Four New Changes in the Cultural and Tourism Industry in 2024
The cultural tourism industry is a creative industry, a new fashion industry, and an industry that spans the world. From a market perspective, four new changes are happening in the cultural tourism industry in 2024. Let's take a look at what they are.
Editor-in-Chief | Yang Ming
Editor | Liu Kaiye
Time flies, and suddenly it's the last month of 2024. 2024 has been a year of explosive popularity for cultural tourism, from Harbin's ice and snow tourism at the beginning of the year and the nationwide cultural tourism boom it ignited online, to Wang Po's matchmaking, "My Altay", the continuously popular Village Super League, and then the local cultural tourism craze driven by "Following the Commander to Attack the County Town" and Xiaohua Barbershop's sudden popularity. You will find that the popularity of cultural tourism in a place has no inevitable connection with its cultural tourism investment, but rather with the local regional culture and its "people," and with the stories of that place. Only by telling the cultural tourism story well and developing good products can a place unintentionally become popular at some point.
The only constant in the world is change, especially in cultural tourism. Many new changes have occurred in cultural tourism in 2024, particularly at the national level, where building a strong tourism nation and cultivating the cultural tourism industry as a pillar industry have been elevated to a national strategic level. At the micro-level, cultural tourism is closely related to almost every one of us; almost everyone, whether near or far, has had some travel or tourism experience. It can be said that the cultural tourism industry is an important component of the market economy, possesses strong consumer driving power, and can promote the common development of related industries and stimulate consumption growth.
Emotional tourism is becoming a new hot spot for cultural tourism to break out of its traditional circle.
In life, we often talk about providing emotional value to someone. Emotional tourism refers to a type of tourism that can provide emotional value to tourists, emphasizing emotional experiences during the travel process and destinations or activities that meet specific emotional needs.
This type of tourism usually targets a specific theme or a particular target group to meet their common needs and emotional appeals during the travel process. Emotional tourism emphasizes personalization, deep participation, and emotional resonance. It is not just about sightseeing and enjoying the scenery, but more about seeking spiritual pleasure and relaxation, such as watching a performance, trying local specialty food, or attending a game.
Human emotions are ever-changing, and there are many ways to vent them. For example, "special forces tourism" is a way to de-stress and vent emotions; Citywalk and reverse tourism focus on emotional healing; temple and Taoist temple tourism aims to seek spiritual solace, focusing on psychological healing; Village Super League and Village BA primarily focus on emotional resonance; the popularity of "stove-side tea" comes from emotional release; the tension and excitement of "Following the Commander to Attack the County Town" provided tourists with the emotional value of patriotic sentiment, a sense of accomplishment and pride; and Xiaohua Barbershop, due to its "understanding of communication" and "making you leave the barbershop with a smile," also provided customers with a friendly emotional value of becoming beautiful.
It can be said that as long as a way to provide emotional value to tourists is found, a key to unlocking the cultural tourism traffic code is found, and a new hot spot for cultural tourism to break out of its circle is found.
New productive forces in cultural tourism are becoming a new engine for high-quality development in cultural tourism.
New productive forces in cultural tourism are a form of productivity centered on innovation, characterized by "innovation, high efficiency, and high quality." Driven by innovation, the cultural tourism industry can better meet the diverse and personalized needs of tourists, enhancing their experience and satisfaction.
The new productive forces in cultural tourism have multi-faceted promotional effects on cultural tourism, such as promoting deeper integration of culture and tourism; upgrading rural cultural tourism industries; improving the standardization of cultural tourism services; innovation-driven services and products; enhancing the digital transformation of cultural tourism; promoting the deep integration of culture and technology; strengthening the promotion and marketing of cultural tourism products, etc. Its multi-dimensional application in the cultural tourism industry is an important focus for effectively promoting the high-quality development of the cultural tourism industry and a new engine for its high-quality development.
For example, Guizhou: "New productive forces in cultural tourism" are leading the industrialization of tourism in Guizhou, promoting deep integration of culture and tourism, and creating a unique "Guizhou Phenomenon" in the industry. Another example is Xinjiang Altay: a TV series "My Altay" made Xinjiang Altay the "poetry and distant lands" in tourists' hearts, keeping tourism popularity high. Shanxi Ancient Architecture: a game "Black Myth: Wukong" made Shanxi ancient architecture explosively "go viral," triggering a wave of tourist check-ins. Henan Cultural Tourism: through innovative forms such as the "Wonderful Journey" series and night tour projects, the popularity of Henan's cultural tourism market continues to rise.
Cultural entertainment tourism is creating new directions and opportunities for the future development of the cultural tourism industry.
Cultural entertainment tourism is a new concept in cultural tourism integration, new products awaiting development, including composite cultural entertainment tourism methods with cultural entertainment and spiritual pleasure such as "culture+", "entertainment+", "tourism+", "drama+", "performance+". In December 2023, the Central Economic Work Conference proposed to "actively cultivate new consumption growth points such as cultural entertainment tourism," and in March 2024, the government work report once again mentioned "actively cultivating new consumption growth points such as cultural entertainment tourism." The wording used is "cultivate," indicating that cultural entertainment tourism is still in its growth period. If cultural entertainment tourism is a big tree for future cultural tourism, then it is currently a vigorously growing seedling, representing a new direction for future cultural tourism development. Therefore, cultural entertainment tourism is creating new directions and opportunities for the future development of the cultural tourism industry.
Cultural entertainment tourism takes various forms, including entertainment services, scenic area sightseeing services, leisure and sightseeing services, etc. Specifically, these include: live tourism performances, theme park tourism performances, tourism theater performances, concerts, music festivals, and other activities; it also includes film and television works, variety shows, scenic area role-playing games (Jubensha) and immersive time-travel experiences, dramatic arts, cultural tourism mini-series, and so on.
In summary, the integration of culture, art, and entertainment tourism is becoming a new trend in cultural tourism development. The era calls for the creation of high-quality cultural entertainment tourism products that satisfy people's spiritual and cultural needs, such as film works and theatrical works by famous domestic directors; for example, Dao Lang's music concerts and his musical work "Yu Meiren: Hometown," which evoke nostalgia. These are not just musical masterpieces, but also spiritual products of cultural tourism that deeply resonate with the audience's emotions.
China has become the largest source country and a major destination for international tourism, and many new trendy terms have emerged in the cultural tourism industry.
On August 30, 2024, a relevant official from the Ministry of Commerce introduced that currently, China's tourism industry has formed the world's largest domestic tourism market, becoming the largest source country and a major destination for international tourism.
On overseas social media, “China Travel” is a trending buzzword this year. Starting November 30th, China implemented a visa-free policy for nine countries, including Croatia, Montenegro, and North Macedonia. This expands the number of countries enjoying visa-free access to China to 38. With the expansion of the visa-free ‘circle of friends,’ more and more foreign friends are choosing to travel to China, exploring the rich and diverse Chinese history and culture, the varied landscapes, appreciating the beauty of China's mountains and rivers, its humanity and civilization, experiencing the charm of diverse Chinese culture, such as cupping, wearing Hanfu and floral headdresses while traveling, experiencing Shaolin Kung Fu, calligraphy, Sichuan opera, etc.
Amidst the ‘China Travel’ craze, a foreign blogger traveling in China frequently uses a phrase mixing Chinese and English, “city不city” (city or not city), in their videos. This has become a popular internet meme, instantly becoming an adjective describing something as urban, fashionable, novel, fresh, and exciting. It has also been extended to describe whether something or a situation has a metropolitan feel, a sense of fashion, or represents a lifestyle. In China, there are many, many ‘good city’ cities.
Summary
The above are four new changes occurring in the tourism industry in 2024. These new changes are converging into a tremendous force driving tourism development and innovation, promoting more vigorous and high-quality development of tourism, bringing surprises to tourists and the world. We look forward to even more delightful and exciting new changes in the tourism industry in 2025.
Recommended Important Tourism Events
2025 China (Beijing) International Amusement Rides and Equipment Expo
2025 Beijing International Tourism, Leisure and Entertainment Industry Expo
March 19-21, held in Beijing!
