Many newly built projects, once their operations encounter problems, instead of conducting in-depth research on product and service updates, they try to take the "shortcut" of free admission. They hope that "free admission will cure all diseases," which is the helplessness of contemporary cultural tourism projects, investors, and professional managers.

What are the evaluation criteria for determining whether a cultural tourism project should be free or charged?

B. Supporting services

Once many projects become free, when faced with increased crowds, there are not enough toilets, cable car capacity is insufficient, leading to only being able to go up but not down, and the scale of catering supply is insufficient, resulting in a lack of hot food. This is almost an annual holiday problem in the cultural tourism industry that is often shown on television. If you are not prepared for supporting services, don't offer free admission, otherwise, the reputation after offering free admission will be disastrous.

C. Commercial products

We used to love saying "commercial facilities," but today, in the context of 'free,' we talk about commercial products: this means the project has no admission fee. Internal commercial products include, but are not limited to, must-visit accommodations, must-try food, must-buy cultural and creative products, and must-experience entertainment items. These must be designed, implemented, serviced, and operated as independent dimensions that constitute the product's attractiveness. This supports the monetization of commercial value when something is free.

D. Capability Support

More visitors due to free admission is a management challenge; if free admission doesn't attract visitors, what to do next becomes an even greater survival challenge. This requires a complete set of capabilities, including a series of management emergency plans, product emergency plans, brand promotion emergency plans, and negative incident management plans. Otherwise: for tourism and cultural projects with insufficient capabilities, not offering free admission means being paralyzed but still lingering; offering free admission means accelerating death like late-stage cancer.

E. Cognitive Assessment

Many owners, once they make their projects free, perceive visitors as owing them or taking huge advantage of them, which is a gravely absurd perception. You should think this way: these tourists have graced us with their presence, and while you might originally have smiled showing 8 teeth, now you should show 10 or 12. Only with double the quality service can 'free' become the most meaningful approach: converting a single visit into a second consumption and an Nth proactive brand co-creator! If enterprise managers don't have this understanding, then they shouldn't offer free admission, or the results will spiral out of control.

What are the core principles determining the success or failure of free admission for cultural and tourism projects?

B. Principle Two: 'One must have the diamond drill to do the porcelain work.'

Typically, for cultural and tourism projects, especially scenic areas, admission fees often account for over 50%, even 80%, of revenue, with other secondary consumption making up the remainder. If you don't have sufficient product and service preparations, asking a business model that accounts for 20% of revenue to bear 100% of the income is almost as incredible as asking the bottom five students in a class to boost the entire class's ranking. Achieving this effect requires a more comprehensive improvement in capabilities.

C. Principle Three: Free admission is a double-edged sword.

Once a cultural and tourism project becomes free, it's very difficult to re-introduce fees. This means abandoning your 'price tool' in marketing. It means you might not attract a tsunami of individual visitors, and you might even lose your already limited group visitors. You also lose contact with online distribution platforms like OTAs and miss the opportunity to establish your own live streaming platform.

D. Principle Four: Instead of offering free admission, promise 'money back if not satisfied'.

Two days ago, I visited Xiaoshi Yizhuang Scenic Area in Benxi. The owner's promise there, 'If you consume at Xiaoshi Yizhuang and are not satisfied, you are free to get a refund without reason,' conveyed a stronger sense of 'unlimited confidence in quality service' than simply saying the place was free, and it was more likely to move consumers.

E. Principle Five: All trap-style free offers will backfire from the market.

Never trick customers with trap-style free offers, only for everything to be expensive and all secondary consumption to be charged once they arrive. Self-media will spread your negative reviews across the entire internet before the customer even leaves the park. Within half an hour to an hour, local public opinion and internet monitoring departments will capture and report it, and a seal might be placed in less than 2 hours.

In fact, the 'free cultural and tourism' trend, on one hand, reveals the industry's desperate anxiety: without popularity, where does wealth come from? But even with popularity, wealth is not guaranteed. In the past two years, some night tour projects generally had per-person consumption of 3 or 5 yuan, and even covering electricity, security, and cleaning costs was said to be a struggle for cost recovery.

Therefore, free admission is sometimes reasonable but not necessarily logical, while charging is sometimes illogical but very reasonable. Haven't you noticed that many ancient city and town projects remain empty even when free, while high-experience projects with hundreds of yuan in admission fees are still bustling with visitors? Thus, free admission is not a panacea to save cultural and tourism projects that inherently lack value. We must scientifically, comprehensively, and systematically choose the best scenic area development model based on our own capabilities.