Strolling around the city, checking in with influencers... Visiting Beijing is no longer limited to visiting A-level scenic spots
2024-08-07
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Beijing's cultural tourism economy enters the fast lane of development
The Shiguang Cafe in Shixia Village attracts tourists to check in. Photo by our reporter Pan Zhiwang
In the first half of 2024, the city received 172 million tourists, an increase of 7.7% over 2019, and realized tourism revenue of 310.92 billion yuan, an increase of 7.2% over 2019. Among them, 93.832 million tourists from other provinces came to Beijing, with tourism revenue of 263.01 billion yuan. There were 76.542 million tourists from citizens in Beijing, with tourism revenue of 33.69 billion yuan. There were 1.658 million inbound tourists, recovering to 77.4% of 2019; tourism foreign exchange revenue was US$2.11 billion (equivalent to RMB 15.03 billion), recovering to 75.0% of 2019.
The cultural tourism industry is undoubtedly a strategic component of the capital's economy and a livelihood industry with significant characteristics of the times, playing an important role in promoting economic development. The ability to speed along the fast track of post-epidemic economic recovery is inseparable from Beijing's solid accumulation of cultural tourism over the years.
It is the peak season of the summer tourism market, and family travel is even more popular. The Kas Valley Family Resort in Huairou District has become a popular summer destination in the suburbs of Beijing. As early as 2013, Beijing founded the first tourism resource trading platform in the country, and upgraded it to the Beijing Cultural Tourism Resource Trading Platform in 2018, fully connecting the needs of all parties for cultural tourism project resources. "Kas Valley" has reached a cooperation with Century Golden Resources Investment Group here to add highlights to the family travel in the suburbs of Beijing; the Longfu Temple Funfly Flying Cinema has been connected to the credit funds of the Bank of Beijing to promote the creation of the Dongcheng District Cultural Golden Triangle and polish the capital's historical and cultural golden business card.
As of June 2024, the Beijing Tourism Resources Trading Platform has completed 474 cultural tourism projects with a total transaction amount of 45.3 billion yuan. In order to continuously improve the investment and financing environment of cultural tourism enterprises, the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism has signed a strategic cooperation agreement with the four major banks of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of China and China Construction Bank, and Bank of Beijing, and will provide a total of 150 billion yuan in financing and credit support in the next five years.
Strolling in the city, checking in with internet celebrities, micro-vacation tourism... Visiting Beijing is no longer limited to going to A-level scenic spots and attractions. Beijing has opened its arms and recommended the latest achievements of urban renewal and development and the vivid daily life of the city to tourists from all over the world. In the 2022 Winter Olympics, the Shougang Big Jump, as a venue for freestyle skiing and snowboarding competitions, has attracted worldwide attention. After the Winter Olympics, this place immediately became a popular tourist destination in Beijing. The stunning transformation of the century-old Shougang has become a living textbook for the world to understand the development and changes of Beijing. The Jinyu Colored Glaze Cultural and Creative Industrial Park in Mentougou, west of Beijing, was formed by the "butterfly transformation" of the Royal Colored Glaze Official Kiln Factory. The 700-year-old colored glaze kiln has been rekindled, and the ancient firing techniques have been restored in a green production method; various types of internet celebrity consumption that integrate traditional culture, trendy art, and technological elements continue to attract people to check in. This vivid example of Beijing's historical and cultural protection and urban renewal is also amazing.
Outside the city, the vast rural areas in the suburbs of Beijing have become increasingly popular destinations for citizens and tourists with their increasingly improved tourism reception capacity. In the first quarter of this year, Beijing's rural leisure tourism received 3.811 million tourists and achieved revenue of 710 million yuan, up 13.6% and 0.8% year-on-year respectively. Village cafes and lake cafes are everywhere, farmhouses have long been upgraded to boutique rural homestays, and camping and leisure are regular formats that are favored by tourists.
To promote the development of rural tourism, Beijing has also established the country's first rural tourism insurance system and the first rural tourism guarantee platform. By the end of 2023, a total of 26,191 rural tourism operators have been insured, providing a risk guarantee of 18.754 billion yuan; 2,886 suburban tourism projects have been guaranteed, with a loan scale of 3.847 billion yuan. Mentougou District, Fangshan District and Changping District, which were severely affected by the heavy rainstorm last summer, are also recovering and rebuilding rapidly to welcome the return of tourists.
In hotels and restaurants in Beijing, robots delivering goods and meals by themselves are now a common cultural tourism consumption scene. People with disabilities can check barrier-free tour routes when visiting scenic spots through the "Beijing Smart Map" public account. The Shijingshan Fahai Temple Mural Art Museum uses a 360-degree surround ball screen to make the Fahai Temple murals that have been dormant for 600 years move, which is not only clear but also interesting to see... The high-quality development of the cultural tourism industry is inseparable from the deep integration of culture and tourism, and even more inseparable from the deep integration of technology and cultural tourism.
In recent years, Beijing has insisted on the integrated development of "culture and tourism + various industries" and "industries + culture and tourism". Integrative business formats such as intangible cultural heritage + tourism, study tours + tourism, concerts + tourism, sports events + tourism, etc. are emerging in an endless stream. Every year, nearly 20 million yuan of fiscal funds are invested and guided, and 29 new cultural and tourism products, new business formats, and new scene projects have been rewarded. So far, 22 units have been selected as a new batch of national cultural industry demonstration bases, ranking first among all provinces and cities in the country. It can be said that the "trouble" of Beijing's cultural tourism is not how to apply new technologies to create new scenes, but how to connect the scattered travel needs of tourists with the increasingly sound intelligent system, so that the future smart cultural and tourism services will be more accurate and considerate.
Shared happiness is worse than happiness alone. While Beijing's cultural tourism is recovering rapidly, it has always attached importance to driving the surrounding areas and counterpart assistance areas. On June 21, the first batch of Beijing's cultural tourism assistance "Good Product Selection" list was announced. 55 representative products, famous and high-quality products and regional brand products from 23 regions supported and cooperated by Beijing were listed and grandly promoted in Beijing. The years of intellectual support and city revitalization actions are helping the local rural revitalization. The integrated development of cultural tourism in Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei is also increasing cohesion and showing economic efficiency through integrated product development, integrated market promotion, and integrated industry supervision.
The summer tourism market is in full swing, which has also strongly boosted urban consumption. It has become a normal situation for popular hotel rooms, popular attractions and popular performances in Beijing to be sold out. The high driving ratio of tourism to other industries of 1:9 is helping to boost the healthy development of the capital's economy.
