Dai Bin | Strategy for the Construction of Yangtze River National Tourism Routes

In the spring and summer of 2023, Dai Bin, President of the China Tourism Research Institute, was invited to visit cities along the Yangtze River such as Wanzhou, Wushan, Shennongjia, Wuhan, Wuhu, Nanjing, Yangzhou, and Shanghai. He had discussions and exchanges with local leaders, shipping groups, tourism groups, and industry association leaders, and made a series of special speeches around the integration of culture and tourism development, the integration of shipping and tourism formats, the cultivation of national routes, and the high-quality development of tourism in the Yangtze River Basin. The full text of the "Yangtze River National Tourism Route Construction Strategy" is as follows:

From famous tourist attractions to travel routes, experiencing the magnificent mountains and rivers, and comprehending the beauty of culture have always been the eternal travel dreams of humanity

In commemoration of the opening day of the great traveler Xu Xiake's travelogue, May 19th is designated as China Tourism Day every year. The reason for commemorating Xu Xiake is because it embodies the fine tradition of the Chinese nation since ancient times of "reading ten thousand books and traveling ten thousand miles". Although activities such as micro tourism, micro vacation outings, high-altitude hiking, visiting friends, and gathering can all be classified as leisure tourism and are often recorded in poetry and literature, more people still prefer to consider medium to short distance or medium to long distance routes that connect points into a line as a manifestation of tourism and a typical carrier of tourism activities. Only by going further away from the usual environment can we understand the wordless book of nature and society, and the dream of "scholars studying with enthusiasm and traveling to their home country and the world" will come true.

From a long-term historical perspective, we will find that the course of mountains, rivers, and streams formed the initial form of national tourism routes, such as the Qin Straight Road, the Grand Canal, Xuanzang's pilgrimage route, Li Bai's grand tour route, the Eastern Zhejiang Tang Poetry Road, the Silk Road, the Ten Thousand Mile Tea Road, and the Great Wall. The travel footprints of imperial families, bureaucrats, literati, and merchants from various dynasties, like waves on embankments and sandstorms on ancient cities, slowly and gradually sculpted one national route after another. Compared to the discontinuous and irregular paths formed by mountains, grasslands, military and religious activities, the continuous linear and circular paths formed by rivers, lakes and seas are more likely to cross the long river of history and continue to this day due to their safety, recognizability, and density of cities and villages along the route. Combined with the overlapping effects of railways, highways, and airports along the riverbank and the Dahu Ring Road on shipping, the river routes that integrate natural scenery and cultural heritage present endless vitality.

From a global perspective, major river tours represented by the Danube, Rhine, Volga, Mississippi, and Nile rivers, along with vacation tours along the Blue Coast and Caribbean Sea in southern Europe, railway tours such as Orient Express, Pride of Africa, and European Railways, hot spring tours in Japan and Hungary, "study tours" in Europe, and the Golden and Silver Ring Lines in Russia, form classic tourist routes in multiple countries. These routes are often a combination of natural resources and historical and cultural resources, which have become the tourism image flowing through the country through the accumulation of time. Until today, these tourist routes are still key products promoted overseas by developed countries such as Europe, America, Japan, South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand.

With the improvement of transportation, the maturity of travel experience, and the advent of the leisure vacation era, contemporary people not only want to "the world is so big, I want to go and see", but also want to "make my own decisions on my itinerary". Affected by this, tourist destinations tend to have the characteristics of multi-point distribution and diversified growth, with the continuous influx of internet celebrities like waves shining on the river of tourism. However, from a macro and long-term perspective, the flow, volume, and velocity of tourists are still influenced by the context of aviation, railways, highways, oceans and rivers, as well as natural and cultural heritage, gradually forming new paths and routes.

From market entities to national power, leading resource development and market expansion through tourism routes has always been the inherent logic of tourism economy

From a historical perspective, the expansion of the tourism market and innovation in the tourism industry are closely related to tourism routes, and have played a role in market enlightenment and concept introduction. In 1841, Thomas Cook organized the "prohibition train tour" from London to Leicester, marking the beginning of modern tourism under the guise of a commercial route. In 1923, Mr. Chen Guangfu founded the Travel Department of Shanghai Commercial Savings Bank, which was the predecessor of China Travel Service, the first travel agency in China. It mainly sold hotels and vacation services along the railway. It can be said that the market-oriented and specialized modern tourism industry has been closely linked to tourism routes from the beginning. If consumption is the key to understanding the tourism economy, then routes are the cornerstone of developing the tourism economy.

In the 1980s, Beijing, Shanghai, Guangxi, Guangzhou, and the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River formed classic routes for inbound tourism in the era of overseas tourists' imagination of the great Eastern country, combined with the marketing promotion of travel merchants. In fact, the "golden decade" that many veteran comrades in the inbound tourism front miss is also the "golden decade" of tourism routes led by tourism agencies. Without the intervention of travel agents, it is difficult for tourist destinations of various scales to gain initial takeoff momentum. In this sense, in order to rebuild the national tourism route, we must attach great importance to the role of online and online travel merchants, and pay high respect to their historical contributions to the development of tourism in the Republic.

The mass tourism market based on national consumption that emerged at the turn of the century further promoted the development of travel agencies' products and innovation of sightseeing routes, such as the East China two bedroom five-day tour, self driving tour in the Hexi Corridor, and cycling tour around Qinghai Lake. In the era of group tourism dominated by sightseeing, travel agencies that have mastered distribution channels have achieved a dominant position in destination resources, especially tourist attractions, through a wholesale retail ground business model. Most people's initial travel experience consists of tour groups, guides, attractions, and tourist routes. The tourism development plans in most regions are also centered around the construction of scenic spots, resorts, hotels, and other destinations, as well as the cultivation and promotion of tourist routes. With the development of traditional tourism destinations' economy and society, especially with the shift of tourism economic focus to cities and the rise of urban tourism, the market position of channel and resource providers has changed, and popular scenic spots and resorts have begun to gain more market discourse power.

With the rise of the Internet, the popularity of cars and the entrance of the post-90s generation, self driving, self-help and free travel have become key words in the tourism market. Fragmentation of tourism activities has dispelled the traditional sightseeing routes. While gaining freedom, personalization, and diversity, the cultural and spiritual connotations of tourism are also at risk of dissipating. When tourists dissolve the cultural significance of "reading thousands of books and traveling thousands of miles" in the name of "I make my own decisions on my itinerary" into casual strolling and eating, tourism may soon move towards individual emptiness and collective unconsciousness of value suspension. In the past, we used to develop tourism in a series of famous cities, ancient towns and large scenic spots. Today, when Chinese path to modernization is comprehensively promoting the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, it is time to reconstruct the national tourism routes guided by science and humanity.

In the magnificent historical process of the comprehensive development of mass tourism, the government has been consciously leading the design and marketing promotion of national routes. The former National Tourism Administration launched the first batch of 12 national tourism routes in 2009, including the Silk Road, Shangri La, Three Gorges of the Yangtze River, Qinghai Tibet Railway, Great Wall, Beijing Hangzhou Grand Canal, Red Army Long March, Songhua River Yalu River, Yellow River Civilization, Middle and Lower Reaches of the Yangtze River, Beijing West Shanghai Guangxi Guangzhou, and Coastal Vacation. In 2021, the State Council released the "14th Five Year Plan" for tourism development, proposing to create a number of world-class and national level tourism routes; In 2023, the National Cutural Heritage Administration, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, and the National Development and Reform Commission will issue the Notice on Carrying out the Construction of Cultural Relics themed Tourism Paths in China. Recently, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism launched ten national level tourism routes with a focus on the Yangtze River, aiming to fully activate the rich historical and cultural resources of the Yangtze River, systematically interpret the spiritual connotation of Yangtze River culture, and deeply explore the contemporary value of Yangtze River culture.

The construction of 03 national parks and national cultural parks provides opportunities and resource support for cultivating new types of national tourism routes

The Yangtze River spans across 19 provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions in the three major economic zones of eastern, central, and western China, with a total basin area of 1.8 million square kilometers, accounting for 18.8% of China's land area. It is the largest basin in China and the third largest in the world. The population gathered in the Yangtze River Economic Belt and the regional gross domestic product created account for more than 40% of the country's total. It is the economic center and vitality of China, as well as a representative symbol of the Chinese nation and a symbol of Chinese civilization.

In 2022, the State Council approved the "National Park Spatial Layout Plan" (Guohan [2022] No. 101), highlighting the strengthened protection of key ecological areas in the Yangtze River Basin, Yellow River Basin, and Qinghai Tibet Plateau, and incorporating the most important natural ecosystems, unique natural landscapes, and rich biodiversity areas in China into the national park system. Satellite remote sensing monitoring shows that in 2021, the ecological environment quality index of the Yangtze River Basin reached its highest value in 11 consecutive years. From 2012 to 2022, the overall vegetation coverage in the Yangtze River Basin showed a trend of improvement year by year. In 2022, the normalized vegetation index reached the third highest value since 2012, an increase of 4.8% compared to 2012. The national parks in the Yangtze River Basin and their construction and development achievements provide new resources for vacation, health preservation, and study in the era of mass tourism, and also provide solid ecological support for the construction of the Yangtze River National Tourism Route.

National cultural parks are cultural corridors and tourist routes. The Great Wall, Grand Canal, Long March, Yellow River, and Yangtze River National Cultural Parks, as well as the cities and villages along their routes, contain the genetic code of excellent traditional culture, the spiritual lineage of red revolutionary culture, and the spatial carrier of socialist advanced culture. They are also tourist routes that practice the concept of national education and lifelong learning. The genetic code of traditional culture in the provinces, cities, counties, and districts of the Yangtze River Basin, the happy life of contemporary people, and the image of opening up to the outside world, together constitute the background of the interweaving of tradition and modernity in the Yangtze River National Tourism Route. The construction of the Yangtze River National Cultural Park requires the protection of the Yangtze River in the name of ecology, the inheritance of the Yangtze River in the name of culture, and the development of the Yangtze River in the name of tourism. The Yangtze River should also become a model for national tourism routes in the new era, and a classic route for the great river civilization in the new era.

From the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River and the Two Dams and One Gorge, to the Two Rivers Night Tour, Wuhan Riverside Tour, Nanjing Yangtze River Legend, and Shanghai Pujiang Tour, the new era of Yangtze River national tourism routes has formed a number of supporting projects with market recognition and industrial influence

At the end of the last century, with the joint promotion of media organizations and travel agencies, a wave of "bidding farewell to the Three Gorges Tour" swept through the domestic and international tourism markets. The concentrated release of market demand in the short term, coupled with the lag in product research and development, has led to a gap period of more than ten years for the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River. It should be pointed out that the Three Gorges, as the most resource development potential in the Yangtze River Basin, has always been within the planning horizon of national and local tourism development. In 2009, under the guidance of the former National Tourism Administration and the Three Gorges Office of the State Council, Chongqing and Hubei provinces took turns hosting the China Three Gorges International Tourism Festival. In 2016, Chongqing issued the Implementation Opinions on Promoting the Integrated Construction of the Yangtze River Three Gorges Tourism Golden Triangle. For the 14th Five Year Plan and the medium to long term, the "Chongqing Three Gorges Tourism Integrated Development Plan (2021-2035)" has been released. Since then, the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River have ushered in a new period of development opportunities and achieved remarkable new achievements. With the opening and operation of the first high-speed railway that crosses the Three Gorges Reservoir area, the Zhengzhou Chongqing high-speed railway, the expansion of Wanzhou Airport, and the operation of Wushan Airport, a three-dimensional transportation pattern of "water, land, air, and rail" has been formed in the western Hubei and northeastern Chongqing regions, and the transportation system of the Yangtze River national tourism route has become more perfect. Data shows that from 2009 to 2019, the tourism reception volume in the Three Gorges region of the Yangtze River increased by 6.3 times, and the total tourism revenue increased by 7.6 times.

There is no farewell to the Three Gorges, only the reunion of Pinghu. Today's Wushan still boasts vibrant red leaves and a deeper cultural heritage. With the realization of the ideal of "High Gorge Leaving Pinghu Lake", the grand water conservancy project, the great migration in the 21st century, the battle against poverty, rural revitalization, new urbanization, and common prosperity, the magnificent historical process of Chinese path to modernization has accumulated profound contemporary cultural heritage for the Three Gorges, and has emerged a number of excellent literary and artistic works and high-quality tourism products, such as "Good People in the Three Gorges", "Return to the Three Gorges", "Light of the Three Gorges", "Goddess Scenic Spot", "Three Gorges Li Zhuzhi Village", and so on. It has been proven that modern water conservancy engineering, economic growth, and social development have always been innovative driving forces for the tourism routes of the Yangtze River countries, rather than reducing them. Only when the achievements of economic and social development are superimposed on natural resources and historical and cultural resources, will the Yangtze River be both traditional and modern.

Not only daytime sightseeing, but also nighttime experiences. In the past, cities in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River focused on developing scenic spots with natural scenery and historical and cultural resources on both sides, such as San You Dong and Fengdu Ghost City. Cities in the middle and lower reaches of the river focused on the construction of water transportation and waterfront attractions, such as Wangjiang Pavilion, Zhenfeng Tower, Caishi Ji, etc. Today, cities along the Yangtze River have started walking and swimming in the river, with daytime sightseeing and nighttime leisure. Time and space resources have been more fully utilized. Projects such as Chongqing's Two Rivers Night Tour, Wushan's "Three Gorges Light", Yichang's Two Dams and One Gorge, Wuhan's "Zhiyin Hao" and "Night on the Yellow Crane Tower", Nanchang's "Seeking Dreams at Tengwang Pavilion", Anqing's Huangmei Opera Hall, Nanjing's "Yangtze River Legend" and "Damo Ancient Cave", Yangzhou's Slender West Lake's "Half Moon Remembering Yangzhou", Shanghai's Pujiang Night Tour, and Wusongkou Cruise Home Port have formed market brands and industrial influence. These innovative projects with high technological content and rich cultural connotations complement the original natural landscapes and cultural resources, further enriching the cultural connotation of Yangtze River tourism and laying the market foundation and product elements for national tourism routes. Tourist routes are always connected by natural landscapes, cultural history, and contemporary life scenes, rather than being drawn with a ruler on a map.

Tourists are satisfied with the destination image, infrastructure, public and commercial services of provinces and cities along the Yangtze River, and have higher expectations for service quality and innovative leadership. According to the tourist satisfaction survey data from China Tourism Research Institute from 2013 to 2023, Chongqing has entered the "satisfaction" range (80-85 points) since 2016, and has won the honor of being the first city in the "Extraordinary Ten Year Charm 20 Cities". Wuhan has basically achieved tourist satisfaction since 2018, and Shanghai and Nanjing have been highly recognized by domestic and foreign tourists. The tourist satisfaction of major cities along the route is generally higher than that of sample cities in other regions. At the same time, we should also pay close attention to negative evaluations that affect tourist satisfaction surveys, such as the Three Gorges Museum's lack of explanation; The Three Gorges Dam Tourist Area requires taking buses and boats to the scenic area, which is quite troublesome. The supporting facilities in the scenic area are poor, and there are no places to rest or eat; The cultural tourism area of Qu Yuan's hometown is actually a park, with a low cost performance ratio. A scenic spot as small as a palm is only charged 68 yuan. We also need to pay attention to the evaluation of the business environment of cities along the route by investment institutions and market entities. Commercial institutions have always played a key role and played an active role in the construction of national tourism routes.

Coordinate social resources and market forces, promote deep integration of culture and tourism, and construct high-quality Yangtze River national tourism routes

One is to clarify the construction goals of the Yangtze River National Tourism Route. Relying on national parks and cultural parks, we will practice popular tourism, modern smart tourism, a sense of future green tourism, and a civilized tourism worldview. We will build the Yangtze River into a national preferred route and a national classic route with broad international influence, a national model basin that deeply integrates culture and tourism, and the first carrier of the "Hello, China" national tourism image.

The second is to form a consensus on the construction of tourism routes for the Yangtze River countries. The national affairs are handled by the state, rather than the cultural and tourism departments proposing concepts, leaving everything else to local authorities. What we need to build is a national tourism route, not a national level tourism route. Market research, resource census, overall planning, key project construction, regional coordination, and international promotion should be led and implemented by relevant central departments. Persist in shaping tourism through culture and highlighting culture through tourism, and continuously promote the deep integration of culture and tourism. The key is the integration of cultural undertakings and tourism industries, cultural participation and tourism consumption, and cultural projects and tourism products. We must listen more to the voices of the grassroots and the opinions and suggestions of the front line. We can no longer plan behind closed doors. We should hold several seminars and listen to the opinions of experts to set the tone. Guided by the concept of shared development between hosts and guests, relying on urban leisure spaces, cultivating new driving forces of technology, culture, and art, strengthening diversified investment and business integration, building a number of tourism shipping companies with strong market competitiveness and great industrial influence, and promoting high-quality development of the tourism industry along the Yangtze River. Strengthen theoretical construction and ideological guidance, interpret contemporary tourism development theories that are oriented towards the world, and lead new ideas for future river tourism.

The third is to improve the construction list of national tourism routes along the Yangtze River. Clarify the development positioning of cities along the Yangtze River, focus on building international tourism distribution centers such as Chongqing, Yichang, Wuhan, Nanchang, Nanjing, and Shanghai, and cultivate waterfront interactive and river lake linkage cities such as Wanzhou, Fengjie, Wushan, Yueyang, Anqing, Wuhu, Ma'anshan, Zhenjiang, Yangzhou, and Nantong. Construct a number of Yangtze River cruise homeports, docking ports, and connecting points. Shipping planning should take into account traffic safety, tourist experience, and market cultivation goals, and must ensure that tourists can get off and products can go up. We need to renovate, upgrade, and invest in the construction of a number of scenic spots and attractions, and take the lead in building a batch of world-class scenic spots and resorts with profound cultural heritage. Accelerate the cultivation of a modern tourism industry based on theme parks, vacation areas, commercial districts, and homestay intensive development areas, supported by technology, art, humanities, capital, and entrepreneurial teams, and jointly build regional brands such as the Three Gorges, reservoir areas, and immigration. Invest in building a number of internationally influential tourism projects to enhance the quality of Yangtze River tourism with high-quality products and services. To write about rivers and lakes, we need to develop and utilize inland water systems, and improve the urban night tourism system. Simultaneously plan and develop river and lake links such as Dongting Lake, Poyang Lake, Chaohu Lake and the Taihu Lake Lake, create new consumption hotspots such as "water night tour", "land and water combined tour" and "urban island chain tour", and cultivate Yangtze River cruise routes and river, river and lake and land and water combined tour brands by region, level and echelon.

On the basis of supporting projects such as scenic spots, scenic areas, resorts, and leisure complexes, as well as upstream, midstream, and downstream node cities, the Yangtze River national tourism route is formed by linking, linking, and forming lines, ultimately forming an organic link, mutual support, and market recognition. Build a new type of transportation line consisting of water surface, railway, highway, and low altitude parallel interlocking "one line and four tracks", cultivate a timeline for daytime browsing, nighttime experience, and seasonal rotation, integrate cultural lines of heritage parks, intangible cultural heritage, red tourism resources, and contemporary art, and expand market lines for high-frequency, medium low consumption, and high-frequency, high consumption. It should be noted that when planning the Yangtze River national tourism route, there should not only be a positive list, but also a negative list in terms of ecological red lines and cultural security.

The fourth is to carry out the key tasks of the Yangtze River National Tourism Route. Include national tourism routes into the economic and social development plans of national parks, national cultural parks, and provinces and cities along the Yangtze River Basin, prepare the Special Plan for the Construction and Promotion of National Tourism Routes along the Yangtze River, guarantee financial budgets, major projects, marketing and promotion platforms, and increase the supply of macro-control policies and institutional reforms. The Yangtze River Basin has a wide area, complex block mechanisms, and great difficulty in collaborative innovation. It is necessary to establish a cross departmental and cross provincial consultation mechanism for the construction of the Yangtze River National Tourism Route, and strengthen the coordination of work among provinces, cities, water conservancy, maritime affairs, transportation, land use, environmental protection, culture, and tourism departments along the route. While accelerating infrastructure construction, the central government should steadily promote the development of tourism statistics and big data on the demand side, while also taking into account the supply side and public policy aspects. High frequency, low granularity, and powerful data products should be used to form a social consensus for the development of Yangtze River tourism. The cultural and tourism departments should continuously enhance their market insights and industry leadership capabilities in response to tourism and leisure needs, investment institutions, and market entities. Respect market laws, reconstruct an innovative system that integrates cultural participation with tourism consumption, coordinates incremental driving with stock revitalization, and integrates the tourism market with leisure formats. As of the end of 2022, there are as many as 12 shipping companies engaged in inter provincial passenger transportation on the Yangtze River trunk line, with a cruise capacity of 48 ships and 18443 seats, and an annual tourist reception capacity of 1.54 million people. Each shipping company also has a new capacity quota of 21 ships, with a total passenger capacity of 12909. If all construction is completed, the total transportation capacity will increase to 31352 total passenger seats, and the tourist reception capacity can reach 2.65 million people. Compared to the highest market stock of 1.11 million in 2019, there is a significant surplus of existing transportation capacity. The government needs to do both spatial planning and industrial planning; We need to do both resource development planning and market cultivation planning; We need to improve the supply chains of scenic spots, resorts, hotels, homestays, catering, shopping, shipping, and passenger transportation, as well as enhance the distribution chains of travel agencies, online agents, traditional and digital media channels, to ensure that the construction of the Yangtze River National Tourism Route operates on a scientific, orderly, and sustainable track from the beginning.