Reporter: General Secretary Xi Jinping has repeatedly emphasized the need to promote the deep integration of culture and tourism. How do you understand its significance? In your opinion, what does the integration of culture and tourism integrate?

Daibin: Chinese-style modernization is a modernization that coordinates material civilization and spiritual civilization. In order to better meet the people's yearning for a better life, we need to strengthen cultural construction, produce more excellent works of literature and art, and also need to accelerate the development of tourism to provide the people with more high-quality tourism products.

Culture and tourism are both organic components of a better life. Since the reform and opening up, they have developed rapidly on their respective tracks, and it is both possible and necessary to achieve parallel development. Cultural construction should learn and implement Xi Jinping's economic thinking, and in the process of developing advanced socialist culture, promoting revolutionary culture, and inheriting excellent traditional Chinese culture, it should develop cultural industries to meet the actual needs of national leisure and tourism consumption. Tourism development should learn and implement Xi Jinping's cultural thinking, develop natural resources and historical and cultural resources, adhere to cultural leadership, empower technology, rely on cultural space and business environment, and meet and enhance people's spiritual and cultural life.

The core of the integrated development of culture and tourism lies in integration, the key lies in development, and its essence is to continuously promote "using culture to shape tourism, and using tourism to highlight culture" through integrated development, ultimately achieving "letting tourism become a process for people to understand Chinese culture and enhance cultural confidence," and "letting people appreciate the beauty of nature, understand the beauty of culture, and cultivate the beauty of the soul" in the process of tourism.

Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, starting from the overall situation of China's economic and social development, has deeply understood the laws of development of cultural undertakings, cultural industries, and the tourism industry, and made important strategic deployments for the integrated development of culture and tourism.

In March 2018, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China issued the "Scheme for Deepening the Reform of Party and State Institutions," proposing the establishment of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. In October 2019, the Fourth Plenary Session of the 19th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China deliberated and adopted the "Decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Several Major Issues Concerning the Upholding and Improving the Socialist System with Chinese Characteristics and Advancing the Modernization of the National Governance System and Capacity," which lists "improving the system and mechanism for the integrated development of culture and tourism" as an important task. In March 2021, the "Outline of the 14th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development and the Long-Range Objectives Through the Year 2035" was published, requiring the promotion of the integrated development of culture and tourism, "adhering to the principle of using culture to shape tourism and using tourism to highlight culture, creating a unique and charming Chinese cultural tourism experience," and "strengthening the integration of regional tourism brands and services, building a number of world-class tourist attractions and resorts with rich cultural heritage, and creating a number of national-level tourism and leisure cities and districts with distinctive cultural characteristics. Promoting the innovative development of red tourism, cultural heritage tourism, tourism performances, etc."

In October 2022, the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China further emphasized, "adhering to the principle of using culture to shape tourism and using tourism to highlight culture, promoting the deep integration of culture and tourism." In July 2024, the Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China deliberated and adopted the "Decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Further Comprehensively Deepening Reform and Promoting Chinese-Style Modernization," proposing to "improve the system and mechanism for the deep integration of culture and tourism development."

Under the leadership of the Party Central Committee, various regions and departments have quickly taken action, making important breakthroughs in terms of ideological integration, functional integration, product integration, market integration, business model integration, and integration of external exchanges. The quality of tourism development and the effectiveness of cultural development have been significantly improved, and tourism is increasingly becoming a process for people to understand Chinese culture and enhance cultural confidence, and the appreciation of the beauty of nature, the understanding of the beauty of culture, and the cultivation of the beauty of the soul are increasingly unified in people's tourism process.

Tourism carries the new mission of cultural inheritance and civilization creation, and enhancing cultural confidence and improving cultural soft power are the requirements of the times for a strong tourism country. To promote the integrated development of culture and tourism to a deeper extent, wider range, and higher level, we must carry out systematic theoretical construction from the strategic height of building a strong tourism country, and also practically promote the construction of national cultural parks and world-class tourist attractions, resorts, cities, districts, villages, routes, and world-class tourism enterprises from the practical level.

We cannot equate the integration of culture and tourism with general industrial integration, simply applying the theory of industrial integration to promote resource integration, technological integration, product integration, and market integration, nor can we pay too much attention to the superficial characteristics of tourism products, such as red tourism, tourism performances, theme parks, cultural heritage tourism, cultural and creative tourism products, cultural tourism complexes, and study tours.

In fact, the "culture" in "using culture to shape tourism" not only includes culture and art in the narrow sense, but also material and non-material culture, as well as culture at the level of propaganda and ideology. They can enhance the attractiveness of tourism products, the competitiveness of the tourism market, the dissemination power of tourism image, and the innovation power of study tours through different channels. The "tourism" in "using tourism to highlight culture" not only includes tourists and their behavior as demand subjects, but also enterprises and their behavior as operating subjects. They can help expand the cultural market, promote cultural exchange, improve cultural education, and innovate cultural production through different channels.

Reporter: Since the new era, China's cultural and tourism undertakings have achieved historic achievements, and various places have frequently introduced measures to promote the deep integration of culture and tourism. Based on your observations, what typical models have been formed in various places in exploring the integration of culture and tourism, and what good experiences are there?

Daibin: In recent years, with the deepening of the integration of culture and tourism, various places have explored and formed some typical experiences and practices.

From the perspective of cultural leadership, the most widespread and typical model can be called the model of using culture to enhance the attractiveness of tourism, which is to enhance the core attractiveness of tourism products by enriching cultural experiences. The scope of cultural experience is very wide, including not only visiting historical buildings and cultural relics, but also visiting museums, experiencing intangible cultural heritage activities, watching performances, etc., which can themselves become relatively independent attractions. With the improvement of people's living standards and the increase in travel opportunities, people's demand for cultural experiences during travel has become stronger, and the forms of participating in cultural experiences have become more diverse.

Museums, historical and cultural cities, ancient towns and streets, live performances, concerts, and singing performances have become important attractions in many tourist destinations. For example, "Impression Liu Sanjie" has been performed more than 8,000 times in the 20 years since its premiere, receiving more than 20 million viewers. Intangible cultural heritage experiences are booming. Xinpucun Village in Quanzhou, Fujian Province, is known for its hairpin custom. A small fishing village received more than 3.5 million tourists in 2023, with the highest daily number of tourists reaching 50,000 during holidays.

The second category is the cultural enhancement tourism element competitiveness model, which enhances tourism competitiveness by adding cultural symbols and enriching cultural connotations to tourism elements. Main forms of expression include themed hotels, themed restaurants, themed trains, and tourism cultural and creative products. Taking the recently popular characteristic homestays as an example, the Huanghe Suji and Huashan Yunshe homestays are in high demand, a major reason being that they offer a lot of aesthetic and cultural interest.

The third category can be called the cultural enhancement tourism image dissemination model, which promotes tourism publicity and promotion through cultural forms, especially artistic mediums. Artistic works, due to their artistic imagination and appeal, have always been important mediums for tourism dissemination. Since ancient times, many tourist destinations have become famous because of a poem or an article.

The fourth category can be called the cultural enhancement research and study tourism innovation model, which consciously organizes more culturally significant tourism activities, allowing tourists to learn and grow during their travels. This refers to general research and study tourism, including research and study for primary and secondary school students, as well as science and education tourism for all ages, and any learning and self-improvement behavior during the tourism process. Today, people increasingly value the role of tourism activities in promoting the all-round development of individuals, with visits to science museums, scientific research bases, higher education institutions, and guided tours becoming popular tourism activities.

From the perspective of tourism showcasing and creation, the in-depth integration and development of culture and tourism has formed models such as tourism expanding the cultural market, promoting cultural exchange, improving cultural education, and innovating cultural production.

The tourism expansion of the cultural market model uses the tourism market as an important market for the development of cultural undertakings and industries. For example, art troupes launch innovative programs for tourists, actors perform in scenic areas, and art galleries and cultural centers hold special exhibitions for tourists. Currently, cities and villages have become new spaces for a better life, enjoyed by both locals and visitors, with citizen leisure and tourism increasingly merging.

The second category is the tourism promotion of cultural exchange model. Tourism activities are embodied activities. The richness, subtlety, and stimulation of cultural information experienced by tourists during tourism are incomparable to cultural exchange methods such as film and television and novels. The tourism process is also a process in which tourists continuously accept and disseminate culture. Tourism is an important channel for promoting exchanges and integration among ethnic groups. Each ethnic group has its own unique lifestyle and rich cultural heritage. Through two-way tourism, understanding and friendship between different ethnic groups can be deepened. Tourism is also an important way for external cultural exchange. Inbound tourism allows overseas visitors to experience a credible, lovable, and respectable image of China. Outbound tourism, through the words and actions of tourists, influences the perception of China by overseas visitors.

The third category is the tourism improvement of cultural education model, which uses tourism activities as an important way of cultural education, using tourism activities to develop advanced socialist culture, promote revolutionary culture, and inherit excellent traditional Chinese culture. Cultural undertakings and industries carry the important function of educating people with culture. Tourism activities, with their advantages of being both educational and entertaining, play an important role in cultural education.

The fourth category is the tourism innovation of cultural production model, which integrates cultural production into tourism project construction and product development. The process of tourism project construction and product development is also the process of cultural production.

We have also noticed that the current integrated development of culture and tourism still faces problems such as insufficient depth of integration, low level of integration, and weak integration benefits.

In recent years, culture has indeed entered scenic areas and broader tourism spaces, but it has not yet fully entered the activities of tourists. Cultural institutions have begun to pay attention to the tourism market, but they lack in-depth and systematic research on the tourism market, especially tourist consumption behavior, and their thinking still remains supply-oriented rather than market-oriented. The reason is that insufficient understanding and institutional and mechanism barriers are realistic factors affecting the in-depth integration and development of culture and tourism.

Society widely recognizes that culture and tourism "should" integrate and develop, but there is still insufficient understanding of "why" and "how". Institutional integration has solved some institutional and mechanism problems, but the values, thinking, and working methods formed by the long-term development of culture and tourism in their respective tracks have not yet achieved effective synergy. In relevant laws, regulations, policies, plans, and standards, there is still a lack of clear opinions on some specific issues.

We must pay attention to the deeper reasons behind the problems, adhere to the combination of goal orientation and problem orientation, improve the institutional and mechanism for the in-depth integration and development of culture and tourism, innovate cultural expression methods, especially the contemporary expression of traditional culture, and effectively enhance tourists' sense of experience, satisfaction, and gain with local culture.

Reporter: The 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and the Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee both made deployments to promote the in-depth integration and development of culture and tourism. On the new journey, how can we use reform and innovation as the driving force to promote the integration of culture and tourism on a wider range, deeper level, and higher level?

Daibin: Facing the people's better life, constructing a national tourism development theory in the process of Chinese-style modernization, providing strong spiritual impetus for the in-depth integration and development of culture and tourism. Guided by Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, especially Xi Jinping Thought on Culture and Xi Jinping Thought on Economics, we should implement Xi Jinping's important expositions and instructions on tourism work, focus on major strategic issues and hot and difficult issues concerning the integrated development of culture and tourism, strengthen market research on both the demand and supply sides, and accelerate the construction of a new era tourism development theoretical system.

We must consolidate the position of the tourism industry as a strategic pillar industry of the national economy, and introduce new productive forces to cultivate new cultural spaces, innovate new tourism scenarios, and strive to build the tourism industry into a priority area of humanistic economy.

We should do a good job in demonstration projects and experience summaries, and steadily promote the in-depth integration and development of culture and tourism with institutional and mechanism innovation as a breakthrough. We should handle several major relationships well, including government and market, supply and demand, protection and utilization, international and domestic, and development and security. We should give full play to the decisive role of the market in resource allocation, and better play the important role of the government in tourism planning and layout, public services, and business environment. We should select representative regions to conduct demonstration projects, and conduct pilot projects in the innovation of management systems and mechanisms, the utilization of cultural resources, and the financial, financial, land use, and talent policy support for the in-depth integration and development of culture and tourism.

We should organize scientific research and academic forces, go deep into the grassroots and front lines, conduct in-depth investigations and studies, select a batch of excellent cases of the integrated development of culture and tourism, summarize their experience and models and promote them, and guide more investment institutions and business entities to invest in cultural and tourism integration and innovation. We should further release the driving effect of major cultural projects, and accelerate the construction of a number of world-class tourist scenic areas and resorts with profound cultural heritage, national-level tourism and leisure cities and streets with distinctive cultural characteristics, world-class tourist cities, international tourist destinations, and world-class tourism enterprises. Relying on the construction of national cultural parks, national parks, and national tourism routes, we should strengthen the coordinated planning and special construction of cross-provincial tourism.

We should adhere to the development orientation of people's satisfaction and benefit. We should adhere to the people-centered development concept and work orientation, so that the people can have places to travel, can afford to travel, can travel happily, and can play with peace of mind. We should shift the focus of tourism work to cities, focus on sinking to rural areas, and tilt more financial, financial, development and reform, and industrial policies towards central and western regions and vast rural areas, so that rural residents can also enjoy the upgraded spiritual needs of culture, leisure, and tourism.

We should strengthen professional guidance and market supervision of key cities, key areas, and key departments, continuously improve and improve the service system for individual tourists, and use the tourist perspective to force the improvement of tourism products and service quality and the optimization of destination environment. We should include tourism driving the industrial development, residents' employment, and improvement of living standards of destination cities and villages as important indicators of high-quality development of the tourism industry, and adopt pragmatic and effective measures to promote its realization.

Fully protect and rationally utilize cultural heritage. The development of tourism requires thorough and in-depth research into history and culture. The comprehensive protection and inheritance of historical and cultural cities, districts, and towns should aim to "retain people, retain forms, retain charm" and "see people, see objects, see life." For the booming urban exploration, county-level tourism, and rural tourism, we must build on regional characteristics, preserve local culture, improve supporting facilities, and create more leisure environments that are shared by hosts and guests, and are both livable and travel-friendly, by offering small, exquisite, beautiful, and warm tourism products and services. Relying on national cultural parks, make good use of world-class, national-level, and local historical and cultural resources and intangible cultural heritage to cultivate more heritage-themed tourist routes that balance social and economic benefits.

It should be noted that, at the practical level, the integration of culture and tourism should not only emphasize the integrated development of excellent traditional Chinese culture and tourism but also attach importance to the integrated development of revolutionary culture bearing red genes, advanced socialist culture, and tourism. Red tourism in the new era should have a national vision and a visitor's perspective. Red tourism certainly has a propaganda and educational function, but it is, after all, different from classroom education in schools. We must delve into the connotation of revolutionary culture, steadily improve interpretation levels, and enhance visitors' experience. To tell the story of red tourism in China well, sincerity is more important than anything else. We should strive to downplay the elements of lecturing, memorization, and performance, treat history with sincerity, and treat tourists equally.

In red tourism, visitors should be able to feel that today's happy life was hard-won, and also be able to see the beautiful life of the present and the future, realizing that we still need to forge ahead in the days to come. At the same time, it is important to focus on showcasing a beautiful China through advanced socialist culture. For many years, cultural symbols such as Confucius, Peking Opera, and Kung Fu have shaped the world's cultural perception of China. China in the new era is also a modern China. Landmark buildings like Daxing Airport, CBD, Guangzhou Tower, Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed Railway, and Pudong New Area should also become new carriers of China's national tourism image, alongside the Forbidden City, Terracotta Warriors, Yinxu, and Liangzhu. We need to consider how to better integrate advanced socialist culture into tourism scenarios, showcasing a beautiful China that is self-reliant, modern, fashionable, and historically rich.