Dai Bin | The depth of integration of culture and tourism and the breadth of summer resort and health care --2023 Dragon Boat Festival tourism market review

Last Loong Boat Festival, the tourism industry was at a critical moment of market recovery and rescue. The theme of the holiday market review was "In the early summer when the leaves of rice dumplings are fragrant, I saw the spring of tourism". At that time, the danger of "lying flat" and "putting out rots" was increasing, whether it was organized industry discussions or spontaneous fancy roast on the Internet. The value and significance that we need to uphold in our theoretical construction and data production over the past three years, as well as every year in the future, is to ensure that those who bear heavy burdens are not alone and that those who hold salaries are not frozen to death. Through the market data of each holiday, we see the scenery gradually moving away and the culture getting closer and closer. We see the innovation of traditional businesses and the entry of new formats. Of course, we also see the relatively cautious consumption and the sense of gain that needs to be improved. We see that market recovery requires the government to have an effective market. In the Loong Boat Festival holiday in 2023, what we can see is that family and country feelings are leading the integration of culture and tourism to a deeper degree, the tourism industry has entered an irreversible new channel for comprehensive recovery, and the market space and innovation opportunities in the fields of summer vacation, health care, and research continue to expand. At the same time, we also pay close attention to the operating conditions of market entities and practitioners such as travel agencies, online travel service platforms, tour guides, tour leaders, hotels, homestays, scenic spots, resorts, tourism and leisure blocks, etc., and steadily improve the sense of gain for investment institutions and market entities through greater market expansion and policy innovation. 01 National Sentiment Leads Culture and Tourism towards a Deeper Integration. Dragon Boat Festival is a traditional festival with a profound cultural atmosphere, and it is also the first traditional festival in China to be selected as a World Intangible Cultural Heritage. Various regions have organized rich and colorful cultural activities around the theme of patriotism, creating a number of excellent literary and artistic works and high-quality tourism products for the people. This has brought ancient songs from ancient sites, cultural relics from museums, heritage from the earth, and traditional folk customs that have been passed down for thousands of years into contemporary life, achieving good social benefits and adding new momentum to holiday tourism. Beijing, Hubei, Sichuan, Inner Mongolia, Shanxi, Tianjin and other places held over a thousand "zongzi" cultural activities to enjoy the Dragon Boat Festival cultural feast and benefit the people. Pingxiang, Jiangxi invites children to enter the traditional Chinese culture lecture hall of the Confucius Temple Museum and sing the famous line "Li Sao" in unison. Langfang, Hebei holds a themed event called "Our Festival • Dragon Boat Festival". The Radio and Television Station launched a series of exciting activities for the Dragon Boat Festival in the hometown of Qu Yuan, Yichang Zigui, with the theme of "Ode to Duanyang with Long Songs on Blue Water". The daily living space of urban and rural residents, especially those original ecological cultural and sports projects that originate from the spiritual enjoyment and cultural participation needs of the people, have greatly aroused the enthusiasm of tourists to participate. These bottom-up, inside out cultural activities, rather than man-made festivals and events, have formed a "ring breaking" effect through the spontaneous spread of the Internet, and attracted tourists to visit, becoming a new model of deep integration of culture and tourism. The "Village Supermarket" and "Village BA" in Guizhou, Loong Boat Race/Loong Boat Steak, Guangxi Folk Song Festival in Guangdong, Hubei, Hunan, Fujian, Zhejiang and other places are cultural activities and sports events, as well as tourist attractions. Loong Boat Rowing has become the most influential IP of the Loong Boat Festival. Various types of Loong Boat Steak in Guangdong, Loong Boat Rowing in Loong Boat Festival in Guangxi, "Speed and Passion" in Sichuan, including Loong Boat in dry land in Xinjiang, have gained continuous growth in traffic on the short video We Media platform. These spontaneous activities, projects, and scenes that reflect the new cultural needs of the masses, together with traditional cultural spaces such as museums, art galleries, libraries, theaters, and cinemas, form a new scene of deep integration of culture and tourism, injecting new momentum into the high-quality development of the tourism industry. The "pickings" and "flower sellers", created by the graduates of the China Academy of Fine Arts, are not incompatible with the cultural heritage, surrounding environment and festival atmosphere of the West Lake. Compared with the previous China-Chic Show, they are more slick and elegant in their daily life. This seemingly casual scene and emphasis on the cultural essence rather than the character carrier are more likely to create a sense of healing for tourists, like the wind brushing the summer lotus and raindrops on the steps, and also provide a new path for scenic area diversion and urban image shaping. As a first tier city in the cultural highland, the cultural works and art exhibitions aimed at the youth group launched during the festival period, such as the Beijing Drama Nine's "Four Machines", the Tianjin Anligan Art Center's concert, the Shanghai Hao Art Museum's "You and Me, Keep Staring", and the Xiamen Love Song Chamber Choir's "Worship", have also attracted many local residents and foreign tourists. Culture shapes the future of tourism, enriches the scenes and connotations of tourism, and provides new scenarios and infinite possibilities for the creative inheritance and innovative development of traditional culture. The participation of tourists in cultural leisure reflects a strong sense of patriotism and tells the story of China in the new era. Some scenic spots, such as Hangzhou West Lake, are cultural heritage and a new space for good life shared by host and guest. With the support of Internet short videos, excellent creativity is easy to harvest traffic, and cities have also gained reserves, forming a benign interaction mode between traditional culture and tourism space. 02 Tourism has entered a new channel of irreversible comprehensive recovery If the May Day Labor Day is a strategic turning point for the comprehensive recovery of the domestic tourism market and the transition to normal development, then the Loong Boat Festival is a milestone for the recovery of the inbound and outbound markets, marking that the domestic, inbound and outbound markets have entered a new channel of irreversible comprehensive recovery. According to the data of the National Migration Administration, the number of people entering and leaving the country recovered to more than 60% in 2019 after the Loong Boat Festival holiday lasted three days. Influenced by the basic markets of Hong Kong and Macao and the tourism promotion and promotion policies of Southeast Asia, Japan and South Korea and other surrounding countries, plus the steady recovery of the supply chain of civil aviation, cruise ships, hotels, catering, mass transit and destination resource providers, as well as the facilitation of visa and port customs clearance policies, inbound and outbound tourism during the Dragon Boat Festival has reached its peak since 2020, and the mid - and long-distance markets in West Asia, North Africa and Europe have also ushered in a climax since the New Year. Domestic tourism has continued the trend of accelerating recovery since the Spring Festival today. According to the official website of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, 106 million domestic tourism trips were made during the three days of the Dragon Boat Festival, up 32.3% year on year, and returned to 112.8% in the same period before the epidemic on a comparable basis; Realize domestic tourism revenue of 37.31 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 44.5%, and recover to 94.9% of the same period before the epidemic on a comparable basis. Due to the impact of holiday duration and high temperature weather, short distance travel and local leisure are still the basic markets, while the long-distance market has shrunk compared to the Labor Day holiday. According to a special survey on holiday culture, leisure, and tourism consumption conducted by the China Tourism Research Institute (unless otherwise specified, the data source of this article is the same), the average travel radius of tourists during holidays was 164.87 kilometers, a year-on-year increase of 52.8%; The average recreational radius of the destination is 12.94 kilometers, a year-on-year increase of 71.0%. Due to the impact of travel time, consumption budget, and high temperature weather, provinces with the highest number of residents traveling and receiving tourists include Guangdong, Shandong, Henan, Jiangsu, Sichuan, Hebei, Hubei, Hunan, Anhui, and Zhejiang, with a total of nearly 60% of the national total in terms of travel and receiving tourists. With the completion of a moderately prosperous society in all respects and the construction of beautiful rural areas, rural residents have solved the "three assurances and two guarantees" and begun to pay attention to spiritual enjoyment, including culture and tourism. During the holiday period, the travel rate of rural residents in China was 4.8%, accounting for 22.4% of the total number of domestic tourists traveling during the holiday. In recent years, continuous monitoring data has shown that the growing demand for scenic sightseeing and urban leisure among rural residents has become a new driving force that cannot be ignored for the expansion of the tourism market and industrial innovation. For investment institutions and travelers, there is great potential in the sinking market. It is worth noting that more and more market entities are paying attention to the demand of tourists for a deep experience of urban and rural lifestyles. They have developed and promoted more individual products and high-quality services, greatly enriching the supply of the holiday tourism market and demonstrating the infinite possibilities of tourism supply side reform and integration innovation. According to a special survey, 87.9% of tourists visit cultural and museum venues, historical and cultural districts, participate in various intangible cultural heritage projects, attend music festivals, concerts and other cultural activities during holidays. A total of 7255 tourism and leisure blocks (including commercial districts) in China are monitored at designated locations, with an average daily passenger flow of 8588 people per block and an average stay time of 115.56 minutes for tourists. The proportion of tourists participating in nighttime cultural activities and tourism consumption reached 22.3%, a significant increase of 7.9 percentage points compared to the same period last year. Local governments increased the supply of cultural activities and tourism products, and ensured the market order and tourists' rights and interests to the maximum extent through on-site supervision, inspection and intelligent monitoring. Residents and tourists spent a safe, orderly, prosperous and high-quality Loong Boat Festival holiday. According to a special survey, "the preparation work of scenic spots, hotels, and travel agencies is relatively sufficient", "volunteer services are very heartwarming", "reservations, inspections, and queues are generally convenient", and "reasonable prices" rank among the top four satisfaction options for tourists, with a selection rate of 20.0%, 15.7%, 15.3%, and 14.5%, respectively. The overseas mainstream media mainly focus on Loong Boat, eating Zongzi and other traditional Chinese culture in their reports on China's Loong Boat Festival. They seldom report and comment on the tourism market. The reports on holiday tourism are mainly positive and neutral. Tourist satisfaction reached 82.7, at the level of "satisfaction", an increase of 3.5 compared to the same period last year. After nearly a decade of cultivation, summer tourism has completed the concept introduction period and is entering a new stage of policy promotion and commercial practice, driven by the demand for summer tourism and industrial innovation. Summer tourism is at the right time, and "stay where it's cool" has become a new consensus among tourists, investment institutions, and market entities. This year's Loong Boat Festival, Beijing and other major tourist source cities ushered in rare high temperature weather, which further boosted the people's demand for off-site summer tourism—— We have cultivated a group of summer tourism destinations that showcase their resource value and are widely recognized in the market. Mountain summers in Lushan Mountain in Jiangxi Province, Mount Huangshan Mountain in Anhui Province, Mogan Mountain in Zhejiang Province, Yanqing in Beijing, Changbai Mountain in Jilin Province, Shennongjia and Lichuan in Hubei Province, Jiuzhaigou Valley Scenic and Historic Interest Area Valley in Sichuan Province, Anshun and Liupanshui in Guizhou Province, seaside summers in Beidaihe in Hebei Province, Qingdao in Shandong Province, Yantai and Weihai in Shandong Province, Dalian in Liaoning Province, Xiamen in Fujian Province, and Zhoushan in Zhejiang Province, plateau summers in Xining and Qinghai Lake in Qinghai Province, Kunming and Tengchong in Yunnan Province, Altay in Xinjiang, and grassland summers in Hulunbeier, Ulanchap and Alshan in Inner Mongolia provide tourists with diversified and rich summer options—— We have built a number of mutually supportive summer projects and developed leisure products that break through boundaries. Many seaside, lake, mountain, and forest summer tourism destinations such as Anaya and Azure Coast in Beidaihe, Sea Park in Weihai, and Yuntai Mountain in Jiaozuo have reached or even exceeded their maximum carrying capacity. The marine science popularization summer camp at Jinshitan in Dalian, the "Changpao Cold Spring" at Yinji Tourist Resort in Zhengzhou, the camping tourism festival in Ninghai, Zhejiang, as well as the Tree Frog Tribe and camping in Sunlight Field, have all gained good market reputation and economic benefits. During the Dragon Boat Festival holiday, among the 313 5A level scenic spots under national key monitoring, Changbai Mountain Scenic Spot, Prince Gong's Mansion, Oriental Pearl TV Tower Radio and Television Tower, Zhangjiang Scenic Spot in Libo County, Arctic Village, Badaling Great Wall Scenic Spot, Benxi Water Cave Scenic Spot, Bayinbuluke Prairie, Kanas Scenic Spot in Burqin County, Colorful Danxia Scenic Spot, Longmen Grottoes and other scenic spots received the highest growth rate of tourists, mostly related to summer tourism—— A group of professional summer tourism operators with high brand support and strong resource integration capabilities have been formed. On June 16th, Spring and Autumn Tourism released its July August tourism charter flight plan, with an unprecedented 289 charter flights transporting tens of thousands of tourists to places such as Guoluo in Qinghai, Manzhouli in Inner Mongolia, and Zhangjiajie in Hunan. Lingnan Group's Guangzhi Travel is targeting the summer parent-child and study market of "age based play", and has jointly launched summer vacation routes with surrounding tourist attractions and resorts. 04 From the perspective of tourism motivation, the proportion of tourists taking health care vacations during the Dragon Boat Festival holiday was 12.6%, up 3.8 percentage points year on year. The data shows that health and wellness vacations are steadily entering the market cultivation period from the concept introduction period. The people have the right to pursue a new life of beautiful tourism and leisure, as well as the right to ensure their safety and physical and mental health. This is the deepest support and most reliable driving force for the cultivation of the health and wellness vacation market and the development of the industry. From a practical perspective, retired employees with free time and ample budget, teachers in primary, secondary, and tertiary schools with winter and summer vacations, and young employees who are more willing to fully utilize their paid vacation rights, together form the market foundation for health and wellness vacations. Because of the existence of this part of the customer group, the new trend of off peak travel, forward exhibition and later extension, and focusing on living and light travel appeared in the Dragon Boat Festival tourism market. At the same time as the development of new business models for health and wellness vacations, new requirements have been put forward for the modernization of tourism governance systems and governance capabilities. Traditional sightseeing and leisure activities have relatively easy statistics on the number of tourists and tourism consumption, mainly including group travel, "plane tickets and hotels", and consumption in tourist attractions. The increasingly popular health and wellness vacations are mainly self driving travel, self owned or monthly rental real estate, self living, and self leisure. Before travel, it is difficult to enter the statistical scope of destination supply side services such as car refueling, equipment purchase, travel insurance, highway and catering consumption during the journey, as well as daily necessities purchase, cultural entertainment, medical care, rehabilitation and medical insurance payment during the destination stay. If we cannot reconstruct the contemporary tourism statistical system with big data technology from the perspective of demand side, it will be difficult to do a good job in industrial planning, project construction, and market promotion, and it will also be difficult to form social consensus and government cooperation for tourism development. In the process of introducing concepts into commercial practice, it is necessary to make reasonable use of natural resources such as mountains, lakes, oceans, islands, forests, grasslands, as well as historical and cultural cities, ancient villages and towns with rich cultural heritage. It is even more important to systematically study and scientifically grasp the laws of the tourism market, especially the spatial flow and consumption characteristics of health resort tourists. Experience has shown that mountains, lakes, and beaches around 200 kilometers of the main urban area of mega cities with a population of over 10 million and a GDP of over 1 trillion are more likely to form recreational health resorts, while the market radiation radius of second - and third tier cities will significantly shrink. I hope that tourism planning departments and decision-making bodies can view the health and wellness vacation market, which has just entered the concept introduction period, more rationally, and promote the healthy, sustainable, and high-quality development of the tourism industry.