Urban renewal is not simply demolition and reconstruction; more importantly, it solves people's livelihood and meets people's yearning for a better life. The empowerment of urban renewal by the tourism industry is a process of protecting and inheriting historical culture and preserving and revitalizing historical memory spaces. It can enrich the connotation and path of urban renewal and promote sustainable urban development. By deeply excavating cultural resources, systematically sorting out the city's historical and cultural system, clarifying the direction of the city's cultural brand, and comprehensively shaping the city's spirit, tone, and style, and then formulating corresponding urban renewal plans, cultural heritage implementation details, and work plans, it is a process of excavating the value of cultural context and creating a city's brand.

Urban renewal empowered by the tourism industry focuses on the symbiosis and common prosperity of culture, space, and economy. For traditional buildings that carry historical and temporal value, the integration of tourism values allows urban renewal planners to act with the concept of sustainable development. In addition to economic effects, it also pays more attention to the cultural value of the city, maximizing the protection of the city's cultural heritage, historical evolution, and humanistic ecology, and exploring more new paths to activate old city activities in the process of promoting the integration of new and old.

In urban renewal empowered by the tourism industry, carefully excavating and creating more spatial resources and implanting more cultural services can effectively improve the people's sense of gain and happiness by continuously improving the coverage and adaptability of culture. [1] On the one hand, aiming at promoting the development of the tourism industry and meeting people's leisure and entertainment needs, old urban services or urban supporting facilities such as old parks and disused railways are upgraded and expanded through cross-border integration and the integration of technological elements; on the other hand, urban modern fashion leisure and shopping districts are used as the main focus to create a tourism, commerce, and travel complex, integrating diverse consumption formats such as fashion shopping, specialty dining, sightseeing, cultural experiences, tourism performances, and health and leisure, which can better meet the daily needs of local residents and better attract and satisfy the unique leisure experiences of tourists from other places in local urban life. [2]

The tourism industry needs the empowerment of urban renewal

In terms of content, urban renewal mainly includes four aspects: residential renewal, environmental renewal, cultural renewal, and industrial renewal. Among them, cultural renewal and industrial renewal related to tourism mainly involve the transformation and upgrading of historical relics and industrial sites, and at the same time, promoting industrial transformation and upgrading through urban renewal, cultivating new economic growth points, and creating new impetus for the development of urban tourism industries.

Urban renewal can enhance the city's cultural heritage, promote the city's economic and social development, and accelerate people's pursuit of a better life while meeting people's basic material needs. In the process of solving various complex problems in urban renewal, such as fund raising, land planning, and community participation, it will prompt urban managers and citizens to actively seek innovative methods and ideas. This pursuit of spiritual needs and the atmosphere of innovation and creation can effectively enhance the city's soft power and create conditions for the development of the tourism industry.

In the process of urban renewal, the protection and transformation of historical buildings and streets have created new development space for the tourism industry. By using urban renewal to transform these tourism resources into tourist attractions, cultural experience projects, and specialty products, it can promote the generation and transformation of cultural capital and the innovation and upgrading of tourism projects, meet tourists' needs for cultural experiences, and thus promote the high-quality development of the tourism industry. It can better protect and inherit cultural resources and enhance the city's attractiveness.

Urban renewal has upgraded the city's infrastructure and improved the city's transportation, green ecology, and supporting commercial systems. Specifically, it includes the upgrading and transformation of public spaces, creating more activity and display platforms for the tourism industry; the improvement of transportation facilities has improved tourists' travel efficiency and promoted exchanges and cooperation with surrounding areas; the green construction of the ecological environment has attracted more tourists to come for leisure and vacation, etc. Multiple measures have provided strong support for the steady development of the tourism industry.

Urban renewal and tourism industry integration cases

The two-way empowerment of urban renewal and the tourism industry is conducive to expanding new patterns and formats for the development of urban cultural tourism industries, as well as improving the city's competitiveness and consumption power. Urban renewal can become a new opportunity for the development of the tourism industry, and the empowerment of urban renewal by the tourism industry will also become a new driving force for urban development. [2] Below are some typical examples that analyze how urban renewal and the tourism industry achieve two-way empowerment:

1. Basic project information

As Guangzhou's first old city renovation project, after more than ten years of discussion on renovation planning, the government introduced Vanke Group through the BOT (Build-Operate-Transfer) method, innovatively adopting a "government-led, enterprise-undertaken, resident-participatory" micro-renovation urban renewal model for Yongqingfang. Based on preserving the historical texture and cultural context of the area, the traditional buildings underwent "embroidery-style" small-scale demolition and repair. In terms of business philosophy, Yongqingfang uses revitalized industries such as "culture + leisure" and cultural inheritance such as "intangible cultural heritage + experience," implementing the concept of integrating new and old elements, allowing tourists to experience the reborn charm of traditional culture and revitalizing the old city.

Currently, Yongqingfang has restored the "fang, lane, li, and alley" layout of the Lingnan cultural street district. Within the area are historical buildings with Lingnan characteristics, such as Bruce Lee's ancestral home and the Zhan Tianyou Memorial Hall. It gathers a number of intangible cultural heritages, including Cantonese opera, martial arts medicine, handmade seal carving, paper cutting, Xiguan copper beating, Guangcai (Canton enamelware), and Guangxiu (Canton embroidery), becoming a window for Guangdong Lingnan culture to engage in external exchanges. It is also an urban renewal demonstration area that Guangzhou is committed to creating, integrating historical and cultural heritage with contemporary urban life.

2. Functional Business and Operational Effectiveness Before and After Renovation

Yongqingfang's predecessor was Yongqing Street. As the city center moved outward, Enning Road, as "Old Xiguan," lost its former glory. From the perspective of infrastructure, the buildings in Yongqingfang before the renovation were severely damaged, with tangled wires, failing fire safety measures, and poor community sanitation. From the perspective of cultural heritage, its traditional culture and folk crafts gradually declined, and their inheritance was worrying.

The renovation of Yongqingfang preserved the "one longitudinal and two transverse" street layout in Phase 1 and the "three transverse and five longitudinal" traditional layout in Phase 2, with minor repairs and renovations to the buildings within the area. First, infrastructure supporting facilities were improved; based on preserving the original appearance of the macadam roads, the roads were resurfaced, underground wiring was installed, and drainage and fire protection were improved. Second, the public space "Lichi Bay" was created, preserving and restoring the Lingnan style of houses with small bridges and flowing water. Third, the interior and exterior of the buildings were renovated to enhance the characteristics of Lingnan architecture. Finally, new business formats were introduced to revitalize the old city.

The Yongqingfang project is divided into "Guangdong Rhyme West District" and "Fashion East District." The West District focuses on cultural and creative characteristics, intangible cultural heritage inheritance, national quintessence culture, and time-honored brands, where customers can experience the reborn charm of traditional culture. The East District emphasizes national tide fashion, nightlife bar streets, and avant-garde cultural experiences, allowing visitors to feel the impact and collision of new vitality. Its merchants mainly include cultural creativity, boutique homestays, creative light meals, and cultural media. As a collection of Xiguan culture and intangible cultural heritage, Yongqingfang has also created "Guangzhou's first intangible cultural heritage street," integrating interactive experiences, displays, and sales, encompassing more than 10 intangible cultural heritage projects such as "Guangcai, Guangxiu, enamel, olive carving, and lion dance," allowing citizens and tourists to experience and understand Lingnan intangible cultural heritage in a one-stop shop, helping to promote the dissemination, inheritance, and innovation of traditional culture.

Since its opening in 2016, Yongqingfang has successively hosted the Guangfu Xiguan Historical and Cultural Exhibition, the Guangzhou Jazz Festival sub-venue, the Guangzhou Youth Cultural and Art Week Xiguan venue, the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts graduation exhibition, and the UCCA Lab's first intangible cultural heritage exhibition in South China, "Born from Within—A New Interpretation of Xiguan Stories." It has also collaborated with cultural and artistic institutions such as the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, UCCA Lab, Guangzhou Xinghai Concert Hall, and Guangdong Grand Theatre to launch city-level art and cultural activities. Furthermore, Yongqingfang has deeply explored the art and cultural resources of its merchants, such as intangible cultural heritage master studios, and jointly launched cultural experience classes and markets, perfectly integrating Lingnan traditional culture with modern urban life.

3. Experience for Reference

• Renovating historical and cultural streets with meticulous care. For areas with a rich history and culture, adopt a "micro-renovation, strong protection" approach instead of large-scale demolition and reconstruction for urban renewal, maximizing the preservation of local characteristic culture and restoring the humanistic environment. During the renovation planning phase, the purpose should be to meet people's material and spiritual needs, integrating new elements while restoring the old appearance of the city, allowing ancient buildings and ancient culture to be reborn in a way that people enjoy in the new era.

• Promote the "government-enterprise-people" cooperation model to create more possibilities for urban renewal. With the government leading the direction of urban renewal, enterprises undertaking specific implementation, and residents participating in planning, it can ensure the efficient implementation and improvement of urban renewal, meeting both urban development strategies and making full use of enterprise resources, while also meeting the actual needs of local residents, achieving a win-win situation for all three parties.

• Strengthen experiential cultural promotion to bring traditional crafts into the new era. Through exhibitions, classes, and shops, residents and tourists can gain a direct and in-depth understanding of the connotation and charm of traditional culture and crafts through personal experiences, stimulating more people's interest and cultural identity. It can also encourage people to draw inspiration and promote cultural innovation, allowing culture to go out in diverse ways.

1. Basic project information

The popularity of Dalian Xiongdong Street is called a "screaming revival" of an old industrial area. As a creative industrial park transformed from the Dalian Refrigeration Plant, under the operation of Botao Culture, by creating the traffic IP "Xiong Beibbei" (a 6-meter-tall, 25-ton mechanical white bear with a standing height of up to 9 meters) to attract traffic, and with a series of amusement facilities and commercial ecology, Dalian Xiongdong Street has achieved monetization of traffic economy, becoming a new landmark for commercial consumption in Dalian.

2. Functional Business and Operational Effectiveness Before and After Renovation

Before the renovation, Xiongdong Street was just a regular creative industrial park transformed from an old industrial park, mainly focusing on traditional retail and catering. The facilities were old, and some undeveloped factory buildings had high ceilings, labeled as "lacking commercial atmosphere," and were overshadowed by countless similar industrial parks, remaining lukewarm.

After Botao Culture took over its renovation, it used screaming aesthetics—that is, using vision as the main tool to attract audience attention and enrich their aesthetic experience—to create the Dalian-exclusive IP "Xiong Beibbei." The first "Bei" in Beibbei represents "North," and the second "Bei" represents "Big Dipper." It hopes to convey the unique honesty, kindness, enthusiasm, and warmth of northerners through the interaction between "Xiong Beibbei" and people.

Dalian Xiongdong Street consists of a giant bear "Beibbei" and two streets, incorporating elements such as giant beast parades, themed amusement, fashion cultural creativity, science and technology research and study, specialty food, exciting nightlife, and themed activities. Using a combination of cultural, technological, and artistic methods, it organically integrates tourism and leisure with catering, retail, and other business formats. It has been featured on CCTV News three times and has accumulated more than 500 million exposures on short video platforms such as Douyin and Xiaohongshu, attracting the attention of nearly 2 million fans from all over China.

3. Experience for Reference

• Unearthing the city's cultural undertones and creating distinctive IPs to attract visitors. Most regions, when renovating old industrial parks as part of urban renewal, follow a standard procedure of refurbishment, creating creative parks and introducing catering and retail businesses. However, due to the lack of memorable features in these parks or the lack of long-term customer attraction from the shops, most creative parks, after the initial wave of visitors drawn by novelty, end up deserted. Therefore, it is crucial to delve into local cultural characteristics, create distinctive city IPs to attract visitors, and leverage both online media (e.g., films and television) and offline products (e.g., figurines) to shape the city's cultural image. This will attract visitors to underperforming creative parks and, with supporting commercial facilities, enable the monetization of this traffic.

• Diverse business models ensure sustained traffic. After effectively attracting visitors, a variety of business models and improved supporting facilities can help retain consumers. On the one hand, the introduction of technological elements, such as AR and VR technologies, can combine offline physical stores with online virtual experiences, providing tourists with richer and more immersive interactive experiences. On the other hand, by installing art installations and incorporating trendy elements, visually striking public spaces can be created, resulting in a commercial district that integrates cultural creativity, technological experiences, catering and entertainment, and leisure shopping.

1. Basic project information

Before 2019, Ziwei Road was just an ordinary "car repair street." Now, it has transformed into "Chongqing's Little Bangkok," a street where a lively atmosphere coexists with artistic flair. As a representative of community business breakthroughs, Ziwei Road's shops are diverse, offering a wide range of food from East to West and unique architectural styles. Its strict recruitment standards have led to a more refined commercial chain. Most importantly, Ziwei Road is not entirely commercialized; it retains its community service functions, balancing commercialization with community needs. This allows trendy people exploring shops and residents buying groceries to coexist, making it a new fashion consumption landmark in Chongqing.

2. Functional Business and Operational Effectiveness Before and After Renovation

Before the renovation, Ziwei Road's businesses mainly consisted of groceries, auto repair and parts, and a farmers' market—a typical old street providing basic community services. The renovation was carried out in three steps: First, hardware improvements, including sidewalk renovations, landscaping, street scene arrangements, and a custom lighting system; then cultural development, including the creation of a cultural corridor and the display of intangible cultural heritage such as wood carvings; and finally, the most crucial step, the establishment of a multi-business model, with catering as the core, incorporating retail, leisure, and cultural elements. Catering includes Chinese and Western food, coffee, and bars; retail includes clothing, accessories, handicrafts, and bookstores; and leisure and culture includes art exhibitions, concerts, and creative markets. This created a multi-layered and multi-dimensional consumer supply system.

Unlike most commercial complexes or internet-famous streets that undergo major renovations, Ziwei Road, with the aim of ensuring and improving the lives of community residents, retains shops such as vegetable markets and supermarkets that meet the daily needs of residents, maintaining the street's service functions and creating a high-quality community.

The unique commercial layout of Ziwei Road has created diverse consumption scenarios encompassing food, tourism, culture, and exhibitions. It has attracted over 100 distinctive shops and, without significant marketing investment, has drawn numerous young consumers to visit and spend. Residents who had previously left the area are returning, and the street currently receives over 500,000 visitors per month, boosting the overall commercial atmosphere of the surrounding community.

3. Experience for Reference

• The organic integration of commerce, culture, and community. "Commercialized streets, yet community life remains free." Guided by the protection and inheritance of local characteristics, old streets are upgraded and renovated, public spaces are optimized and improved, and a comfortable and pleasant public environment is created. However, the most basic service functions of the community are not eliminated, providing a place for leisure and entertainment for both tourists and residents, achieving an organic balance between the two and demonstrating the city's humanistic care.

• Continuous innovation and business adjustments. To maintain the vitality and freshness of the street, business planning should be carried out in advance when attracting investment to avoid homogeneity among businesses. Carefully select businesses that can bring new business models, create new vitality, and attract new consumers. A commercial chain is formed through diverse business models, allowing the market to drive greater development through innovation and competition, promoting the creation of vibrant new commercial streets.

To gain a deeper understanding of the investment and development of the tourism industry, the China Tourism Academy, in collaboration with the China Amusement Machine and Amusement Park Association and other organizations, is conducting a special survey on investment in the tourism industry. We sincerely invite all member units and tourism enterprises to participate in the survey.

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