Recently, the general office of the State Council established “Guidance to Promote All-for-one Tourism”. (hereinafter referred to as the guidance) It’s the first important tourism-related policy established by the State Council after the establishment of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. All-for-one tourism will have larger development space when cultural and tourism systematic barriers are eliminated. Under a national all-for-one tourism structure, how can China realize “all-for-one integration”.
As early as 2009, the former Ministry of Culture and the former China National Tourism Administration jointly established “Guidance to Promote the Combination of the Development of Culture and Tourism”. After this institutional reform, the first problem to push forward the all-for-one tourism is the integrated development of culture and tourism in one department. How to transfer the two departments’ “deep-level combination” in the guidance into the ministry’s “all-for-one integration” in the demonstration area. All-for-one tourism is an experiment to test the integrated development of culture and tourism after the institutional adjustment.
So, understanding the relation between culture and tourism in the guidance is conducive to push forward the high-level integration of culture and tourism and to promote the construction of a demonstration zone for all-for-one tourism. The writer of the guidance finds that 8 of the 9 section discuss the integrated development of culture and tourism in a direct or indirect way. The word “culture” is mentioned 19 times.
From an overall perspective, the guidance represents integrated character to see culture as a spirit and tourism as a form. The industrialization and marketization of tourism, abundant cultural products, kinds of service and methods of supply and the nurturing of tourism market help to make full use of cultural resource and cultural products. Culture and tourism can promote each other to create a sound environment and atmosphere for tourism consumption, so as to promote high-quality development of all-for-one tourism.
According to the guidance, the biggest contribution of all-for-one tourism is to build a wider platform for integrated development. It’s not a traditionally-defined simple platform in specific places, like scenic site, culture relic protection site and performance venue. Instead, it’s an all-for-one industrial development with a basic component of 500 complete administration organization systems, an area of 1.8 million square kilometers, or nearly one fifth of national area, and all-industry connection, all-element integration and all-people participation. The new integrated platform has new goals for cultural and tourism industries.
First, promoting a new mode of regional social and economic development with cultural tourism as the advantage industry. This mode takes national strategic demand into consideration. It can make full use of it’s comprehensive industrial development feature of wide coverage, long industrial chain, high connectivity and strong influence. And it can give full play to it’s function of guaranteeing growth, expending domestic demand, changing methods, adjusting structure, increasing employment and benefiting people. A new driving force for China’s economic development can be found with culture as spirit, tourism as form and methods of culture tourism integration and industry nurturing. This mode is significant for the rural rejuvenation and urbanization for national poverty-stricken counties with abundant natural and tourism resource.
Second, creating a new mode for the construction of a country with strong culture driven by market mechanism. The current country with cultural resource should be transformed to a country with strong culture. The key is not only paying attention to cultural protection and inheritance, but also to cultural innovation and protection, so cultural protection, inheritance and innovation become a willing, conscious and spontaneous action. Relating departments should establish a complete set of cultural industrial development mode following market rules. All-for-one tourism is being promoted and tourism is becoming a more and more complete business, offering beneficial exploration for this mode.
There are three principles and four goals in the guidance to improve the quality of tourism by cultural tourism. Realizing high-quality development is an important goal for all-for-one tourism.
There are principles of all-for-one tourism. The goal requires relating departments to “construct a humane social environment and a reliable tourism consumption environment ”. The tourism supply quality requires the government to “improve cultural content and green element and increase innovative, experience and custom-made products”. There is a principle that tourism needs to develop in a green way according to different condition of different places, so the authority must pay attention to the features of products, facilities and programs. There shouldn’t be only one mode, and cities, villages and scenic beauty shouldn’t be of the same kind. Tourism in different places should be different and with their own characteristics, which is why culture is especially important in all-for-one tourism.
The “characteristic and differentiated” all-for-one tourism originates in the time-honored, characteristic and lasting cultural traditions in different regions, especially their ecology, custom, tradition, habit and other forms of civilization. The regional culture can be composed of a single element or multiple elements.
This requires that all-for-one tourism should have symbols for representative regional cultures as well as integral protection, inheritance, packaging and improvement for characteristic regional cultures. The result spreads the individual symbol with regional IP for the regional culture and expresses the integral appearance of the all-for-one tourism.
In the guidance, 13 fields of 4 items relate to tourism integrated development. But when it comes to specific information, “(tourism+culture)+”, instead of “tourism+”, is the most essential and core promoter of the integrated development and product innovation for the all-for-one tourism. It penetrates all new businesses. There are 3 integrated development path in the guidance.
The first path is “culture+tourism”. Traditional cultural resource can be used directly, mainly including the “four famous” development mode relying on famous scenic beauty, famous historical and cultural cities, counties and villages as well as famous towns and traditional villages with special scenic beauty. “The socialist core value should be seen as the mainline to develop revolutionary tourism and create tourism products of patriotism, revolutionary tradition and Chinese condition.” “Starting cultural experience tourism integrated with theater, performance, entertainment, animation and other industries as well as tourism relating to culture and cultural relics in venues including museum, memorial hall, art gallery, world cultural heritage and exhibition hall of intangible cultural heritage.”
The second path is “tourism+culture”, meaning the quality improvement of current tourism products. The priority is to “exploring historical culture, culture with local characteristics, national and custom culture, traditional agricultural culture, launching traditional Chinese craftsmanship rejuvenation plan and improving the quality of traditional craftsmanship and the cultural content of tourism products.”
The third path is pan cultural tourism nurturing of “other industries+culture+tourism”. It connects with cultural innovation and aims to develop tourism, integrating with industry, agricultural, forestry, water conservancy, transportation, environmental protection, land, sea and meteorology, all of which are fields with the quickest integrated development. In agriculture, a lot of effort should be spent to develop sight-seeing agriculture, entertainment agriculture, nurturing agricultural scenic sight, balcony agricultural art and other innovative agriculture. People are encouraged to develop new kinds of agriculture with tourism as a function, including custom-made agriculture, exhibition agriculture, crowdfunding agriculture, family farm and family pasture. The goal is to build beautiful leisure villages with an integrated development of the first, second and tertiary industries. In the industrial field, integrated construction includes “industrial tourism through industrial park, industrial exhibition park and industrial historical site”, “‘forest home’ and ‘forest town’ through forest park, wetland park, desert park and sea park” and “developing ecological tourism area, natural oxygen bar, geographical park, mine park and meteorological park”.
Nurturing market players is a prerequisite to develop modern service industry with tourism as the main part. The guidance stressed the idea to nurture main market business of multi-level and multi-kind. For example, “nurturing and introducing competitive leading tourism enterprises and large-scale tourism group, promoting business based on large-scale, brand and internet”.
Though the guidance doesn’t mention the main practitioner of “culture+tourism”, more than 60% of newly-established SOE and private enterprises are named as “cultural tourism group”
The guidance stresses “promoting the innovation in tourism field, launching tourism maker program and building demonstration basis for tourism maker” and “implementing the policy to support small and medium-seized tourism enterprises and leading them towards professional, competitive, characteristic and innovation to form a structure with leading tourism enterprises and a coordinated development structure composed of large, medium and small sized tourism enterprises”. Those expressions are more adaptable in urban and rural tourism development. Cultural tourism enterprises are usually small, professional, competitive, characteristic and innovative, in line with the tendency of culture-tourism integration.
The guidance highlights the importance of “enhancing the protection of resource and environment”. The basis and prerequisites of all-for-one tourism are rural and urban natural and cultural environment of the destination; rural tourism development and the improvement of tourism infrastructure. But the protection is no longer limited to tangible and intangible cultural heritage in cultural heritage department in the past. Now, the requirement is “enhancing the protection of resources, including ecology, countryside scenic beauty, traditional village, history, culture and culture of nationalities; law-based protection of the authenticity and the completeness of famous villages, towns, cities and tourism sites; governance of planing and construction, maintaining the original appearance of traditional villages and towns; expanding traditional living structure, paying attention to cultural exploration and inheritance and create urban and rural architecture appearance with regional features and characteristics of nationalities.”
In essence, the protection is for resources in a region, including ecological and cultural environment of the tourism destination. Following the theory of “green mountain and lush water are fortune” by tourism development, so as to realize the protection goal of “maintaining people’s feeling towards their hometown by maintaining the original environment”.
The guidance stressed “to influence people through culture” by creating a sound social environment, promoting moral tourism and establishing an all-for-one tourism governance mode built and shared by all. It requires us to “start promotion of tourism knowledge to local residents, enhance residents’ awareness to participate and improve people’s awareness of image and responsibility” which can help to promote a healthy life style and to have good living habits. It also means to advocate moral tourism behavior to tourists, requiring “enhancing the promotion and guide for moral tourism; implementing moral tourism agreement; setting examples for moral tourism; establish an information system for unmoral behavior recording system between departments and supporting the work relating to moral tourism to be systematic and regular.” The above means that if local residents want to alter their behavior, culture needs to influence them in an indirect way and helps them to understand the idea that “everywhere is a part of tourism environment and everyone can represents a tourism image of a place”, so as to establish a social comprehensive governance mode of the all-for-one tourism destination the is built and shared by all.