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recently, the 2024 semi-annual performance forecast of zhangjiajie tourism group co., ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "zhangjiajie", 000430.sz) showed: a net loss of 58 million to 63 million yuan in the first half of the year, an increase of 41.42% to 53.61% compared with the same period last year.

as the first listed tourism company in china, which was listed in 1992, it is surprising to see such achievements. public information shows that zhangjiajie owns environmentally friendly passenger transport, baofeng lake, yangjiajie cableway, shilihualang sightseeing tram, zhangjiajie china travel service, zhangjiajie international hotel and other resources. it is a multi-factor resource complex of "hotel + scenic spot + tourist passenger transport + hotel + online marketing platform", and is also a typical example of many local cultural tourism groups.

especially in the first half of this year, the overall tourism data of zhangjiajie city was not "ugly".

according to data from the hunan provincial department of culture and tourism, in the first half of 2024, zhangjiajie city received a total of 20.6447 million domestic and foreign tourists, a year-on-year increase of 9.28%; and achieved a total tourism revenue of 28.879 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 14.29%. among them, 19.7332 million domestic tourists were received, a year-on-year increase of 5.21%, and domestic tourism revenue was 27.108 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 8.22%. 911,530 inbound tourists were received (ranked first in the province), a year-on-year increase of 569.17%, and inbound tourism revenue was 247.031 million us dollars, a year-on-year increase of 673.55%.

however, the two popular local scenic spots, zhangjiajie national forest park and tianmenshan national forest park, do not belong to zhangjiajie listed companies, but are managed by the local national forest park administration. however, in zhangjiajie, hunan, zhangjiajie tourism group has absolute advantageous assets. it is not only the largest tourism group in zhangjiajie, but also the only tourism listed platform in the city.

why did such a company lose money? why? on what basis? what happened? it is quite interesting to look at it carefully.

01

ancient town where the painting of a tiger fails

financial report data shows that among the seven major member companies in zhangjiajie, dayong ancient town is far from the only one that has seen a decline in revenue and a sharp drop in ticket-buying tourists. according to the company's semi-annual report, only the shilihualang sightseeing tram recorded a year-on-year increase in ticket purchases and operating income in the first half of the year.

zhangjiajie's revenue of each business segment

data source: zhangjiajie first half financial report

among them, dayong ancient city company lost more than 60 million yuan, and the number of ticket buyers decreased by 81.89%. this is an ancient city that cost more than 2 billion yuan and took seven years to build. since its opening, the project has been losing money. in the first half of this year, the number of ticket buyers was only 2,300.

the dayong ancient city project, which started construction in 2016, claims to be a successful model of tourism complexes such as songcheng in hangzhou and xizha in wuzhen, and aims to build a tourism and leisure complex integrating "eating, accommodation, travel, shopping and entertainment". however, until 2023, the operating income of dayong ancient city was only 5.2086 million yuan, and the net profit loss was 248.9084 million yuan. in addition to the impact of the extensive expansion development model of domestic ancient city and town projects, zhangjiajie, which is not good at operating tourism complexes, has obviously planted the bitter fruit for this cross-border venture.

an operator who has been to dayong ancient city said: this project has been poorly done from design to construction to operation. the architectural design is weird, the construction quality is poor, and the operation format is incomprehensible, with some theme park formats being pulled in to make up the numbers.

wu ruoshan, president of the new era culture and tourism research institute and special researcher at the tourism research center of the chinese academy of social sciences, believes that dayong ancient city, as an ancient city cultural and tourism complex project, faces two major problems: lukewarm market response and significant operational challenges.

"first, the operation team of dayong ancient city lacks the ability in market promotion, resulting in low awareness of the ancient city among tourists. tourists often have high expectations for dayong ancient city, but because the actual experience fails to meet expectations, word of mouth gradually declines, further affecting the number of tourist visits. secondly, for cultural and tourism projects, costs such as daily operations and maintenance remain high. coupled with poor market feedback, the project has been in a loss-making state for a long time, further aggravating the operational difficulties." he said.

public information shows that the dayong ancient city project covers a total area of ​​160,100 square meters and has a total construction area of ​​165,500 square meters. it was rebuilt on the original site of nanmenhe street during the ming and qing dynasties. some old buildings have been retained, but there are more new houses.

"it's a pity that zhangjiajie couldn't handle such a large flow of tourists. there may be some problems with the project itself, from top-level architectural design to construction and operation management," said zhang xiaofeng, director of zhejiang tourism science research institute.

in his opinion, first of all, the top-level architecture design has defects, and the logical relationship between market positioning, customer structure, product model, operation model and business model has not been sorted out clearly; secondly, the architecture does not reflect the local traditional form, and some of them are not ancient or modern; the "seventy-two wonderful towers" scenic spot, which is also a man-made scenic spot in zhangjiajie, is much better. it is not large in area, but has rich night tour activities and the buildings are restored to their original state. it has now become a popular scenic spot. zhang xiaofeng concluded: so it is not the development of the ancient city and town that has encountered problems, but the specific project operation has problems.

02

are ancient cities and towns still popular?

however, some experts believe that with the intensifying competition in the current tourism market, tourists’ interest in ancient city attractions is gradually waning. if the ancient city itself is not attractive enough and lacks unique selling points and cultural experiences, it will be even more difficult to sustain.

industry insiders say that the function of an ancient town is first and foremost a social function. if it is an ancient town left over from history, inhabited by aboriginals and with social life, the tourism function is added, thus forming social and economic benefits. this is a relatively normal and attractive concept of an ancient town. however, if an ancient town is completely gone and now it is time to restore it and develop cultural tourism, it must be done with extreme caution. especially for those who have no tickets and can only rely on various commercial operations in the ancient town, the capital recovery will be even slower, which will bring certain pressure to the operator.

©photography.net

however, it cannot be said that "ancient towns" are unpopular with tourists at present. according to the "2024 china ancient town tourism development report" recently released by the china tourism academy, ancient town tourism is an important travel choice for tourists in the development stage of mass tourism. according to a special survey conducted by the research team, 93.4% of the respondents have participated in ancient town tourism, while only 6.6% have not been there, indicating that ancient town tourism occupies an important position in my country's domestic market.

from the perspective of travel, guangdong, jiangsu, zhejiang, shanghai, and sichuan lead the cross-provincial ancient town tourism with absolute advantages, and constitute the main source market for cross-provincial ancient town scenic spots. in the top 10 ancient towns with the highest search popularity index, in addition to zhouzhuang, wuzhen, nanxun, and xitang, there are also fenghuang ancient town, pingyao ancient town, lijiang ancient town, gubei water town, taierzhuang ancient town, and langzhong ancient town, which are distributed in hunan, shanxi, yunnan, beijing, shandong, and sichuan provinces, covering different types of ancient town scenic spots such as the southwestern ancient village type, the northern courtyard type, and the nanzhao ancient village type, fully reflecting the diversified needs of potential tourists.

according to the research team, the protection and development of ancient towns cannot be separated from local residents. residents are not only an important part of the historical and cultural relics of ancient towns, but also an intuitive window to show the unique style and customs of each ancient town. the key to truly make the protection and development of the historical and cultural heritage of ancient towns have lasting vitality is to retain the original inhabitants and their traditional way of life.

in addition, the uniqueness of ancient town tourism lies in the in-depth exploration of local culture, history and tourism resources, providing tourists with immersive experience, personalized taste and differentiated satisfaction of needs. while maintaining the endogenous cultural heritage of the ancient town, it is also necessary to innovate the form of tourism products and promote the balanced development of the life, business and tourism functions of the ancient town. through the in-depth integration of culture and tourism and high-quality development, the innovation of the tourism industry and industrial upgrading of the ancient town will be promoted.

returning to the "atypical case" of dayong ancient town, it lacks a leisurely living atmosphere, authentic architectural style, and local specialties. excessive commercialization, the "ancient town style" that tourists dislike the most, is the main reason for its unpopularity. fake ancient towns without tourists and huge investments will inevitably become a "drag" on cultural and tourism enterprises. if they change, they will suffer, but if they do not change, they will only wait for death... it is really worse than chicken ribs.

it seems that the listed company zhangjiajie is in a dilemma. what should it do?

zhang xiaofeng pointed out: if we want to revive it, we need to find a professional team to operate the ancient city and town and thoroughly treat the problems. "that will cost a lot. the preliminary estimate is that it will cost at least several hundred million."

it's difficult!