groups. Tourism is also an important way of foreign cultural exchange. Inbound tourism can allow foreigners to personally feel the credible, lovely and respectable image of China. Outbound tourism affects foreigners' cognition of our country through the words and deeds of tourists.

The third category is the tourism-improved cultural education model, which is to use tourism activities as an important way of cultural education, develop advanced socialist culture, promote revolutionary culture, and inherit the excellent traditional Chinese culture through tourism activities. Cultural undertakings and cultural industries carry the important function of educating people with culture. Tourism activities play an important role in cultural education with their advantages of combining education with entertainment and moistening things silently.

The fourth category is the innovative cultural production model of tourism, which is to integrate cultural production into tourism project construction and product development. The process of tourism project construction and product development is also the process of cultural production.

We also noticed that the current integration of culture and tourism still has problems such as shallow integration, low integration level and weak integration benefits. In recent years, culture has indeed entered scenic spots and a wider range of tourism spaces, but has not yet fully entered tourists' activities. Cultural institutions have begun to pay attention to the tourism market, but lack in-depth and systematic investigation and research on the tourism market, especially tourists' consumption behavior, and their thinking is still supply-oriented rather than market-oriented. The reason is that insufficient understanding and institutional and mechanism barriers are realistic factors that affect the in-depth integration of culture and tourism. The society widely recognizes that culture and tourism "must" be integrated and developed, but the understanding of "why" and "how" is still insufficient. Institutional integration has solved some institutional and mechanism problems, but the value orientation, thinking mode and working method formed by the long-term development of culture and tourism on their own tracks have not yet achieved effective coordination. In relevant laws and regulations, policies, plans and standards, there is still a lack of clear opinions on some specific issues. We must pay attention to the deep-seated reasons behind the problems, adhere to the combination of goal orientation and problem orientation, improve the institutional mechanisms for the in-depth integration of culture and tourism, innovate cultural expressions, especially the modern expression of traditional culture, and effectively enhance tourists' experience, satisfaction and sense of gain of local culture.

Gutian County, Fujian Province, has carried out supervision and inspection on the integration of culture and tourism and the protection of cultural heritage, focusing on the deployment requirements of cultural tourism work. The picture shows the county's discipline inspection and supervision cadres understanding the situation at the farmhouse homestay in Shuangqiao Village, Daqiao Town. Photo by Lei Yuli

Promote the integrated development of culture and tourism at a deeper level, wider scope and higher level

Reporter: The 20th CPC National Congress and the Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee both made arrangements for promoting the in-depth integration of culture and tourism. On the new journey, how can we use reform and innovation as a driving force to promote the integration of culture and tourism on a wider range, deeper level and higher level?

Dai Bin: Facing the people's better life, we should build a national tourism development theory in the process of Chinese modernization, and provide a strong spiritual driving force for the deep integration and development of culture and tourism. We should be guided by Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, especially Xi Jinping's Cultural Thought and Xi Jinping's Economic Thought, implement the important expositions and instructions of General Secretary Xi Jinping on tourism work, focus on major strategic issues and hot and difficult issues in the integration and development of culture and tourism, strengthen market research on both demand and supply sides, and accelerate the construction of a new era tourism development theory system. We should not only consolidate the status of tourism as a strategic pillar industry of the national economy, but also introduce new quality productivity to cultivate new cultural space, innovate new tourism scenes, and strive to build tourism into a priority area of ​​humanistic economy.

We should do a good job in demonstration and pilot projects and summarizing experiences, and steadily promote the deep integration and development of culture and tourism with institutional and mechanism innovation as a breakthrough. We should handle several major relationships such as government and market, supply and demand, protection and utilization, international and domestic, development and security, give full play to the decisive role of the market in resource allocation, and better play the important role of the government in tourism planning and layout, public services, business environment, etc. We should select representative areas for demonstration and pilot projects, and take the lead in the innovation of management systems and mechanisms, the utilization of cultural resources, and the financial, financial, land use, and talent policy support for the deep integration and development of culture and tourism. We should organize scientific research and academic forces, conduct in-depth investigations and studies at the grassroots and front-line levels, select a number of outstanding cases of the integration and development of culture and tourism, summarize their experience models and promote them, and guide more investment institutions and business entities to invest in the integration and innovation of culture and tourism. We should further release the driving effect of major cultural projects, and accelerate the construction of a number of world-class tourist attractions and resorts with profound cultural heritage, national-level tourist and leisure cities and blocks with distinctive cultural characteristics, world-class tourist cities, international tourist destinations, and world-class tourism enterprises. Relying on the construction of national cultural parks, national parks and national tourist routes, we will strengthen the overall coordination of cross-provincial and municipal tourism planning and special construction.

Adhere to the integrated development orientation of people's satisfaction and people's benefit. Adhere to the people-centered development concept and work orientation, so that the people can travel, afford to travel, travel happily and play at ease. Put the focus of tourism work on cities, focus on rural areas, and tilt more fiscal, financial, development and reform and industrial policies to the central and western regions and the vast rural areas, so that rural residents can also enjoy the upgraded needs of spiritual aspects such as culture, leisure and tourism. Strengthen professional guidance and market supervision of key cities, key areas and key departments, continuously improve and improve the construction of service systems for individual tourists, and force the improvement of tourism products and service quality and the optimization of destination environment from the perspective of tourists. It is necessary to include the industrial development of destination cities and villages driven by tourism, the improvement of residents' employment and living standards into the important indicators of high-quality development of the tourism industry, and take practical and effective measures to promote its realization.

Fully protect and rationally utilize cultural heritage. To develop tourism, we must conduct solid and in-depth research on history and culture. The overall protection and inheritance of historical and cultural cities, blocks, towns and villages must "retain people, retain shapes, retain charm" and "see people, see things, and see life". Facing the emerging urban roaming, county tourism and rural tourism, we should be based on regional characteristics, preserve local culture, improve supporting facilities, and use small but exquisite, small but beautiful, small but warm tourism products and services to create more leisure environments that are shared by hosts and guests and suitable for living and traveling. Relying on national cultural parks, we should make good use of world-class, national and local historical and cultural resources and intangible cultural heritage to cultivate more cultural relics theme trails that take into account both social and economic benefits.

It should be noted that, in practice, the integration of culture and tourism should not only emphasize the integrated development of China's excellent traditional culture and tourism, but also attach importance to the integrated development of revolutionary culture, advanced socialist culture and tourism that carry the red gene. Red tourism in the new era should have a national perspective and a tourist perspective. Red tourism certainly has the function of propaganda and education, but after all, it is different from classroom education in schools. It is necessary to explore the connotation of revolutionary culture, steadily improve the level of interpretation, and enhance the experience of visitors. To tell the Chinese story of red tourism well, sincerity is more important than anything else. It is necessary to dilute the colors of explanation, recitation and performance as much as possible, treat history sincerely, and treat tourists equally. In red tourism, tourists should be able to feel that today's happy life is hard-won, and they should also be able to see the good life of the present and the future, and feel that the days ahead still require us to forge ahead. At the same time, we should focus on showing a beautiful China with advanced socialist culture. For many years, cultural symbols such as Confucius, Peking Opera, and Kung Fu have constituted the world's cultural imagination of China. China in the new era is also modern China. Landmark buildings such as Daxing Airport, CBD, Guangzhou Tower, Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed ​​Railway, and Pudong New Area should also become new carriers of the national tourism image together with the Forbidden City, Terracotta Warriors, Yinxu, Liangzhu, etc. We should think about how to better integrate advanced socialist culture into tourism scenes and show a beautiful China that is self-reliant, modern and fashionable, and inherits history.

Source | Reporter of China Discipline Inspection and Supervision News | Editor Hao Sisi | Liu Xin Please indicate the source for reprinting