How popular are the B&Bs in Chongming? From several sets of data, it can be seen that the total number of registered and filed country B&Bs has reached 1,104, accounting for the majority of Shanghai. Among them, there are 85 municipal-level star-rated country houses and 379 district-level star-rated boutique homestays. In recent years, the representative brands such as "Yeshan", "Yuyuan", "Jiuju", "Sea Flower Island" and "Oriental G20 Flower Island Suji" have begun to take shape, adding infinite goodwill to the big brand of "Chongming Homestay".
In fact, world-class eco-islands often have a limited capacity of tourists, and a large-scale and comprehensive development model may not be suitable. In the final analysis, B&Bs are service industries, and who should Chongming's B&Bs serve? If you just answer as "tourists" in a general way, it is tantamount to looking for a needle in a haystack, and it is difficult to accurately match the needs of guests.
So, what enlightenment can the development of Chongming homestay industry bring us?
The life you yearn for is and you want to come again
Peng Jian, the owner of the "Island Family" in Zhongxing Town, has been rooted in the homestay industry for 13 years, witnessed the changes of Chongming's homestay industry from scratch and from existence to excellence, and has also seen the ups and downs, peaks and troughs of this industry for more than 10 years. The B&B he created is composed of five houses in a row, so there is a piece of private land behind the house, and frosted greens and Chinese cabbage often become "souvenirs" for residents.
Peng Jian, a native of Chongming, used to work in downtown Shanghai. After the opening of the Yangtze River Tunnel and Bridge in 2009, his colleagues and friends often went to Chongming on weekends to play, and sometimes stayed at Peng Jian's house. "I like fishing myself, and this house has been empty for more than ten years, so I just have a guest room, a restaurant, and a fish pond in the back, just as a pastime on weekends. ”
After years of development, the farmhouse, which was only open on weekends, has become an "island family" homestay, and the homestead on the left and right sides have been added, named "Left Neighbor" and "Right Lane". The host is fond of outdoor activities, you can set up a tent on the lawn, play football, play in the water, drink tea, and the two RVs in the yard are a good place to listen to frogs and watch the stars.
In Peng Jian's view, in the past five years, the development of Chongming B&B can be summed up in one word: "live". Rooted in the characteristics, differences and diversity of "hundreds of miles of different winds, thousands of miles of different customs", the B&B brings an immersive sense of experiencing real rural life. After entering the late autumn, this experience is particularly profound, red maple, corn, or red or yellow, the villagers carefully prepare for the "colorful show", and also achieve the autumn harvest scene, a different style. "Some people say that when you choose a house, you choose a life. I said that choosing a B&B is equivalent to choosing a way to travel. ”
Walking into Xinmin Village, Xinhe Town, a hotel with a sense of design comes into view. During this year's Spring Festival, this rural art hotel called "Xuanao" attracted a lot of attention as soon as it opened. The hotel adheres to the design concept of harmonious coexistence between man and nature, with Indonesian rattan weaving on the roof, Chongming rice-shaped atmosphere lamp design, and bare cotton four-piece suits, giving visitors the experience of "living in nature" from the details. The decorations in the hotel lobby, the homespun dolls in the room and the homespun handicrafts that can be seen everywhere also reflect the intangible cultural heritage of Chongming homespun to the fullest.
The person in charge, Zhou Qin, is a "veteran" in Chongming's tourism industry. Before the establishment of Xuanao Ecological Hotel, she also founded and operated two boutique homestays, "Shihua" and "Mo Shangshe". "I think whether it is a homestay or a country art hotel, they are all products of old nostalgia and new countryside, especially in Chongming Island, in the environment of symbiosis between man and nature, I think it is very good, so I am also very confident to go to the country art hotel again." She believes that with the blessing of ecology, Chongming's tourism market is full of stamina. Compared with the limitation of the number of people received by the homestay, the newly established rural art hotel can receive more individual guests, and at the same time, it also meets a higher service standard.
Such an original intention coincides with the mind of the B&B management department. The Chongming District Culture and Tourism Bureau guides B&Bs to carry out characteristic construction, and the service positioning should be preferred, encouraging the development of "accommodation +" series products such as immersive experiences, tent camps, cultural and creative markets, and intangible cultural heritage, and actively and effectively promoting the integrated development of agricultural tourism, sports tourism and other multi-tourism.
In short, the "utopia" in the hearts of literary and artistic youth is obviously different from the ideal "hometown of longevity" of the silver-haired group. Only by finding a development path that suits them and making full use of their uniqueness can they make tourists want to come again.
"Localization" and "specialization" give B&B a new character
In fact, the growth of Chongming B&B is similar to agricultural production: from planting saplings to entering the full fruit period, it often takes three or five years, and it takes hard work and loneliness to wait for the future.
With the sharp increase in the number of tourists, another problem has emerged: the reception capacity of villagers' families alone is very limited, there are not enough parking spaces, the standard of each homestay is uneven, and tourists can walk around after looking around...... If good resources do not form a joint force, it will inevitably restrict the development of the homestay industry.
Therefore, Chongming's homestay industry quickly reached a consensus: only by industrializing resources can all chains of homestays be strong. The industrialization of resources requires an experienced team to plan and design and improve service levels. With the help of the higher-level departments, the village has unified the standards and management of homestay services through investment promotion, which not only ensures the quality of service, but also realizes diversified development. The "Implementation Opinions on Further Promoting the High-quality Development of Chongming Rural B&Bs" issued in October 2022 aims to continue to guide and encourage the development of Chongming B&Bs in the direction of quality, clustering, branding, and differentiation.
Although the single operation of individual homestays is still the mainstream at present, the proportion of enterprises investing in homestays in Chongming continues to increase, and the investment objects are mainly large-scale and clustered multi-homestays, and the enterprise management mode has significant advantages in attracting tourists and obtaining benefits. It can not only integrate catering, agricultural products, shopping and other operations, provide better protection for tourists in terms of service quality, characteristic activities and hardware facilities, but also add diversified and characteristic elements to the development of Chongming B&B, promote the construction of Chongming B&B's individual brand, and drive the Chongming B&B industry significantly.
Today, the growth trajectory of Chongming B&B can be summarized as follows: after the discovery stage of "nativeization" and the stage of large-scale and high-intensity "standardization" construction, it is now being given a new characterization of "localization" and "specialization".
It is worth mentioning that Chongming B&B is developed in the process of protection and moderate development, and this precondition is worth paying close attention to. In other words, tourists who yearn for "poetry and distance" can not only experience the leisurely "picking chrysanthemums under the east fence", but also touch the chrysanthemums stained with soil and the fence with burrs.
As Shi Jianhua, deputy director of the Chongming District Bureau of Culture and Tourism, said, the premise of the high-quality development of Chongming B&B is the construction of a world-class ecological island and the development strategy of rural revitalization.