Dai Bin | Value Reconstruction and Theoretical Construction of Classic Tourism Business Models - Closing Speech at the 2026 Tourism Science Conference

The themes of the annual conference cover travel agencies, tourist attractions and star-rated hotels. Some people call this "traditional tourism", while others describe it in colloquial terms as "the old three elements". After much deliberation, we have decided to name it "classic business model". We have gathered the wisdom of various sectors including politics, academia, industry, research and education to jointly discuss ways for travel agencies, tourist attractions and hotels to improve quality, increase efficiency and undergo transformation and upgrading in the process of building a tourism power.

Tourism development

Practical issues and theoretical attitude

During the annual meeting preparations, we wanted to find several young and middle-aged scholars born in the 1980s who could engage in in-depth dialogues with entrepreneurs and innovators in the travel agency, tourist attraction, and hotel sectors. Unfortunately, we couldn't find suitable candidates, especially in the travel agency field, where we saw almost no emerging young talents. Travel agencies and tour guides are to the tourism industry what hospitals, doctors, and nurses are to the healthcare sector—they are the foundation of the industry, and the areas and groups that most deserve attention, whether from management departments or educational and research institutions! It's perplexing that with over a thousand tourism colleges and research institutes, and over ten thousand tourism management educators and researchers, facing over 65,000 travel agencies and 720,000 tour guides, and so many problems and challenges, why are there so few theoretical achievements impacting the industry's development? Why is it that so few of the hundreds of thousands of tourism management graduates from colleges and universities are willing to enter the travel agency, tourist attraction, resort, hotel, and guesthouse sectors? In the new stage of the comprehensive development of mass tourism and the new era of building a tourism powerhouse, why is it that, apart from "market order governance" targeting "unreasonably low-priced tours, forced shopping, and induced consumption," there are very few positive voices and promotional policies for the travel agency industry and tour guides?

In this new era of comprehensive development of mass tourism and a new cycle of booming tourism economy, tourists have an even greater need for high-quality development of travel agencies and professional services from tour guides. Tourist attractions remain classic tourist spaces, with landmark scenic and cultural sites being a must-see for many first-time visitors. Star-rated hotels continue to enjoy a stable flow of customers from travel agencies and online platforms, as well as a growing market base for government, business, conference, leisure, and vacation travel. However, it must also be recognized that facing the diversified, personalized, and quality-oriented demands of tourists, coupled with the impact of new business models, technologies, and new media, the standardized products and experience-based operating models of traditional travel agencies, tourist attractions, and star-rated hotels are beginning to prove inadequate. The innovations in real estate investment over the past two decades, including high-star hotels, budget hotels, vacation properties, serviced apartments, guesthouses, and RV/drive-by campsites, have provided tourists with more choices for their essential accommodation needs. In an era where tourists define the tourism industry, we must not only see the trend of "de-travel agencyization, de-tourist attractionization, and de-star-rated hotelization" in the tourism sector, but also the trend of moving from traditional travel agencies to new types of travel businesses, from star-rated tourist hotels to the tourism accommodation industry, and from classic tourist attractions to modern tourism experience spaces. Furthermore, we must see the realistic possibility of the value restoration and theoretical reconstruction of classic tourism business models.

Guided by Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, every theoretical worker loyal to the Party's tourism cause must conduct thorough fieldwork, academic research, and philosophical reflection on Chinese rather than foreign, contemporary rather than historical tourism practices, using theory rooted in practice to drive the practice of theory. As tourism theorists in the new era, we must recognize the multiple pressures brought to classic business models by changing demands, industry infighting, platform dominance, and technological applications, and genuinely empathize with countless industry professionals. Like the lingering sadness when looking back at one's hometown, it's not the crescent moon itself, but the village under its light, still singing songs of the past. We must see and inform industry professionals that more and more tourists are paying for experiential scenarios and a better life, and for service quality. Those culturally rich tourist destinations, cities, neighborhoods, and villages; culturally distinctive tourist attractions, resorts, hotels, and guesthouses; and professionally developed tour routes and high-quality group tours already have a continuously expanding market base. We must also inform industry professionals about the strategic goals and contemporary requirements of building a strong tourism nation, as well as the infinite possibilities of accumulating new forces and industrial transformation. Contemporary tourism research needs theoretical achievements that directly address the real-world problems of the tourism industry, as well as popular science interpretations for frontline workers and positive voices to society. More importantly, it needs to propose methods, pathways, and solutions to solve specific problems. If we merely write articles for a small circle within an ivory tower, even with various titles and platforms, we will ultimately fall behind the pace of progress for tourists, tourism professionals, and the tourism industry in the process of building a strong tourism nation, and may even be abandoned by the times.

Classic tourism business models

Improvement path and upgrade direction

Classic tourism formats should consciously integrate into the strategic process of building a strong tourism nation, guided by Xi Jinping's cultural thought to promote high-quality development of the tourism industry. While a strong tourism nation must focus on economic indicators such as domestic tourist arrivals, tourism spending and its proportion, inbound tourist arrivals and spending, and tourism enterprise revenue and profits, as well as social development indicators such as tourism employment, tourist satisfaction, and the sense of gain among destination residents, it must also consider whether we can propose and implement development concepts such as tourism rights, inclusive growth, and social tourism. These concepts should stand at the moral high ground of human civilization's evolution, exerting a powerful ideological force to drive economic and social development from a fundamental logical perspective. Let the beautiful life of poetry and distant places be shared by all, let the millennia-old dream of "reading ten thousand books and traveling ten thousand miles" illuminate China's modernization process, and let hundreds of millions of rural residents, the elderly, and people with disabilities appreciate the beauty of nature, understand the beauty of humanity, and share the beauty of life on journeys, near or far. This is the historical inevitability of tourism development and the inherent requirement of a strong tourism nation. According to the "Outline of the 15th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development of the People's Republic of China," authorized and released by Xinhua News Agency on March 13, 2026, accessibility to people's livelihoods is a key concept throughout the document, aiming to genuinely enhance the people's sense of gain, happiness, and security—a aspect netizens consider "most heartwarming." Tourism is a spiritual and cultural activity with strong economic attributes and a high degree of marketization. The integration of culture and tourism should not lead to abandoning the industrial nature of tourism, nor should the marketization process and industrialization mindset of the past forty years lead to making "making money, making more money" the sole goal of tourism development. Once tourism practitioners abandon the guiding values ​​of "people's satisfaction, people's benefit, tourism rights, cultural exchange, and mutual learning among civilizations," the destructive development of natural resources, excessive consumption of historical and cultural sites, blind decision-making in project construction, irrational and uncivilized tourism consumption, and the market problems of forced and induced consumption in tourism services will be unable to be fundamentally resolved due to a lack of cultural and moral support. In this sense, inclusive tourism is never a stopgap measure of "whether it can be done," but a responsible commitment of "whether it should be done." If it's something that should be done, and it's a right of the people, then the government has a responsibility to protect and fulfill it. Where the truth lies, though it may be against millions, I will go; that's how it should be. Often, we don't act because there is hope, but rather, we gain hope because we act!

Classic tourism business models should focus on both market penetration from the perspective of urban residents and demand upgrading from the perspective of farmers. In the narrative of tourists, tourism professionals, and the tourism industry, tourists have always played the role of topic leaders and story drivers. Historical experience and contemporary practice in global tourism development show that tourists have always defined the tourism industry; in other words, the type of tourists determines the type of tourism industry. An undeniable historical fact is that both tourist hotels and travel agencies entered the public eye with the inbound tourism boom of the 1980s. While cultivating a large number of experienced professionals in foreign languages, such as tour guides, tour leaders, liaisons, itineraries, scenic spot interpreters, and hotel managers, tourism professionals have also become accustomed to thinking about the tourism economy from the perspective of the tourism industry's supply, rather than from the perspective of tourists' or market demand. The problem is that while these tourism professionals, deeply influenced by Western tourism development theories and management experience, are still looking down from an elite perspective and planning the course based on experience, the waters carrying the boat have already flowed into the broad river of the mass tourism era. An era has passed, and a new era has begun. Having undergone round after round of industrial transformation—from mass entrepreneurship and innovation to intelligentization, integration, and ecological development—an irreversible new landscape of fierce competition has emerged on the river. More importantly, the iteration of entrepreneurship across demand, market, technology, supply, and industry is accelerating. In an era where those who attract tourists win, every tourism professional should see, and can see, boundless business opportunities in the "county tours" of urban youth, "city tours" of rural residents, cultural tours to museums, study tours to science and technology museums, self-driving tours on highways, and shopping tours in distinctive towns.

The classic tourism industry should focus on the tourism needs of urban and rural residents throughout their entire life cycle. Tourism is the sum of phenomena and relationships arising from the travel and temporary residence of non-residents who do not reside permanently and primarily do not engage in money-making activities. Based on this classic definition, demand is the key to unlocking the tourism and tourism industry. The Chinese nation has a long-standing tradition of reading extensively and traveling widely, with overseas travel being particularly desirable. Whether it's the intellectual pursuits of young people on study tours, family and national travel, business trips, leisure vacations, and long-distance road trips for middle-aged people, or health and wellness travel, railway tourism, and cruise tourism for the elderly, tourism has become a daily option for people's pursuit of a better life. As long as we continue to expand along the dimensions of time and space, we will discover countless niche markets and specialized tracks. Designing "seven festivals and four seasons" themed tourism products for tourists of different ages, especially senior tourists, and providing them with high-quality services, also brings new value and meaning to the tourism industry. With value and meaning, we can go further. This world doesn't just belong to the young; the elderly also need social care. They have dedicated their lives to the country and their families, and they deserve and have the right to enjoy a beautiful life of poetry and distant places in their later years. We cannot label today's elderly with traditional notions of retirement. The travel demands of the post-50s and post-60s generations are more active, and they have become the main consumer group in tourism. They are more willing to visit historical sites and cultural heritage sites to pay tribute to the national sentiments embedded in history and culture, enriching their inner world through immersion and enjoying their later years. The tourism industry should provide both the passion and emotional release of young people and the warmth and comfort of the elderly; this is the value orientation and practical direction of those in the tourism industry.

The tourism industry should strengthen the application of technology and improve the modern tourism system. A new round of technological revolution driven by artificial intelligence, advanced manufacturing, and digitalization is profoundly changing production, lifestyles, and tourism. Technological innovation continues to unleash new demands for cultural and tourism integration, and is also cultivating new spaces for cultural experiences and new scenarios for tourism consumption. While empowering tourism routes, projects, and the experience economy, technology is also continuously improving the level of tourism services. Relying on natural resources such as mountains, rivers, forests, fields, lakes, grasslands, and deserts, as well as cultural resources such as heritage sites, historical sites, and festivals, tourism projects can be rationally utilized and invested in. New tourism routes such as science popularization and study tours can also be cultivated based on large-scale engineering construction, large-scale scientific facilities, and new popular arts and culture. Modern transportation systems such as high-speed rail, highways, and civil aviation have created a new market pattern of land-sea coordinated and three-dimensional travel, bringing new space for the transformation and upgrading of the tourism industry. Green-skinned trains can be transformed into high-end tourist trains such as the Hulunbuir Express, the Silk Road Dream Express, and the Lancang-Mekong Starlight Express, or become suppliers for travel agencies' senior citizen tourism products. Highways can foster self-driving tours, RV tours, and road tourism, and can also cultivate new tourism accommodation formats such as motels, and even transform highway service areas into tourism and leisure complexes. New tourism demands and formats such as cruise tourism, inland waterway shipping, city cruises, low-altitude flights, and space tourism also bring new opportunities for industry cooperation to travel agencies. As more of the post-95s and post-00s generations, who possess new productive forces, enter the tourism industry, the R&D costs of traditional tourism products, the construction budgets of tourism projects, and marketing expenses will continue to decline, while the quality of delivery, service quality, and tourist satisfaction will steadily improve, thereby driving the upgrading and transformation of classic formats. While encouraging young people to start businesses, create, and innovate, it is also necessary to provide necessary cultural guidance and value orientation to spontaneously growing cultural and leisure demands from the perspectives of ideological security, cultural security, ecological protection, civilized travel, and rational consumption. Whether it is a classic or innovative format, excellent artistic works and high-quality tourism products should promote the high-quality development of the experience economy.

Contemporary Tourism Development Theory

Construction ideas and practical verification

Theorists should have genuine understanding and empathy for tourists and those involved in tourism. If poets, writers, musicians, and artists didn't truly create for this land and its people, there wouldn't be lines like, "Why are my eyes always filled with tears? / Because I love this land so deeply," nor would there be works like "Who Are the Most Lovable People," "Ordinary World," "Singing for the Motherland," or "Thousands of Mountains Ablaze with Red." This applies to literature and art, and it also applies to tourism. At no time should we treat tourists, those involved in tourism, and the tourism industry as research subjects for natural or engineering sciences, much less engage in a condescending dialogue with tourism professionals from a so-called academic perspective. The tourism leaders, entrepreneurs, innovators, and professionals who attended the dialogues and speeches these past two days, along with the more than 20 million tourism practitioners they represent, have high expectations for education, research, and theoretical development. We are fellow travelers and service providers, not just interpreters. Eighteen years ago, when I was tasked with establishing the China Tourism Academy, I wrote "Serving the industry, repaying the country" on the title page of my work log, constantly reminding myself that I must never ignore the call of the times, the demands of the nation, and the expectations of the industry. Even in an era of change, and constrained by systems, platforms, and rules, a sense of powerlessness may float across the pile of papers on the table late at night, yet one still dares not slack off in the slightest.

Theoretical construction in the new era should be rooted in tourism, involve extensive practice, and be based on frequent investigations. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out, "We must uphold the guiding position of Marxism in the field of philosophy and social sciences in our country, and build a philosophy and social science with Chinese characteristics, style, and spirit." Under the guidance of the new era's tourism development perspective, constructing a tourism development theory with Chinese characteristics requires adhering to the realities of the tourism industry, solving new problems in practical development, continuously promoting knowledge innovation, theoretical innovation, and methodological innovation, and building an independent Chinese knowledge system. To this end, it is necessary to begin rereading classic works such as *The Xunwu Investigation* and *Opposing Book Worship*. The vast majority of tourism education, research, and theoretical work must go to local areas, to the grassroots, and to the front lines of the industry to conduct systematic and in-depth investigations and research. For example, whether the "new three"—online literature, online film and television, and online games—can empower the "old three"—tourist attractions, star-rated hotels, and travel agencies—requires that theoretical workers go to the front lines of the tourism industry and among tourism practitioners. Around the time of this year's Two Sessions, as a member of the arts and culture sector representing the tourism industry, my team and I held discussions with various social organizations and businesses, including the China Tourist Hotel Association, the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce Tourism Chamber of Commerce, China Kanghui Tourism Group, Universal Studios Resort, and Didi Chuxing. I also witnessed Professor Zhang Chaozhi from Fudan University leading his research team and undergraduate students to bring their cultural heritage classroom to Xinchang Ancient Town in Shanghai, exploring the balance between heritage value and commercialization. Furthermore, I saw Professor Jiang Hong from Shanghai Business School leading her students to participate in an international hotel skills competition, and witnessed the hotel research team from Beijing Second Foreign Language University, including Professor Gu Huimin, Professor Qin Yu, and Professor Li Bin, writing case studies on companies like Huazhu, Junlan, and Yifei, and publishing the "Collection of Humanities on Hotel Studies." These experiences provided me with a firsthand understanding of the challenges and pain points faced by tourism operators, as well as their innovative efforts and market feedback. If you read literature in the library without visiting Universal Studios Beijing, it's difficult to understand how movie and game IPs like "The Longest Day in Chang'an" and "Genshin Impact" create Location Based Entertainment (LBE) spaces and new cultural and entertainment scenarios, and you also can't truly understand the paths and methods by which new productive forces empower traditional industries.

Tourism theory in the new era requires diverse platforms and pathways for transformation. Research findings from funded projects, commissioned tasks, and self-selected research can be published as academic monographs, academic papers, and think tank reports; they can be used to write textbooks and lectures; they can also be popular science books, newspaper articles, or academic essays. Books I read years ago, such as *The Nobel Prize in Economics Laureates' Lectures*, *The Economist's Tea Room*, and *Economics in Everyday Life*, along with academic works like *Capital*, *The Wealth of Nations*, *A History of Economic Thought*, and *The Theory of Industrial Organization*, form my academic foundation. Even today, I still enjoy reading *Reading* magazine and the *Master's Little Books* series. In the internet environment powered by artificial intelligence algorithms, short videos, micro-dramas, talk shows, and public accounts disseminate not only entertainment content but also data, scholarship, theory, and ideas. Those who receive these ideas are often also the creators of them. If we limit the publication of tourism academic research and practical innovations to traditional academic journals, and confine the value of our findings to citations and reprints by academic colleagues, as well as traditional awards and honors, we may be abandoning the intellectual frontier and theoretical high ground in the internet age. Today's tourism scholars must not limit themselves by relinquishing the right to define tourism development theories, evaluate development achievements, and disseminate development concepts. Instead, they should take a more proactive approach to enhance the online and on-site presence of contemporary tourism development theories.

Tourism theorists should use ideas derived from practice to promote the practice of ideas. The first-hand information, data and cases obtained through practical research, after being systematically explained through a theoretical research framework, will form corresponding theories, concepts and ideas. These theories, concepts and ideas should not be limited to publication alone; instead, they should actively undergo the testing and evaluation of industrial practice. There were disputes in history regarding "critique as a weapon" and "weapon as critique", as well as debates on "whether it is more important to write history or to create history?" Even today, these are matters that vary from person to person. For a comprehensive and highly practical discipline like tourism, which is still in its developmental stage, the majority of theoretical workers should bring their achievements to the grassroots and the frontlines. This is not only the inherent logic of theoretical innovation but also an inevitable requirement for the growth of the academic community. Only when the contemporary tourism academic community combines with tourism market entities, with tourism legislation, law enforcement and administrative entities, and accumulates industrial perception through daily and annual educational practices, scientific research practices and production practices, can it truly stand in the international tourism academic community, can it truly achieve learning, self-cultivation, equality of dialogue, and have true theoretical value and academic dignity.

Time flies, and it's April again this year. The first China Tourism Science Conference in 2009 still seems like just yesterday. But in just 17 years, it's already passed. For individuals, we are getting older. But for the conference, it is still a time of youth. Theory is grey, but the tree of practice is evergreen. May tourism theory and industry practice meet each other and share prosperity!

See you next year!

Author | Dai Bin

Source | China Tourism Academy (Data Center of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism)

Please indicate the author and source when reprinting.