Dai Bin | Creating a New Blueprint for the Integration of Culture and Tourism, Deploying New Tasks for Tourism Recovery

On January 5, 2023, the National Conference of Directors of the Department of Culture and Tourism was held in Beijing. Dean Dai Bin was invited to publish a special commentary article titled "Planning a New Blueprint for Cultural Tourism Integration and Deploying New Tasks for Tourism Recovery" in the China Tourism News. The full text is reproduced as follows:

On January 5th, 2023, the National Conference of Directors of the Department of Culture and Tourism was held in Beijing. This meeting is the first national conference held by the cultural and tourism system after the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China. It is also a highly anticipated conference across the industry to further optimize the implementation of the "New Ten Measures" for epidemic prevention and control policies and the "Category B Management" policy. The theoretical innovation achievements of deep integration of culture and tourism, policy innovation and task deployment for the recovery of the tourism market and high-quality development of the tourism industry have attracted high attention from the entire system and industry.

The report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China proposed to "adhere to shaping tourism with culture and highlighting culture with tourism, and promote the deep integration of culture and tourism development", adding the word "depth" compared to the past and putting forward new and higher requirements. How to scientifically grasp the theoretical connotation, value orientation, kinetic energy transformation, and practical approach of the deep integration of culture and tourism is a practical issue that the cultural and tourism system and tourism industry must face. On the basis of systematically summarizing the theoretical achievements and practical experience of the past 5 years, this meeting further clarified the work policy of deep integration of culture and tourism in the current and future periods: adhering to complementary advantages and complementing each other, allowing "poetry" and "distant places" to "blend" naturally and "harmonize" in creating a better life together. Under the banner of co creating a better life, cultural undertakings, cultural industries, and tourism industries have positively answered the strategic questions of "why integration" and "how integration". Adhere to the mutual growth of culture and tourism, identify the compatibility, compatibility, and connection points between the two, and form new products, services, and formats that combine cultural and tourism characteristics, without being confined to academic distinctions and practical disputes. These theoretical innovations that reflect the characteristics of the new era will undoubtedly become a consensus on the deep integration of culture and tourism, and a spiritual force for tourism recovery.

In the past five years of theoretical construction and practical exploration, the cultural and tourism system has fully recognized that "market entities are innovative practice entities for integrated development, and cultivating market entities for integrated development should respect market laws." It is necessary to emphasize both "integration when appropriate and integration when possible," and to recognize that integration is not suitable or temporarily unavailable. After more than 40 years of development since the reform and opening up, tourism has become a strategic pillar industry with strong economic attributes and a modern service industry with a high degree of marketization. Cultural undertakings such as public culture, intangible cultural heritage, artistic creation, and cultural diplomacy, including cultural trade, digital culture, and cultural enterprises, have more ideological attributes. The degree of marketization and professionalization still need to be strengthened. This meeting requires that in the process of promoting the deep integration of culture and tourism, we must seek truth from facts, respect and follow our respective development laws, put more effort into "deep" and "practical" aspects, and promote scientific and orderly progress. Both tourism enterprises and cultural institutions must become market entities with strategic leadership and product innovation capabilities in order to generate a "1+1>2" chemical reaction in the process of deep integration.

After 5 years of practical exploration, especially in the face of the contraction of the tourism market in the past 3 years since the outbreak of the epidemic, we have further realized the practical significance and value of a series of new propositions such as "life is above the landscape", "from scenery to scenery, tourism destinations are the sum of living environments", and "from theaters to markets, rediscovering the beauty of travel". Persisting in shaping tourism through culture means leading the innovative development of the tourism industry with socialist core values, and making the Chinese Dream of national rejuvenation and people's happiness a new driving force for high-quality development of the tourism industry. Introducing fashion elements and creative teams supported by technology, culture, and education in practice, allowing excellent literary and artistic works and high-quality tourism products to learn from and support each other, enhancing tourism taste, and making tourism an unforgettable spiritual and cultural journey. Persisting in promoting culture through tourism is not just a slogan, but through green tourism and civilized tourism, it promotes the revitalization of excellent traditional Chinese culture, the transmission of revolutionary culture, and the promotion of advanced socialist culture. From the perspective of the development laws of world culture, the height of art often needs to be supported by the thickness of the market. The steadily recovering demand for tourism, the accelerating recovery of the tourism market, billions of domestic tourists, and hundreds of millions of outbound tourists can play a more critical role in driving cultural dissemination and promoting the strategic process of cultural prosperity, playing a more active role.

Since the reform of the Party and state institutions, the integration of culture and tourism has accumulated many good practices and experiences. In the past three years, the cultural and tourism system has issued and implemented many effective industrial policies and administrative measures in coordinating epidemic prevention and control and resuming work and production. The meeting requested to plan and launch a batch of exemplary policy measures based on a careful summary of experience and implementation of work. Build a number of world-class tourist attractions and resorts with rich cultural heritage, and create a number of national level tourism and leisure cities and blocks with distinctive cultural characteristics. Promote the transformation and upgrading of existing integrated formats such as tourism and performing arts, cultural heritage tourism, and immersive experiences, and cultivate new integrated formats. Construct around 30 national demonstration zones for the integrated development of cultural and tourism industries. We need to study and formulate policy documents to deepen project management in the cultural and tourism fields, and promote the construction of a national cultural and tourism investment and financing project library. Accelerate the establishment of cultural and tourism industry investment funds.

The deep integration of culture and tourism is also reflected in the field of foreign cultural exchange and tourism cooperation guided by the concept of a community with a shared future for mankind. The meeting proposed to coordinate cultural dissemination and tourism promotion, promote the deep integration and coordinated development of cultural departments (groups) in more than 150 countries and regions, 45 overseas Chinese cultural centers, and 20 tourism offices in organization, mechanism, and specific work, add tourism promotion to cultural dissemination, and inject cultural elements into tourism promotion. Focus on hosting the Chinese and Foreign Cultural Tourism Year, Overseas Chinese Tourism Culture Week, hosting the China International Tourism Fair, promoting the construction of border tourism pilot zones and cross-border tourism demonstration zones, upgrading "Beautiful China" to "Beautiful China", and becoming the main image of international tourism market promotion.

According to the tourism market data for the New Year holiday in 2023, there were 52.7134 million domestic tourists traveling nationwide, a year-on-year increase of 0.44%; Realize domestic tourism revenue of 26.517 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 4.0%. More leading indicators indicate that all indicators related to tourism, such as travel intention, consumption expectations, industry prosperity, and entrepreneurial confidence, are moving in a positive direction. Coupled with the new blueprint for cultural and tourism integration planned at the conference and the deployment of new tasks for tourism recovery, we have more sufficient reasons to raise our expectations for the tourism economy in 2023 from cautious optimism to optimism.