Taking the overall situation into consideration, the integration of culture and tourism is the main momentum for development. Down to the earth, there are abundant, unique and precious cultural resource in the local areas. How can we take advantage of our own local advantages to enter a new era of integration of culture and tourism? Some practices in the City of Weifang, Shandong Province are worth pondering. In the past two years, Weifang has closely focused on the theme of "Resource Transformation", broke the boundary between culture and tourism, relied on culture to enhance the quality of tourism, and resorted to tourism to promote the reputation of culture.
Combining Tourism with Poverty Alleviation and Making Country Tour a Fashion.
Chenghoucun Village History Museum of Huangqibao Street, Liujiatun Village History Museum west of the Economic Development Zone, Baiyang Village Village History Museum west of Phoenix Street, and so on, whenever talking about the construction of the local village history museums, Li Qiang, the Director of the Cultural and Tourism Bureau of Fangzi District, counts them like family treasures. Since the beginning of this year, Fangzi District has adhered to the principle of adapting to local conditions, coordinated the characteristic culture and red cultural resources of the whole district, carried out in-depth implementation of the "Village Memory Project", and started the construction of seven village history museums.
"Building a village history museum is conducive to carrying forward the inheritance of excellent traditional culture, creating the highlights of rural tourism, and providing a key point for the revitalization of rural culture," Li Qiang said.
Weifang is located in the central part of Shandong Province, with its area, population and number of villages all ranking among the highest in the province. In recent years, with the opportunity of promoting rural revitalization and the integration of culture and tourism, Weifang has improved the rural public service system on the one hand, and deepened the historical and cultural essence of the village on the other, hoping to achieve high-quality development of rural cultural tourism through multi-party cooperation.
In Zhucheng, combined with the concept of "Aspiration and Talents as the Priority of Poverty Alleviation", the local cultural center has established three teams of "Specially Hired Experts", "Specialized Talents" and "Volunteers", and established a "Cultural Public Interest Association for th Practice of the Spiritual Progress in the New Era" formed by 27 social organizations, to carry out routine cultural activities in urban and rural areas.
In Shouguang, the local culture and tourism department carried out "Star Rating" on grassroots cultural facilities to improve service efficiency. At the same time, with the reputation of “Hometown of Vegetables”, Shouguang also planned to hold a farming culture fair to attract foreign tourists into the villages of the city to experience the fun of vegetable planting.
Tian Suying, Party Secretary and Director of Weifang Culture and Tourism Bureau, said that rural tourism is an important part of the development of tourism throughout the country, and it is also a "blue ocean industry" that helps villagers to increase their incomes and promote the revitalization of rural culture. This year, Weifang Municipal Cultural and Tourism Bureau will focus on promoting the construction of villages in the scenic spots and the cultivation of rural tourism clusters, strengthening work coordination, and raising more funds for the development of rural tourism.
Effort in Project Driven Activities and Brand Marketing being the Focus
On August 10th, Weifang City Cultural and Tourism Work Symposium was held in the local area. At the meeting, the progress of the city's major cultural and tourism projects was inquired.
As of the end of June, the investment in key projects in Weifang's cultural tourism sector reached 5.82 billion yuan. Three projects, namely Qingzhou Eight-Joy Market, Zhucheng Zhushan Ecological Valley and Changyi Weishui Countryside, were selected into the list of "Shandong Province Cultural Tourism Key Interest Deduction Projects" and received fiscal financial support of 1.34 million yuan. In addition, Kuiwen's "National Wedding Industry Big Data Intelligent Cloud Platform" and Linqu’s "High-Simulation Art Intelligent Printing" were also awarded the pilot demonstration projects of “Modern Advantageous Cultural Industry Cluster + Artificial Intelligence" in Shandong.
The development of the industry needs projects as the driving force, and good projects are inseparable from the refinement of local cultural resources. In the past two years, the culture and tourism departments of various counties (cities, districts) in Weifang have taken brand marketing as an important task and achieved periodical results.
In Gaomi, steady progress has been made in the Upper Yuan Jiazi (Jiazi is the 60-year cycle in traditional Chinese chronology; the Upper Yuan is one of the three Fortune Yuans, i.e. Upper Yuan, Middle Yuan, and Lower Yuan; each Fortune Yuan is 60 years) Han Culture Park with investment of 2.5 billion yuan, the new 450-million Mo Yan Literature Museum, and the 300 million yuan Qing Ai Cultural Park.
Zhang Yanliang, Party Secretary of Gaomi Culture and Tourism Bureau, said that in the future, Gaom plans to focus on brand building and continuously enhance the background of the cultural tourism industry. "We will firmly make full use of the uniqueness of the cultural resources brought by ‘Mo Yan’ and enlarge the ‘Mo Yan effect’. This year, Gaomi will compile the ‘Red Sorghum Literature Series’, which will be presented to the university libraries, and a seminar will be held during the October Red Sorghum Culture Festival. At the same time, Gaomi will cooperate with Weifang College to hold the ‘70 Years’ of Literature since the Founding of the People's Republic of China and Research on Mo Yan Researc’" forum, which will greatly promote the formation of the literary school of Red Sorghum, and make famous the cultural brand of ‘Red Sorghum’".
Tian Suying said that intangible heritage is one of the most representative cultural resources in Weifang. In the future, the local area will also promote the integration of intangible heritage with industry, set up special exhibition area at railway stations, popular scenic spots and star-rated hotels, and try to establish masters' studios in some scenic spots. Effort will be made in carrying out intangible heritage research activities, build a number of intangible research bases, and create "Weifang Brands" for the integration of intangible heritage and tourism.
Improving Services and Paving the Way for Resource Development
Perfect public services are the necessary conditions to promote the integration of cultural tourism, and also the basic path to promote the transformation of cultural resources into tourism resources.
In recent years, Weifang has actively promoted the examination and approval services to facilitate the people, and has compiled 77 kinds of examination and approval services and public service items into the "One-Stop Service" list. Effort has been made in strictly controlling the standards and timelines of core business such as the issuing of travel agency business licenses, the review of outbound tour teams, and the reduction of travel service quality assurance deposits in order to create an excellent business environment.
In Linqu County, the local government regularly conducts spot checks on the cultural compounds in provincial poverty-stricken villages, timely reports the problems found, and guides the various towns to carry out rectification. Since the beginning of this year, Linqu County has inspected 62 cultural compounds in provincial poverty-stricken villages in 12 towns, and urged more than 20 problems to be rectified. At the same time, more than 800 enterprises (units), such as public cultural places, cultural market operators, travel agencies, star-rated hotels, and above A rating tourist attractions, have carried out large-scale “series of measures and actions” in the investigations on the potential safety problems to ensure that the county’s cultural tourism market is running smoothly.
Tian Suying said that in the second half of this year, Weifang will further improve the rural public service system, and deepen the "Toilet Revolution", completing the construction, renovation and expansion of 90 tourist toilets, and striving to complete the "Third Bathroom" in the scenic spots above AAAA ranking. We will accelerate the construction of the county cultural centers and the headquarters-to-branch system for libraries , deepen the implementation of the "One Play Per Year for One Village" project, improve the level of public cultural services, enhance the service efficiency of the grassroots comprehensive cultural centers, and enhance the satisfaction of the masses.
Tian Suying also revealed that Weifang will strengthen the management of star-rated hotels in the near future, and strive to achieve breakthroughs in the introduction of high-end holiday brand hotels. They will improve the exit mechanism of travel agencies and improve the management level of travel agencies. Professional training will be carried out, improve the quality of employees, increase the training of tour guides, and orient tour guides to tell the story of Weifang.
Reporter: Su Rui
