The night tourism economy has been a hot topic in recent years for three reasons: governments at all levels advocate development; The tourism industry needs to open up new space; Digital technology companies are actively contributing to the development of night scenes.
Witnessing the rapid development and even savage growth of the night view night tour project, as well as the status quo of giving up halfway from time to time, I am also worried about its development prospects: will there be a domino effect like the collapse of characteristic towns and tourist towns in previous years, and will it be like the collapse of pastoral tourism complexes?
From the perspective of the integrated development of the tourism industry, rather than the perspective of digital and intelligent research and development of light and shadow and night view enterprises, we will talk about some superficial understanding of the phenomenon of night view and night tourism. Due to the lack of knowledge of new technologies, there may be inappropriate words, terms, and opinions.
1. There are many restrictive factors related to the night tourism economy
The reason why people in the industry are somewhat apprehensive about the development of the night tour economy is that it is quite different from the existing tourism formats or products in terms of development orientation, resource allocation, product development, and business model. In addition, whether it is a tourism industry or a landscaping scientific research enterprise, there are obvious blind spots or weak areas in each other's fields, resulting in many practical barriers or barriers to the development and integration of the two industrial fields.
-- The night tour economy is quite open. Many of its business formats are difficult to collect tickets like scenic spots, and their daily revenue can only rely on the so-called "two matches" such as programs, stores, booths, and parking lots; The fullness and depression of the nighttime crowd depends on the scene creation and product charm, and the large and enthusiastic scene must have a large investment. This makes it difficult to develop the night tour economy, which may not only be sparsely populated due to the lack of grand attraction and lack of charm, but also due to the poor management of "second consumption" and "Wangding is not prosperous".
-- The development of the night tour economy is subject to many factors. Such as the night tour scene, the night leisure field, the business atmosphere, overnight tourists, residents' income, only many conditions are in place, the night tour economy can develop. Some people say, "It's hard to do a good job of daytime travel, but can you still do a good job of nighttime travel?" Such a view is not unfounded. The non-universal nature of night tourism determines that the development of the night tourism economy will not be universally successful.
——The core competitiveness of the night tour economy is not easy to grasp. Whether it is the nighttime lighting and landscaping that gathers popularity, or the landscape night tour and night leisure that drive consumption, or the urban leisure blocks and night markets that create wealth, are different in different places, and even more different in the eyes of different people. Some believe that the key is the number of overnight visitors, some think that the focus is on new night tours (night cruises, performing arts shows), and some think that the focus is on night dining and shop management.
-- The landing of the night tour project is in a state of gambling and gambling. Landscaping companies are accustomed to promoting digital and intelligent landscaping, such as immersion, digitalization, metaverse, etc., which seem to bring earth-shaking changes to tourism and cities as long as they are used, which inevitably reminds people of "technology-only"; The local side, represented by the local government and the cultural and tourism department, is more concerned about the probability of the success of the project, and ponders whether it can bring a swarm of tourists after landing. In addition to individual landscaping companies that have a full grasp of their own business model and propose a "bet" plan for the project's landing prospects to the local party, many landscaping companies lack sufficient understanding of the tourism industry and are not very clear about the business model of this channel.
2. Night tour project
Success or failure is mostly limited by the source of market customers
In recent years, in the development of the Chinese New Year's Eve tourism economy, many places have been highly motivated, and some night tour projects have been implemented, opening and operating as scheduled, earning money, and some are still expanding their distribution points one after another. There are also some night tour projects that have not been successful, and some say that the planning and design of night scenes lack advancement; Some say that the night view company does not care about the landing operation; Some say that the selected project is located in the wrong place, and it is difficult to gather surrounding customers.
Personally, I believe that among the relevant factors for the development of night tours, the judgment of the size of the source market of the project is the most important influencing factor; One of the common problems of previous failed night tour projects is that they do not accurately estimate the size of the potential source market. Therefore, for the selection of project landing locations, the size of the source market is the heaviest weight. The size of the night visitor market includes the following aspects:
First, how large is the number of local tourists throughout the year? With regard to this figure, it is necessary to understand the difference between the number of tourists and the number of tourists, and the difference between the number of tourists received and the number of overnight tourists, and pay attention to making objective and true statistics. To make this account clear, it can be based on official statistics, and at the same time understand the local accommodation reception, scenic spot reception, and commercial catering volume, so as to use it as a necessary correction, and pay attention to the growth rate of local tourism reception and market fluctuations.
Second, how many business tourists are there? This group has relatively strong spending power. The amount of passenger flow is closely related to the local urban economy, service industry, and commercial prosperity. Generally speaking, this figure should be included in the scope of tourism statistics, but there will be big differences in different places, some are calculated, some are omitted, and can be roughly calculated from catering, transportation and passenger flow.
Third, what is the consumption power of local permanent residents? They are an important foundation or support for the night-time economy, and they are also an important force that cannot be ignored at night-time consumption, so it is reasonable to understand its scale and quantity, and understand the approximate consumption capacity and market size, such as the size of the urban population, household income level, consumption spending habits, etc. A city or county with a population of more than 2 million is certainly not in a heavyweight class compared to a city and county with less than 500,000. As a place with a small population, a low economic level, and a tight life, it is destined to consume too much for night view projects.
Fourth, is there a similar type of night tour in the surrounding area? This is the problem of assimilation projects or close duplication of construction that are often wary of within the tourism industry. Some night view companies are very clear about this, grasping the scale of a radius of 300 kilometers, and there are similar landing projects within this range, which will definitely affect the gathering of new landing projects. This is for the densely populated eastern regions and the western part of the country should be longer than this radius.
Of course, there are other factors or elements related to the business situation after the completion of the project, such as the creativity and development of the night tour project, the commercial prosperity of the location of the night tour area, etc., these factors are very important, but they cannot be compared with the market source factors.
3. Night tour format
The configuration should be in line with the interests of tourists
In recent years, the night tour scene has developed rapidly, and it can be described as diverse and diverse. In general, the types can be divided into three categories:
The first is the night view of tourist attractions or tour lines, such as the night tour of Jiulongtan in Taining, Fujian, the night tour of Huashan Mystery Cave in Huangshan, Anhui, the night tour of two rivers and four lakes in Guilin, Guangxi, the night tour of Haohe River in Nantong, Jiangsu, and the night tour of Puxi in Zigong, Sichuan.
The second is digital light and shadow landscaping, which can also create "light and shadow artificial landscapes", more precisely, "tourist attractions", which are larger than single scenes or scenic spots. There is a street and a district of "Never Sleeps City" landscaping, immersive, marching, and mobile live performances, light and shadow shows, water dance shows, viewing with the help of AR and VA means, and night exploration projects with the help of digital development, such as the "Ring Boat Miracle" in Nanchuan, Chongqing, as well as the cultural and art exhibition that creates a fully immersive atmosphere experience with the help of 3D light mapping digital technology, and some directly claim to use the "Metaverse" technology.
The third is the improvement of the night view of the city's nightlife area. It can be divided into two levels: first, in the transformation, replacement and upgrading of urban functions, a street, several streets or an area is used as a night leisure and commercial area, and there are requirements for lighting, beautification and night tours; Second, the more mature tourist blocks of old towns and towns need to continuously improve the level of night tours, such as Zhouzhuang in Suzhou, Jiangsu, Confucius Temple in Qinhuaihe, Nanjing, Dayan Ancient City in Lijiang, Yunnan, Foreigner Street in Dali Ancient City, and Shilin Night Market in Taipei; Beijing's "East of the Forbidden City" urban cultural interaction platform project, launched this year, will develop the old town from Donghua Gate to Longfu Temple, and launch 38 projects to seek cooperation with foreign countries.
For cities or relevant parties that need to improve scenic spots, tour routes and urban leisure and vacation scenes, they hope to get the cooperation of corresponding technical services and supporting formats; As a service provider for night scene improvement, we should find the entry point to serve each other, and strive to provide technical services that make all kinds of users feel value-for-money, rather than necessarily using all the eighteen weapons in the technical toolbox, just right is the best state.
Here are a few suggestions by project category:
——The night view of the scenic spot should be pleasing to the eye. It can also be understood that the lighting and beautification should be just right. In this regard, it is necessary to learn from the night scene lighting design of foreign cities and scenic spots, so that the light is appropriate, not simply the pursuit of brightness and dazzling, and the elimination of large-scale areas like day; For safe and secure flat road sections, the use of lights should be the finishing touch, highlighting the key scenery, and the general lot can be more than enough; The light and shadow landscapes that need to be built at individual points, such as 3D projections, themed water shows, reality shows, interactive installations, etc., should be controlled in quantity and volume, and a good viewing angle should be selected.
-- Performances and performances should be both ornamental and artistic. They are not only important night scenes, but also carriers of rich cultural connotations. At present, there are many types of performing arts and various forms of tourism performances, in addition to emphasizing the theme and ideology, the key is to unify the artistry and ornamentation, not only to make the audience feel good-looking, pleasing to the eye, but also to demand from the height of art, reflecting a higher artistic taste. Part of the so-called ornamentality refers to landscaping, lighting, and atmosphere creation, which is directly related to art appreciation.
——Landscaping should have a vein, a root and a source. This mainly refers to the separately developed artificial landscapes of light and shadow, such as the city that never sleeps, light show scenes, group landscaping, etc. Now the development of night scenes has a tendency to be assimilated, engaging in casual "take-it-ism" + makeover, and all landscape shapes that have a good response to the market are often copied and copied, copied and transplanted, and the result is that there is déjà vu everywhere; It should be advocated to systematically sort out the local cultural origins, dig deep into the local cultural characteristics, select the themes that people like to see, and emphasize the theme, cultural foundation and story of the landing project; It is necessary to strengthen the research on the market customer group, and each type of product that will be implemented can correspond to and suit the interest trend of the relevant customer group; It is necessary to emphasize the originality of design and development, and have the spiritual pursuit of self-transcendence and transcendence of predecessors, so as to extend the life cycle of light and shadow artificial landscapes.
——Digital images should be continuously iteratively upgraded. Multimedia micro-dramas, light and shadow shows, water dance shows, AR, VR image viewing, immersive light and shadow displays, etc., are not uncommon in some cities and scenic spots, and there is also a certain market share, but the more common phenomenon is that the replacement is not fast, and the action of innovating is not large, which makes it difficult for such products to continue, and it is necessary to strengthen the creation and development, enrich the reserve of works, and supply the market sustainably.
——The city lighting should be basically harmonious with the night atmosphere. This mainly refers to the areas of urban renewal, transformation and upgrading, which generally cover a few to more than ten square kilometers, such as "Xunmengyi River" and "Langya Night Painting" in Linyi, Shandong. The lighting and night scene development of such projects should appropriately control the light and sound as a whole, avoid excessive landscaping, excessive brightness and excessive noise, reduce excessive "overdraft" of tourists' body and mind, and reduce the disturbance to residents in the border area. In addition to the need for colorful and flowery landscaping at local points, it is necessary to keep the light and shade in the area moderate, and the light and shade are uneven; It is necessary to advocate green and environmental protection, control the oil, gas, fire, etc. used in landscaping or performances, and reduce unnecessary air pollution.
-- Urban nightlife agglomeration areas should try to gain a foothold and expand. The core area of night tourism and night economy should be in a mature urban living area, some of which are densely populated by tourists during the day (Suzhou Zhouzhuang, Tongxiang Wuzhen), and some are prosperous urban nightlife areas (Sanlitun, Houhai in Beijing, etc.). Here, lighting and landscaping are the big background and foundation, and the agglomeration of many night formats is a hard support, such as night markets, night plays, night performances, night entertainment, night drinks, night snacks, night narratives, night Zen, etc., light and shadow landscaping may be just one of the formats. For the night view company, although there are many things that can be done, it can even be implanted through scene design + sound and light digital technology to create a virtual world of "too virtual space", so that tourists can be immersed in the immersive experience of reality and illusion, but this may not be able to be pushed away in the nightlife of the market with deep traditional cultural accumulation. Therefore, it may be a rational choice to strive to settle down and take root first, and then provide customized services according to the practical needs of local night tours, leisure vacations, performing arts performances, meditation and self-entertainment, and market formats.
Night view night tour is a big market that is being explored and developed, and all participants need to work together to develop it. From a certain point of view, the development of the night tourism economy depends largely on the integration of tourism and digital intelligent technology, that is, tourism + technology, technology + tourism. Enterprises that expect to have light and shadow landscaping technology should pay attention to technology, promote technology, and use technology at the same time, but also strengthen the research on the tourism industry, source market, and business model; It is expected that the tourism industry and tourism enterprises will not only take the initiative to pay attention to and learn from the changes and opportunities brought about by the new technological revolution, but also strengthen the tracking and summary of the landing projects of night view and night tours. It is expected that through the two major fields, we will continue to enhance exchanges and interactions, promote the closer integration of tourism + technology, and drive more night tour projects to land, so as to better demonstrate the supporting role of digital technology in the innovative development and high-quality development of tourism!