Strive to be a 'Backyard', How's the 'Qualification'?
In recent years, some cities and counties have set their tourism development goals to become the "backyard garden" for provincial capitals, central cities, and well-known cities.
For instance, Linyi aims to be the leisure tourism "backyard garden" for the Yangtze River Delta's central cities, Chengde wants to create a "backyard garden" for the capital, Nanchong and Ya'an aspire to become the "backyard garden" for the Chongqing area, and Lanxi intends to be Harbin's "backyard garden," among others.
There are even cities like Quzhou, Huangshan, Nanping, and Shangrao from Zhejiang, Anhui, Fujian, and Jiangxi provinces forming an "Alliance Garden," planning to create a world-class trans-regional scenic and resort cluster.
At first glance, proclaiming to be someone's "backyard garden" might sound proactive and modest, but in reality, it's not just about making a claim; the ultimate choice lies with the target city's tourist source.
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Since this is not a poverty alleviation project, the city's relevant departments do not have the authority to make decisions unilaterally; it requires citizens to vote with their feet.
Therefore, only when a significant number of people actually come can such a "backyard garden" truly live up to its name.
So, how can cities with such goals truly become "backyard gardens"?
How can they win the hearts of their target tourist sources?
This requires thinking and answering from a professional tourism perspective.
To create a "backyard garden," one must have a vision that transcends geographical boundaries.
To become a "backyard garden," the first step is to look at the world and the industry.
There is a gap in tourism development levels among cities of different scales and strengths.
Generally, cities competing to be "backyard gardens" mostly have relatively low-end tourism development levels.
Moreover, there is more than one city with such aspirations, such as Harbin, which has multiple satellite cities.
Therefore, to become a "backyard garden," there must be a substantial and competitive effort.
For cities with lower-end tourism development, the only way to strive to become a "backyard garden" is to improve the existing stock and optimize the incremental growth.
First, it is essential to understand what kind of tourism products are considered high-quality and what kind of tourism projects are favored by the target tourist sources?
If one only imitates the existing tourism projects of surrounding cities with a limited local perspective, thinking about man-made landscapes, theme parks, cultural exhibitions, amusement parks, glass walkways, and so on, there is little hope; if the relevant departments only look at tourism development from the perspective of ordinary tourists, without a background in long-term tourism management or experience, then it is destined to be "more harm than good."
Why are there so many barriers to tourism development?
It is because, after nearly half a century of development, the vision and appreciation of visitors in central cities have been improving day by day, and mass-produced products are no longer appealing.
Furthermore, compared to small cities, there is already a gap in development levels between large cities, and the resources they possess are not on the same level.
To develop a "backyard garden" well, it is necessary to introduce very professional "gardeners" who clearly understand the tourism development in the outside world, especially the tourism demands of the target tourist sources, as well as the current development status of surrounding cities.
If one develops tourism like the people in the Peach Blossom Spring, "not knowing there is a Han dynasty, let alone the Wei and Jin dynasties," and blindly develops tourism, it will inevitably lead to great disappointment.
Secondly, to develop tourism products that the target tourist sources like, one must surpass the local level of the "backyard garden"; to stand out among the surrounding city clusters, one must have a higher starting point and requirements.
"So close, so beautiful, weekend in Hebei," is a slogan proposed by Hebei in recent years, which the author greatly appreciates, but how is the actual marketing effect?
I have asked several friends on the front line of tourism in Beijing and Hebei, and most feel that the marketing effect has not improved significantly.
The reason is that the main factor that can attract people to come is not the distance, but whether the tourism attractions are beautiful or not.
For the evaluation of "beautiful or not," the destination does not count; it depends on whether the target tourist sources vote with their feet.
In contrast, the tourism in the Yangtze River Delta region can develop in an integrated way, with Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shanghai being each other's destinations and tourist sources, because the economic development levels are close, and the tourism development and service levels are also similar, so they can travel mutually, in series, and in circles.
As a latecomer in tourism, the surrounding cities that want to become the "backyard garden" of the target tourist sources should first consider abandoning the local perspective and level, and strive to meet the tourism needs and consumption characteristics of the target tourist sources.
Specifically, first, creativity should not lag behind.
For example, for the business format of old wineries, Liaocheng Yanggu has developed the Jingyanggang Wine Road Pavilion, and Yantai has built more than 60 wineries, and the level of creativity and display has long made several earthen houses of wine workshops pale in comparison.
Second, professional planning and development.
Taking the construction of hotels and restaurants as an example, professional development can create star-rated hotels, resort hotels, theme cultural hotels, and characteristic boutique B&Bs, while some cities and counties have "equivalent to" four-star and five-star hotels, which are judged by professional eyes as real estate development that follows the form without grasping the essence.
Furthermore, the "city that never sleeps" format still has a market in fourth and fifth-tier cities, and even appears to be popular in the short term, but few people in provincial capitals or central cities are interested.
Third, high-level operation.
Tourism investment is not a public welfare project; only by strictly controlling the initial hardware investment and expanding the subsequent service projects, and hiring professional managers to manage operations, can it be possible to recover the investment and avoid losses.
To attract target tourist sources, one must focus on the core and be professional.
To make the target tourist sources favor the surrounding "backyard garden," there must be at least one or two exciting projects or products.
In other words, there must be a "reason" to attract the target tourist sources to consume, which is the so-called charming project, core product, and secret recipe.
It is difficult to do everything.
Only by discussing from the perspective of big tourism can one find the place to attract the target tourist sources.
It can be a sightseeing attraction, or it can be food, accommodation, entertainment, shopping, and other industrial elements, or it can be other attractive factors.
For example, Anning City is a county-level city under Kunming with rich hot spring resources.
By concentrating on developing hot spring health products, Kunming residents have become its main tourist sources; Guazhou County and Dunhuang City both belong to Jiuquan, and Guazhou has developed tourism food and accommodation, complementing Dunhuang during the peak tourism season, forming a division of labor between tourism in Dunhuang and accommodation in Guazhou; Huzhou's rural tourism and B&B formats are well done, and every weekend, they attract a large number of micro-vacationers from Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shanghai cities; some satellite cities of the Northeast provincial capitals have relatively broad areas, and developing skiing projects can take on the overflow effect of the peak winter tourism season.
To attract target tourist sources to travel and consume, one must broaden the perspective of big tourism and cannot be confined to the small circle of developing scenic spots.
One idea is to strengthen the integration of cross-industries.
For example, more than 10 years ago, some Beijing residents drove to Tianjin on weekends to eat in a restaurant, and then take a walk, and some families even held weddings there, mainly because Tianjin was of high quality and low price at that time; after the opening of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, many Hong Kong tourists drove to Shenzhen on weekends, first to the supermarket to shop and fill up the car trunk, and then to take a walk in the Gan Keng Ancient Town and have a Cantonese meal; Suzhou Taicang, adjacent to Shanghai, is known for processing and selling clothes in "factory stores," and this sales model similar to the outlet has attracted many consumers to go shopping together, which for tourists is "hotel + scenic spot + factory store" tourism consumption.
The cost of these projects far exceeds the expenditure of conventional sightseeing tours.
The tourism industry has developed to today and has entered a stage of professional development, no longer needing to feel its way by groping for stones; if it continues to develop in a general and approximate way, it will inevitably fall and pay a false tuition fee, and it will not be able to achieve the expected goals.
Under the context of big tourism and all-for-one tourism, whether one can professionally build a "backyard garden" depends on finding a professional "leader" responsible for planning, creativity, and coordination.
First, the leader or main participant should have successful representative works, that is, what independent leadership or main participation in successful projects, not just participating in some details of large projects; second, there should be a certain degree of recognition in the field of tourism planning and creativity, not just peripheral related fields, such as urban parks, agricultural projects, garden greening, etc.
; third, it should be more active in the professional field of tourism, which can show professional ability and influence, as well as the density and depth of professional practice.
In reality, many failed pastoral complexes, characteristic towns, and large tourism projects are largely due to the lack of professional tourism developers as leaders, but are operated by "professional types," "big tourism," and "cultural tourism industry" people, or some local departments have too many ideas, allowing unprofessional people to do professional things, and many "bad projects" that need to be revitalized are mostly caused by this reason.
Therefore, local relevant departments should do more research, avoid outdated projects, strive for large passenger flow, and recover investment as soon as possible.
If the shortcomings or obstacles are not resolved, the construction of the "backyard garden" is just empty talk.
The construction of the "backyard garden" cannot rely solely on scenic spots and attractions; it must be a whole process and comprehensive supporting, especially to do a good job in making up for the shortcomings, and narrow the gap with the target tourist source market.
Making up for shortcomings involves a wide range, and to focus slightly, it is necessary to improve the "six elements" of tourism, that is, transportation, sightseeing, accommodation, food, shopping, and entertainment.
For each "backyard garden," the situation of shortcomings is not the same, some cities and counties lack accommodation, and it is difficult to find three-star hotels in the county, with only low-end social hotels; some cities and counties have not enough extensive catering, the local characteristics are too strong, and the types and varieties are also few, tourists are not used to eating and drinking; some have bottlenecks between large transportation and "backyard garden," only tens of miles from the airport or high-speed railway station to the city and county, but there is basically no public transportation.
If these shortcomings or obstacles are not resolved, the construction of the "backyard garden" is just empty talk.
In the development process of my country's tourism industry, there have been many shortcomings, such as the lack of high-end hotels at the beginning of reform and opening up, and the reception of inbound tourism was very embarrassing; the lack of air-conditioned bus fleets made long-distance travel in winter and summer very painful; the tourism toilets were extremely dirty and smelly, which damaged the image of tourism and the city, but fortunately, it has been basically improved in recent years.
Therefore, "making up for shortcomings" and "focusing on supporting" are the required courses for creating a "backyard garden," and only by transforming and upgrading on a limited schedule can the entry channels for target tourist sources be broadened.
Of course, striving to be the "backyard garden" of the target tourist source city is not to ignore the tourism participation of local and surrounding residents, but to attract relatively high-end tourist sources, it is necessary to accelerate the improvement of the local tourism development level.
Only when more and more target city tourist sources regard the surrounding cities as places for holiday leisure consumption, forming a clear travel inertia and leisure pattern, and accounting for a significant proportion of tourism reception, bringing obvious comprehensive benefits of tourism, can the goal of the tourism "backyard garden" be considered a success.当然可以，不过您还没有提供需要翻译的内容。请提供您想要翻译的中文内容，我将为您翻译成英文。
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