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In China, industrial tourism started in the 1990s. Although it started later, it has developed rapidly and achieved significant results thanks to the joint efforts of the government, industry, and enterprises. The Chinese industrial tourism market is in a rapid development stage, showing strong growth momentum. With the introduction of the "14th Five-Year Plan" for tourism development, encouraging the use of industrial production sites, processes, and industrial heritage to develop industrial tourism will further promote the development of the industrial tourism market. China is rich in industrial tourism resources, with a wide geographical distribution. Industrial tourism in different regions has different characteristics and styles. Some regions, such as Hunan and Fujian, have already issued relevant policies to promote the high-quality development of industrial tourism. It is expected that in the next few years, the scale of China's industrial tourism market will further expand, and its market share will gradually increase, becoming an important force in promoting organic urban renewal, industrial transformation and upgrading, and enterprise integration and development.

Image: Megang Industrial Cultural Tourism Area | Image source: Public network

Types and Typical Case Studies of "Industry + Tourism"

Industrial heritage tourism is a way to transform industrial heritage sites into museums or exhibition venues, showcasing the historical and artistic value of industrial heritage. This model is mainly suitable for the protection and utilization of buildings and factories with historical value, using tourism development methods to develop tourism products with sightseeing and science education functions. It can be divided into two forms: open-air museums and indoor museums. Open-air museums and exhibition halls can showcase unique industrial landscapes to tourists, while also providing products such as recreations of production scenes, providing important tourism experiences for visitors. Indoor museums and exhibition halls mainly showcase the production culture and products of the past, and improve the visitor experience with comprehensive explanations and performances.

For example, the Chongqing Industrial Museum is a good case. It utilizes the old site of Chongqing Iron and Steel, showcasing the unique historical and artistic value of industrial heritage, making it an important tourist destination. The Chongqing Industrial Culture Expo Park consists of the "Centennial Splendor" main exhibition hall, the "Steel Soul" theme hall, and the industrial ruins park. It is an important place for inheriting the historical and cultural context of Chongqing's modern industrial history. The highlight of the Expo Park's transformation lies in its revitalization of industrial relics, integrating cultural and tourism elements to play multiple urban functions, transforming the "rust belt" into a vibrant "show belt." By showcasing the development of Chongqing's industry over the past 130 years since the opening of the port, the Expo Park not only showcases history but also its brand. Through the development of cultural and creative products, it promotes the continuation of the red spirit. This transformation model not only gives new life to Chongqing's industrial heritage but also provides the city with new cultural space and economic growth points.

Image: Content of Chongqing Industrial Museum | Image source: Public network

Another example is the 798 Creative Industry Park in Beijing. Originally the 798 area of the Beijing North China Radio Union Equipment Factory, it initially sought to reuse idle factories and buildings by renting them out. Due to its low rent and typical Bauhaus architectural style, it attracted a large number of modern art creators. Subsequently, nearly 20,000 square meters of old factory buildings were transformed into art studios, galleries, fashion creative shops, restaurants, and bars, attracting many famous artists in China, becoming a unique creative park representative in the hearts of Beijingers.

Image: 798 Art District | Image source: Public network

This model mainly refers to the development of tourism for visitors to sightsee, tour, and appreciate the scenery and landscape of the enterprise environment using company scenes, facilities, equipment, and other industrial tourism resources with landscape value. This allows local residents and tourists to engage in lingering roaming and leisure and entertainment. This model emphasizes the aesthetic value of industrial landscapes and the visitor experience. By combining industry and tourism, it provides tourists with a new experience different from traditional natural scenery tourism.

This model can not only increase tourists' understanding of the industrial production process but also promote local economic development and enhance the cultural value of industrial heritage. For example, Qijiang Park in Zhongshan City, which was rebuilt from the Yuezhong Shipyard, is one of the classic cases in China of transforming industrial heritage into open urban spaces. The park perfectly combines natural and human elements, creating a leisure and recreation space that showcases the beauty of industry. Qijiang Park shows us how to transform abandoned industrial sites into urban green spaces and public spaces, providing citizens with a place that combines leisure, entertainment, and education.

Image: Zhongshan Qijiang Park | Image source: Public network

And the Nanjing Taikoo Coca-Cola Sightseeing Factory. Located in the Jiangbei New District, the Nanjing Taikoo Coca-Cola Sightseeing Factory has a beautiful and fashionable exterior. The dark green exterior is dotted with Coca-Cola red, and the classic "Christmas" color scheme is full of American style. The walls on both sides of the sightseeing hall record the major events of Taikoo Coca-Cola, from 1965 to the present, the partnership between the Taikoo Group and Coca-Cola has spanned more than half a century. Led by staff, visitors can also overlook the entire workshop assembly line from the corridor of the Coca-Cola production workshop. This factory transforms the industrial production process into a sightseeing experience for tourists, not only enhancing consumers' understanding of Coca-Cola's production process and corporate culture but also further enhancing consumers' brand trust.

Image: Nanjing Taikoo Coca-Cola Sightseeing Factory | Image source: Publicly available online

The commercial and consumer experience-based industrial tourism model emphasizes the combination of industrial production with commercial retail and consumer experiences, attracting tourists by providing unique shopping and consumption experiences. This model not only increases tourists' understanding of industrial products but also promotes product sales and enhances brand image. It usually involves on-site displays of industrial products, experiential shopping, and cultural experience activities related to industrial production.

For example, CentrO Oberhausen in the Ruhr area of Germany, reconstructs a former factory site into a two-story shopping mall housing 220 domestic and international brands, making it one of Europe's largest shopping and leisure centers. CentrO's renovation concept combines shopping with industrial tourism, with supporting attractions such as a musical theater, adventure park, and boat dock, and adjacent to the city's iconic landmark—a 117-meter-high gasometer.

Image: CentrO Oberhausen's giant gasometer | Image source: Publicly available online

And our Beijing 751 Park, built on the basis of the factory buildings vacated by Beijing Zhengdong Electronic Power Group Co., Ltd. (formerly the state-owned 751 Factory). 751 Park, through the organic integration of new and old, has transformed "sparks" into "stars" and "steam" into "popularity," making it a popular place for photo opportunities. From its inception, 751 Park has clearly defined its development goals as internationalization, high-end, fashion, and industrialization. With fashion design as its core, it actively introduces leading resources in the design field and new consumer formats, gradually forming a development pattern dominated by fashion design and multi-industry integration. Today, it has become a comprehensive industrial cultural and commercial park with unique industrial charm, a gathering of internet celebrity businesses, a collection of brand activities, a strong street atmosphere, and a fusion of culture and technology.

Image: Beijing 751 Park | Image source: Publicly available online

The creative and innovative development-based industrial tourism model focuses on combining industrial heritage with innovative technology and cultural creativity to create a new cultural and technological tourism destination. This model, through industrial heritage and new productive forces, as well as cutting-edge creative content in the market, promotes industrial upgrading and regional transformation, while also providing new ideas for urban renewal and industrial heritage protection.

For example, the transformation of the Shougang Industrial Park is a typical case of creative and innovative development. Shougang Park, through green technological innovation, transforms industrial ruins into scenic culture, deeply mining the industrial cultural connotation of the ruins, and perfectly combining the park's industrial culture with modern style. In terms of business model innovation, Shougang Park has formed a unique "carrying a pole on both shoulders" model, using industrial steel culture to promote the common development of three industries: sports, digital intelligence, and cultural creativity; in terms of technology application, Shougang Park focuses on the development of a "smart application" industrial ecosystem, such as the application of 5G and Internet of Things intelligent control, etc., smart application scenarios serving the technological Winter Olympics; the Winter Olympics cloud broadcasting center relies on "5G + ultra-high-definition media processing + AI + cloud computing + big data + blockchain technology" to produce online cloud broadcasting. In addition, Shougang No. 1 Blast Furnace "Metaverse Park" uses 5G + XR technology to give new life to a century-old historical and cultural site, providing an immersive experience of trendy science fiction products, and exploring the construction of an offline Metaverse entrance. These innovative practices have not only made Shougang Industrial Park a new highlight of industrial tourism, but also made it a comprehensive service area for technology, commerce, sports, and tourism, becoming a new internet celebrity check-in destination in Beijing.

Image: Shougang Industrial Park | Image source: Publicly available online

Suggestions for Immersive Innovation in "Industry + Tourism"

Driven by new productive forces, the "industry + tourism" field is undergoing intelligent innovation and upgrading. New productive forces, with technological innovation as their core, emphasize intelligent, digital, and networked innovative forms of productivity, deepening and expanding traditional industrial tourism. For example, strengthening the use of immersive technologies such as AIGC, AR, VR, and panoramic light and shadow greatly enhances the tourist experience. In terms of content, the knowledge graph of the industrial museum itself should be constructed, and on this basis, more stories and experience scenarios should be generated to provide tourists with continuous unlocking capabilities; in terms of experience, AR scanning, 3D interaction, and other technological means should be used to experience the simulated operation of the process technology, allowing tourists to feel as if they are on the front line of industrial production, experiencing the unique charm of industrial culture. At the same time, introducing data-driven intelligent management, creating a unique industrial tourism intelligent body, improving the operational efficiency of industrial parks and tourist data monitoring capabilities, providing strong technical support for the sustainable development of industrial tourism.

Image: Virtual and Real Technology Founder & CEO Zhang Jinyu AI Speech Poster | Image source: Publicly available online

The integrated development of industrial tourism is not limited to the combination of industry and tourism, but extends to a wider range of fields, including research and study education, science popularization, and cultural creativity, helping to build an influential brand for industrial tourism and enhance its reputation and competitiveness at home and abroad. Brand building and the construction of a tourism brand system have become important directions for the development of industrial tourism. By extracting elements from industrial plants and other resources, summarizing the unique temperament of industrial resources, and forming an exclusive brand with a certain memorable point, such as Chengdu's "East Suburb Memory" Cultural Park, which focuses on the new national trend and new cultural creativity as characteristics of the new consumption trend, personalized consumption has become a major feature of "East Suburb Memory," making industrial tourism destinations influential industrial tourism brands, improving the popularity and influence of industrial tourism.

Image: Chengdu "East Suburb Memory" Cultural Park | Image source: Publicly available online

In the process of creating industrial tourism innovations, we must adhere to the development of the mass market, develop industrial heritage in various forms, and through the innovation of industrial tourism product chains, we can cultivate new industrial tourism formats, such as industrial heritage parks, experience estates, and cultural tourism new retail, which can not only enrich the content and forms of industrial tourism, but also provide new ideas and directions for the protection and reuse of industrial heritage. At the same time, we must also adhere to promoting the deep integration of industrial tourism and corporate culture, so that corporate culture, which carries local cultural memory and the impression of the times, can be reflected in industrial heritage, and also incorporate new corporate visions and new concepts of corporate cross-border integration, integrating corporate innovation with industrial tourism innovation to create more novel industrial tourism experience content.