What should be saved in an ancient town that has lost tourists?

See this picture, do you know which ancient town it is?

With the vigorous development of tourism, ancient towns have sprung up all over the country, but at the same time, similarity has gradually replaced the individuality of each ancient town. Regardless of the country, historical and cultural characteristics, climate and natural conditions, most ancient towns are unified with small bridges, flowing water, green slate and red lanterns, and even the things sold by shops along the street are similar. Are all the ancient towns the same vendor? Of course not.

Why are ancient towns all over the country?

Like mass production?

Although each ancient town has different regional characteristics, history and culture in propaganda, no matter what kind of culture, what we actually see, from architectural style to commercial format, from tourism products to specialty snacks, is difficult for tourists to distinguish the differences between these ancient towns just from photos. Ancient towns all over the country seem to be standardized products produced by the same factory.

This should start with the development of the ancient town. 1984, Chen Yifei, who was studying in the United States, created an oil painting named "Memories of Hometown" with the background of Zhouzhuang Shuangqiao, which made Zhouzhuang an instant hit and attracted tourists from all over the country. Under the demonstration effect of Zhouzhuang, Wuzhen, Tongli and Xitang in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces have successively embarked on the road of rejuvenating the town through tourism. At the same time, Dayan ancient town in Lijiang in the west has gradually attracted the attention of tourists because of its unique folk culture. 1997 successfully applied for the World Heritage, which made it famous and quickly became one of the frontiers of tourism development in the ancient town. Driven by this ancient town tourism boom, China began to develop ancient town tourism on a large scale, and many of these ancient towns are based on the water towns in the south of the Yangtze River, so many ancient towns naturally look the same.

Why do you sell the same snacks and souvenirs? This is also driven by commercial interests.

In the early days of the development of the ancient town, some customers in the shops along the street were locals and the other part were tourists. The spending power of tourists is often greater than that of local people, and the profit of tourist-oriented shops is higher. With the increasing popularity of the ancient town, the number of tourists has increased dramatically. More and more shops will turn to provide services for tourists. Local people obviously can't stand the rising price level, and then they will move out one after another, and shops will naturally do anything profitable. This will lead to the intensification of homogenization, so no matter which ancient town tourists go to, many snacks are the same, so tourists will feel that ancient towns around the world are becoming more and more commercialized and have lost their original cultural characteristics.

Old Town of Lijiang is a typical case. The vigorous development of tourism has led to the emigration of a large number of Lijiang aborigines, which has impacted the traditional national culture. So tourists have been questioning the commercialization of Lijiang for several years. Many other ancient towns are not as well-known as Lijiang, and they are completely commercialized. After tourists go, they will naturally continue to vomit, and the reputation of these ancient towns will get worse and worse. In the long run, they will naturally wither.

How to save

The ancient city where tourists are lost?

In the original concept of ancient town tourism, the local government also hoped to promote the overall growth of the local economy and improve the living standards of the local people. However, it backfired. Looking at the development of ancient towns in China, only a few people continue to maintain the vitality of tourism business. The number of tourists in most ancient towns has plummeted, and the business is deserted. Some ancient towns are unsustainable and eventually become empty cities. How to save these declining ancient towns?

The first is the adjustment of business model.

Under the previous business model, in order to promote the development of tourism, the government generally gave investors certain policy support funds or sold land at preferential prices in the early stage. However, ancient towns often invest hundreds of millions, and it is obviously impossible to achieve investment balance by developing tourism alone. Therefore, many investors will attach real estate business to the ancient town project. Originally, this model of real estate transfusion tourism and tourism driving real estate sales can be described as the best of both worlds. However, in practice, investors will focus on the real estate business and ignore the tourism industry in order to recover the cost quickly.

Take the ancient town of Yongguo as an example. At the beginning of the business, the fare was set at 60 yuan. Some tourists are hesitant about this price. In order to attract tourists, they started a free ticket campaign, and then wavered between charging and free. In addition, according to Shandong TV station, the scenic spot of Yongguo ancient town is for merchants to sit on the ground and start at a price. The original scenic spot and merchants first signed a joint venture contract, and the shops settled in the contract were jointly operated by lottery. Unilaterally tearing up the cooperation agreement in the later period not only increased the share of the scenic spot, but also increased the property fee, otherwise it was not allowed to enter the scenic spot, which showed the confusion of operation.

In fact, in the development and operation of ancient towns, we should explore the modes of government leading, market operation, social capital investment and folk participation, and integrate various forces to realize * * * life, * * * integration, * * * construction and * * * enjoyment.

Secondly, the excavation and innovation of culture.

If tourists choose to visit the ancient city, they still want to feel the local cultural heritage and experience the simple folk customs. If there are foreign merchants along the street, and the snacks are unified throughout the country, naturally you can't see the local culture and characteristics.

China's intangible cultural heritage is widely distributed, diverse and rich in connotation. Ancient towns can start with local intangible heritage, tap local folk customs and cultural characteristics, and combine these characteristics with interactive projection, VR/AR, holography and other high-tech means. , and from the different spatial dimensions of heaven, earth and water, to build an immersive and situational tourism scene.

Finally, the adjustment of layout.

Small towns in ancient towns around the country naturally realize the disadvantages brought by excessive commercialization. How to change the status quo of "one side of a thousand cities"? We can introduce new cultural formats and vigorously develop cultural and creative, non-genetic habits, folk experience, night economy and other formats. Take Lijiang as an example. On 20 19, Lijiang began to manage the format of the core area of the ancient city in the form of market catalogue. Internet cafes, electronic toys, modern building materials and other 16 projects are prohibited from market access; The bar industry is classified as a restricted industry. While controlling over-commercialization, we should include cultural inheritors, craftsmen and other shops that promote and display characteristic traditional culture in the scope of encouragement. They can not only approve the green light all the way, but also apply for a series of preferential policies such as rent reduction and exemption of public houses and project subsidies. Through the implementation of the policy, the over-commercialization of the ancient city will be avoided.

In short, in order to maintain the long-term vitality of ancient town tourism, it is necessary to create its own characteristics and keep pace with the times and innovate. These are the real moats for the development of ancient towns.