Dai Bin | The blazing flame of burning theory innovation illuminates the brilliant starry sky of cultural and tourism integration

On April 22-23, the 2023 China Tourism Science Annual Conference was held in Beijing, with the theme of "Strengthening the Construction of the 'Three Major Systems' and Promoting the Deep Integration of Culture and Tourism". Dean Dai Bin delivered a closing speech titled "The Burning Flame of Theoretical Innovation Illuminates the Splendid Starry Sky of Cultural Tourism Integration". The full text is shared below. In 2022, the General Office of the Communist Party of China Central Committee issued the "National Development Plan for Philosophy and Social Sciences during the 14th Five Year Plan Period". The report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China pointed out that we must adhere to shaping tourism with culture and highlighting culture with tourism, and promote the deep integration and development of culture and tourism. The State Council's "14th Five Year Plan for the Development of Tourism Industry" has made clear arrangements for the construction of world-class tourist attractions and resorts with profound cultural heritage, as well as national level tourist cities and districts with distinctive cultural characteristics. Approved by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the theme of this year's China Tourism Science Conference is to strengthen the construction of the three major systems and promote the deep integration of culture and tourism. In the past two days, we have listened to the speeches of leaders of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, shared the keynote speeches of academicians of the CAS Member and university presidents and thematic dialogues of front-line scholars, exchanged excellent papers of young and middle-aged scholars, released honorary cases of art and tourism integration, landmark achievements of the 15th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Academy of Tourism Research, and the establishment and award-winning list of cultural and tourism macro decision-making topics in 2023, successfully completed various agendas, and defined the guiding ideology and direction, path and task of the construction of discipline system, academic system and discourse system of tourism theory with Chinese characteristics. On the occasion of the successful closing of the annual conference, on behalf of the China Tourism Research Institute (Data Center of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism), I would like to express our sincere gratitude to all the leaders and comrades who have shown concern, support, and participated in the work of the conference! Warm congratulations to the institutions and scholars who have received honors! 1、 Can theory make the world of tourism a better place? Yes, the new stage requires more tourism scholars to shift from paying tribute to traditional academic research to future oriented theoretical construction. Engels wrote in the introduction of "Socialism from Utopia to the Development of Science" (1892 English version), "When each of us expounds what he considers to be a new theory, he must first refine it into an all encompassing system. He must prove that the main principles of logic and the basic laws of the universe have always existed in order to ultimately lead to this newly discovered and brilliant theory. According to theory, Dr. Eugen Durin has already met this standard with his entire "philosophical system", "political economy and socialist system", and "critical history of political economy". 【1】 But why did Engels write the monumental work 'Anti Durkheim' in the 1870s? It is because in Engels' view, the abstract concepts of equality and absolute freedom such as "general sovereignty" and "individual sovereignty" expounded by Durin in seemingly rigorous academic language serve the capitalist economic and political system as the ideology of the bourgeoisie. Engels emphasized that studying social phenomena, including moral phenomena, can only follow dialectical materialism and apply scientific methods. In order to make socialism a science, it must first be placed on the basis of reality. All theories that are detached from the people are pale and powerless, and all theories that do not benefit the people are lifeless. [1] Compiled by the Compilation Bureau of Marx, Engels, Lenin, and Stalin's Works of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, Selected Works of Marx and Engels, Volume 3, Page 695. People's Publishing House, 2nd edition, June 1995. [2] Engels, "Anti Durkheim Theory," People's Publishing House, March 2018. This article does not intend to take systematic reading notes or creatively paraphrase the 250000 word "Encyclopedia of Marxism", but rather to provide a clear and solid logical foundation for the construction of tourism theory with a people-oriented and practical perspective. Since the 1980s, generation after generation of tourism scholars have been thinking about what the country wants and what the industry needs urgently. They have braved the wind and rain, exhausted their efforts, and gone through the academic Long March of independent introduction, digestion and absorption, spontaneous exploration, and conscious construction with all their talents and efforts. They have formed a number of excellent achievements that support industrial practice and tourism education, and built an academic community dialogue platform represented by journals, societies, and forums, laying a solid foundation for the construction of a tourism discipline system, academic system, and discourse system with Chinese characteristics. In response to this, the China Tourism Research Institute has continuously released the "Journal of Chinese Tourism Scholars" and the "Exhibition of Achievements in Chinese Tourism Oral History" in the past three years, paying tribute to senior scholars and expressing high respect to them! We have also noticed that the tourism academic community tends to excessively pursue concept originality, logical consistency, and journal publication in the pursuit of disciplinary independence. For the tourism discipline with strong practicality, wide integration, and high plasticity, it does not seem to be the top priority at present. On the contrary, more tourism scholars are shifting from paying tribute to traditional academic research to future oriented theoretical construction, and more tourism organizations are encouraging young scholars to write papers on the land of their motherland. The ultimate goal of contemporary tourism theory must and can only serve the people's right to tourism, dedicating all talents and efforts to bring the dream of "reading thousands of books and traveling thousands of miles" into the reality of common prosperity. This goal requires the leadership of the Party and the joint efforts of administrative entities, market entities, academic communities, and all sectors of society to be achieved. Academic research aimed at this goal is thoughtful research, and tourism scholars are ideal scholars. No one in the political arena listens, no one in the industry responds, and all papers, works, and textbooks are just sung and quoted in small circles. It's better not to do such research. There is no light in the eyes, no heat in the heart, and a scholar who rolls himself into a "refined egoist" for personal fame and fortune is not good. In the new era, tourism scholars and theoretical workers should use strong academic vitality to warm up the salaried and enable the powerful to move forward in their services and peers, and use sustained practical action to promote industrial evolution and create social connections. 2、 Can theory empower tourists? Yes, the new theory requires a more firm people's stance and a more scientific research method. The last sentence of Marx's "Theses on Feuerbach" states: "Philosophers only explain the world in different ways, but the problem is to change the world. The Introduction to the Critique of Hegelian Philosophy points out that "the weapon of criticism cannot replace the criticism of weapons, and material power can only be destroyed by material power; but once a theory masters the masses, it will also become material power. As long as a theory convinces people, it can master the masses; and as long as a theory is thorough, it can persuade people." Many times, we learn to read, do knowledge, and publish papers, but forget why we should read, do knowledge, and publish papers, or in other words, the philosophy of science and academic ethics are suspended. The tourism research and theoretical construction in contemporary China must show its own flag openly, which is to stand in the people's position, to ensure the tourism rights of the public, so that more people can travel, afford to travel, and feel at ease, so that more tourists can enjoy the beauty of mountains and rivers, understand the cultural charm, improve the quality of people through tourism in the process of Chinese path to modernization, and promote the all-round development of people. As long as we adhere to this theoretical standpoint and engage in lively and colorful tourism practices, we will have an inexhaustible source of research materials and theoretical innovation. Leaving the standpoint of the people, one may make some exquisite knowledge in a local field and individual sense that is enough to make oneself famous, or form a complete set of logically consistent explanatory systems, just like what Durin did. However, it cannot go far in the end, nor can it let theory control the masses, let alone become an ideological force that "makes the world a better place". [3] Marx: Introduction to "Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Law", People's Publishing House, 1973, 1st edition. The power of theory comes from the qualitative research and metaphysical reasoning abilities acquired through systematic academic training. As Marx pointed out, "When analyzing economic forms, neither microscopes nor chemical reagents can be used. The two must be replaced by abstract power." After rigorous academic training during the graduate stage, contemporary tourism scholars and theoretical workers, mainly PhDs, have the professional ability to extract scientific problems from complex phenomena and independently engage in scientific research. They should also have the theoretical abstraction ability that unifies historical and logical processes. These abilities come from qualitative research such as grounded theory, as well as philosophical reasoning through practical observation. [4] Compiled by the Compilation Bureau of Marx, Engels, Lenin, and Stalin's Works of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, Capital, Volume 1, Page 8. People's Publishing House, 1st edition, June 1975. The power of theory comes from solid quantitative research and its mathematical expression. Unlike experts who work in a certain field for a long time and accumulate experience through "learning by doing" to solve practical problems, scholars often grow up in quantitative research processes such as statistics, modeling, hypotheses, and testing, and cannot do without the mathematical expression of research results. This is also the reason why top universities offer "three high courses" such as "Advanced Microeconomics," "Advanced Macroeconomics," and "Advanced Management" for doctoral students. These professional courses often require a solid foundation in statistics and mathematics, and provide universal rational tools for the growth of contemporary scholars. Theoretical construction also requires extensive social surveys and scientific research practices. The era is the question setter, we are the answerers, and the industry and tourists are the examiners. Social surveys should have a firm people's stance and a clear awareness of issues, and adhere to the unity of problem oriented and goal oriented approaches. It's not about sending questionnaires or conducting surveys after selecting a topic, let alone conducting surveys for the sake of surveys, but about randomly and continuously obtaining information in teaching practice, scientific research practice, and industry practice. The survey targets should not only be limited to investors, executive teams, and private customized travelers, but also pay attention to millions of ordinary practitioners, such as homestay operators, frontline tour guides, drivers, and servers. It is also necessary to pay attention to the tourism and leisure needs of rural residents, who need knowledge dissemination and theoretical guidance. The deep integration of culture and tourism requires wider openness and sharing among academic communities and theoretical circles. The participants of previous Tourism Science Annual Conferences have always been frontline scholars in the tourism field and increasingly active young and middle-aged scholars. There are also more and more scholars, entrepreneurs, and government officials from different disciplinary backgrounds, professional fields, and work backgrounds attending to share their insights. We hope to have more 'others' examine current tourism practices and research results based on practice, and we also hope to have more new forces shaping the direction of future discipline construction. The collision of ideas and the growth of new forces cannot all be harmonious and orderly, nor can they all be immediately accepted by those in power. However, without doing so, the grand goal of tourism research and theoretical research cannot be achieved, let alone a long-lasting foundation. This is also the purpose of our insistence on setting up a conference exchange program mainly for young scholars and doing our best to promote and publicize it. 3、 Can theory make tourism scholars more confident? Yes, the new theory continues to improve in the practice of promoting high-quality development of tourism, and makes scholars more confident that with the process of Chinese path to modernization, mass tourism has begun to enter a new stage of comprehensive development. At this stage, the tourism academic community and theoretical builders should always stand together with ordinary tourists and millions of tourists. In the process of serving and interacting with peers, it has gradually become an independent entity with identification and action power outside of administrative and market entities. Under the leadership of the Party, we aim to become an integral part of promoting the deep integration, high-quality development, and sustainable development of culture and tourism, advocating for the tourism rights of urban and rural residents, and making every effort to help every tourist achieve their entrepreneurial dreams. This requires every teacher, researcher, and theoretical worker related to tourism to become a scientific research practitioner that meets the needs of the country and the expectations of the people with the passion of an entrepreneur and the rationality of a scholar. In this process, more people may follow suit due to the call of ideals or the pursuit of interests, ultimately constructing grand theories that can be recorded in history; It is also possible that due to one's own lack of talent or the dangers of the world, one may fail and end up without even a professorship in their lifetime. In any case, one should not become a tourism scholar, especially the younger generation of tourism scholars who avoid practice and use the excuse of "hiding in a small building to become a unified entity, solely focused on publishing papers". Why publish industry development reports and case studies at academic conferences? Or is it worth holding a special press conference to promote academic research and theoretical construction achievements? The answer is affirmative. Tourism research and theoretical construction need to determine topics from vivid and lively industry practices, and obtain materials and data from diverse tourism activities. Once you have a relatively formed viewpoint and improvement suggestions, the first thing that comes to mind is to actively listen to the audience's opinions and accept practical testing, and then revise and improve the existing theory. This ideal mechanism is not compatible with traditional academic journals, government newspapers, and industry media, but needs to be created by ourselves. Since 2009, the China Tourism Research Institute has been publishing quarterly reports on tourism economic operations and forecasts, as well as national tourist satisfaction surveys. Starting from 2019, the China Tourism Group Development Forum began to release innovative cases of cultural and tourism integration development. In 2022, the "New Power of Trendy Brands" series was launched. The Urban Tourism Development Forum launched the "Extraordinary Ten Year Charm Twenty Cities". In 2023, the Study Travel Forum released its annual report, Shaoxing Observation, and five benchmark cities. For the first time, this year's conference presented 10 cases of art and tourism integration development. Unlike cases released by government departments, academic institutions and professional think tanks themselves do not have administrative power to demand promotion from various regions or industries, so there is no need to go through a hierarchical application and selection process. Instead, they have the theoretical courage to take responsibility and put more academic resources into "discovery evaluation improvement". Tourism rights, mass tourism, host guest sharing, tourist satisfaction, and tourist destinations are the sum of living environment, commercial environment is the key to tourism destination competition, consumption is the key to understanding tourism economy, and the focus of tourism work should be timely shifted to cities, national research and national campsites, as well as theories and practical explorations of ice and snow tourism, summer tourism, night tourism, and food tourism, especially in the 15 years since the establishment of the institute, are all theoretical responses made by contemporary scholars to answer major practical problems, hot topics, and difficult issues in the process of tourism practice. As the main battlefield for tourism theory construction, universities, research institutes, and government research institutions are not news and communication agencies, nor are they market entities for business consulting. They have accumulated valuable first-hand information in promoting industry development, and ultimately need to return to academic research, theoretical construction, and ideological guidance. Both academic research and theoretical construction should and must have platforms and carriers recognized by the academic community, including publicly published monographs, textbooks, academic papers, and theoretical articles. It's not that academic journals used for peer communication are not important, nor is it to deny the writing paradigm of scientific papers, but rather to hope that contemporary scholars have a broader perspective. If you always listen and speak among peers, and even become embroiled in the saying 'all things are inferior, only papers are superior', then it's not good. 【5】 [5] Dai Bin, "Bacon's Method and NOMA Principles of Theoretical Construction in Tourism Research". Originally published in the 5th issue of "Tourism Guide" in 2022, and fully reprinted in the 3rd issue of "Tourism Management" in 2023. If any level still lacks the same broad mindedness as the soul of the people, even in an instant, lacks the talent to inspire material power to carry out political violence, lacks the fearless spirit of revolution, and boldly declares to the enemy: I have no status, but I must become everything. "Then," every field of civil society has also failed before celebrating victory, and before overcoming the obstacles in front of it, it has its own obstacles. Before showing its magnanimity, it has shown its narrow-minded nature, and even the opportunity to play an important role is often missed before it is obtained, so that a class just begins to compete with someone higher than itself. When class struggles, one becomes involved in the struggle against classes lower than oneself. 【6】 Young people have sharp minds, strong actions, and are full of infinite possibilities. They must not retire early to laboratories, libraries, and study rooms, repeating those ancient songs day after day. The famous poem "Kissing Fire" by the essayist Liang Yuchun mourns the poet Xu Zhimo. It says: "The experience of the world is like a fire, and many people respect ghosts and gods and distance themselves from it. Looking at the fire across the river, they estimate everything with a cold heart and dare not immerse themselves in the raging flames. Therefore, living a dull life is almost devoid of any brilliance. Decades of time have been calculating how not to fall into it and disappeared, resulting in a big mistake. [6] Marx: Introduction to "Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Law", People's Publishing House, 1973, 1st edition. 4、 Can theory be widely accepted by the tourism system and industry? Yes, the new theory requires a more open language system and more diverse promotion methods. The disciplinary system, academic system, and discourse system are integrated, and the construction of social science theories, including tourism, inevitably involves the questions of who to speak to and how to speak. As Vice Minister Du Jiang pointed out in his opening speech this morning, people-oriented must and should become the purpose and guidance for leading the construction of the discourse system of Chinese characteristic tourism; The comprehensiveness of the tourism industry and the practicality of tourism research determine the openness of the tourism discourse system. Tourism scholars who have undergone rigorous academic training are familiar with and accustomed to speaking to the academic community. The problem is that in the past two decades, we have intentionally or unintentionally neglected to speak to the industry and society, and gradually become less articulate, even unwilling or unable to speak. In addition to the influence from the government and industry, the presence of tourism scholars is rarely seen in public discourse spaces involving tourism rights, tourism development momentum, modern industrial systems, and the construction of a world tourism community. Theoretical articles should, and can also, depict vivid visual experiences as if they were before our eyes. Marx said in his discourse on capitalist relations of production, '(Capitalist) walks ahead with confidence and vigor, while (Worker) walks behind dejectedly, as if trying to sell their own skin to others, leaving them to be tanned.'. Theory is meant to grasp the masses, isn't this kind of writing more powerful and touching than the eight part essay of searching for chapters and sentences? There is an article in the WeChat official account Zhejiang Propaganda about the fish in the south of the Yangtze River, "The water is the soul of the south of the Yangtze River, and the fish is the water spirit. How can you lose this fish when you travel in the south of the Yangtze River in spring?" [7]. There is not a single sentence throughout the entire text about "mountains and waters," "poetry and painting," "beauty," or "goodness