China’s Tourism Industry Transforms to Emotional Value, Forging High-Quality Development Path

Tourism has now become an important part of people’s better life. Looking ahead to the next stage, how to better achieve high-quality tourism development has attracted wide attention. It is pointed out that the tourism industry is undergoing a profound transformation from "functional value" to "emotional value", presenting four trends: normalized consumption, accelerated demand stratification, deepened cultural shaping and guidance, and accelerated institutional opening-up. Facing the 14th Five-Year Plan period, local regions should keep up with changes in market demand, consolidate the destination reception system, improve tourist satisfaction, and strive for the goal of building a strong tourism country to promote the steady and long-term high-quality development of the tourism industry.

The popularity of tourism in daily life reflects profound supply-side reforms. From only 4 million daily trips during the first National Day "Golden Week" in 1999 to over 60 million daily trips during this year’s Spring Festival holiday, this leap has benefited from the comprehensive improvement of infrastructure, public services and reception capacity in multiple dimensions.

At the same time, consumer demand in the tourism market is accelerating stratification and diversification. In the past, people preferred famous mountains and rivers, while the younger generation pursues more personalized and unique experiences. With tourism resources becoming ubiquitous, places such as museums, libraries, highway service areas and vegetable markets have become popular check-in spots. The era of meeting people’s diverse, personalized and high-quality needs has arrived, driven by the generalization of tourism resources and diversified supply.

Currently, the tourism industry is accelerating its growth into a pillar industry, people’s livelihood industry and happiness industry of the country. Facing the 14th Five-Year Plan period, local governments have stated that they will promote in-depth integration of culture and tourism and accelerate the cultivation of new drivers for tourism development. Notably, more and more people are choosing self-guided travel instead of group tours, posing new opportunities for local cultural and tourism departments in the "individual traveler era".

To seize these opportunities, it is suggested that local cultural and tourism departments should thoroughly understand changes in tourist demand, the evolution of travel methods and long-term trends, make full use of big data and long-term data tracking research, and develop distinctive integration of culture and tourism to avoid homogeneous development across cities.

A rational attitude should be adopted towards the internet-famous phenomenon in local tourism development. Tourism development is a long-term and systematic strategic task, not just about publicity, pursuing internet popularity or attracting internet-famous check-ins. It is necessary to respect the laws of tourism development with patience and wisdom, instead of seeking quick gains. Local governments should not blindly subsidize internet-famous promotion with financial funds, but focus on consolidating the destination reception system.

Tourism promotion should highlight local cultural heritage to build sustainable attractiveness, and make good use of new quality productive forces such as artificial intelligence to build product barriers. For emerging markets, a "develop first, regulate later" approach can be adopted to promote growth through trial and error.

Ensuring tourism is more warm and secure has become a key people’s livelihood concern for high-quality tourism development during the 14th Five-Year Plan period. It is suggested that tourist satisfaction monitoring be included in the assessment criteria for civilized cities to avoid the gap between publicity and reality, and focus on making tourists feel warmth and sincerity in details.

Meanwhile, great attention should be paid to tourism safety in the "individual traveler era". Relevant departments should promptly intervene in content that violates public order and good customs or poses safety hazards, such as wilderness survival activities. With these measures, China’s tourism industry will continue to develop in a high-quality way, better satisfying people’s pursuit of a better life.