Lvwei Cultural Tourism: Seven Methods for Market-Oriented Scenic Area Upgrading

Lvwei Cultural Tourism Introduction: The A-level scenic area rating is currently the only standard for classifying scenic areas in China. However, with the changes of the times and the shifting demands of tourism consumers, the classification standard has also shown certain limitations. For example, it places too much emphasis on comprehensive management levels, service facility configuration, and environmental and resource protection, while undervaluing the important factors of resource attractiveness and market influence that determine the success or failure of a scenic area. The market changes rapidly; if there is insufficient sensitivity to the market and an inability to respond quickly in accordance with market trends, it is easy to face elimination. Therefore, Lvwei Cultural Tourism believes that under market guidance, respecting the actual situation of scenic areas, meeting the diverse needs of consumers, and upgrading scenic areas beyond 5A may be more important than the scenic area rating itself.

Through more than ten years of experience, Lvwei Cultural Tourism has diagnosed and analyzed many A-level scenic areas (including those that have successfully established 5A status) and derived an innovative approach for market-oriented scenic area upgrading—the seven 'musts'.

1. Deep research and resource excavation 'must' be from a development perspective

From an investment perspective, we divide resource value into intrinsic value and development value. Intrinsic value is the inherent value foundation of the resource; development value is an evaluation of the resource value from the perspective of development returns, which is of great significance for developer investment. Therefore, the resource evaluation proposed by Lvwei Cultural Tourism is a process of subjective evaluation and in-depth excavation, a process of deep research and creative mining, which differs significantly from intrinsic evaluation. It is mainly reflected in the following aspects:

2. Market research 'must' conform to market logic

The most important aspect of scenic area upgrade design is understanding the market. To grasp the market well, in-depth research and planning are needed from five aspects:

3. Theme determination 'must' find the soul

A very important aspect of scenic area upgrade is to evaluate whether the existing theme is suitable for the area. If there is a clear, unique, and compelling theme, and tourism projects are integrated and developed around this theme, the scenic area's tourism appeal will be greatly enhanced. Therefore, the first step in scenic area upgrade is to find the soul—to identify a theme suitable for the sustainable development of the scenic area.

4. Recreation mode design 'must' be highly creative

From the perspective of scenic area development, recreation mode design involves arranging and designing the main elements involved in tourists' trips, so as to maximize tourist satisfaction and optimal utilization of scenic area resources, thereby maximizing returns for tourism developers and investors. Based on the six basic tourism elements of 'food, accommodation, transportation, sightseeing, shopping, and entertainment,' new tourism development six elements are proposed: 'business, health, learning, leisure, emotion, and novelty.' The recreation activities in the tourism process include twelve aspects.

1. Analysis of recreation structure elements

(1) Eat with characteristic: In the design of food-related aspects, it should be designed with specialization, refinement, and branding.

(2) Stay with quality: In accommodation design, a reasonable grade structure and layout system innovation should be formed on a determined scale, and further explore the accommodation culture system, enhance traditional accommodation functions to achieve a certain degree of integration of accommodation and entertainment, so that tourists can also enjoy the unique charm of local culture through accommodation, making the unique accommodation system an attraction of the tourist destination. For example: local theme hotels, hotels with local characteristic architecture, family homestays, etc.

(3) Travel with distinction: Since the transportation system between tourist source areas and tourist destinations has non-tourism attributes and is difficult to change according to tourism requirements, in the design of tourism transportation, we mainly consider the transportation between the tourist destination and the scenic area, especially the travel corridors within the scenic area.

2. Viewing method design — sightseeing: The design of 'sightseeing' in recreation modes mainly includes three aspects: sightseeing content, sightseeing route, and sightseeing time. Simply put, it's the questions of what to see, how to see, and how long to see. Therefore, our design should allow tourists to view the best possible scenic spots, experience the widest possible range of viewing methods, and have as much viewing time as possible.

3. Amusement method design — entertainment, sports, play, games, participatory activities: In the design process of recreation modes, local characteristic culture and unique amusement methods should be fully explored, embedding rich cultural connotations into novel entertainment methods, allowing tourists to enjoy unique amusement. According to different classification criteria, amusement methods mainly include: by the degree of tourist participation in the destination; by the spatial scale of tourist amusement activities.

4. Commodity transaction design — shopping: The design of tourism products must focus on cultural connotations, highlight local characteristics, have unique creativity and good quality. In planning and design, adhere to high standards, high taste, high quality, and multi-grade classification design, and conduct targeted design based on the cultural, psychological, and consumption needs of various types of tourists. In this way, tourism products can achieve substantial economic benefits and good social returns.

5. Itinerary design: Systematic design of the entire itinerary, including route selection, transportation, scenic spots and stay times, amusement arrangements, entertainment arrangements, shopping arrangements, accommodation, night entertainment, dining, etc.

5. Revenue model design 'must' be diversified

Systematically analyze various revenue models in the operation of the tourism industry, combine recreation methods with revenue methods, and develop revenue enhancement and added value of tourism products, which has universal guiding significance for the operation and development of scenic areas. For scenic areas, the total tourism revenue and revenue structure are important. Maximizing total revenue and optimizing the revenue structure are the foundation for successful operation of tourism projects. The main revenue sources include: ticket revenue, income from viewing process, participatory amusement, night entertainment, daily shopping, amusement shopping, specialty dining, specialty accommodation, health and fitness consumption, recuperation consumption, etc.

6. Business model design 'must' be unique

Comprehensive research on tourism project development should systematically address locking resources, positioning themes and markets, designing and forming products, formulating marketing strategies, and clearly constructing profit models. The business model adopted by a scenic area or tourism enterprise generally integrates several models. The direction of business model expansion can be considered from three dimensions: industry value chain, development operation chain, and industry linkage chain. Industry value chain: includes four main links: resources, products, channels, and customers; Development operation chain: includes eight main links: resource evaluation, recreation mode design, revenue mode design, profit mode design, investment mode design, financing mode design, marketing mode design, and management mode design; Industry linkage chain: basically includes seven links according to the six tourism elements and environment-related industries.

7. Operation mode design 'must' be influencer-oriented

Currently, there are two main directions for attracting traffic to scenic areas: first, creating influencer products; second, using travel experts or influencers to leverage new media marketing to direct traffic to scenic areas. However, in this process, many scenic areas also face two major pain points: traffic attraction and profitability. In terms of traffic attraction: generally, influencer products are unrelated to each other, products do not drive brand; brand lacks uniqueness. In terms of profitability: influencer products have short life cycles; marketing and secondary consumption are not linked. Lvwei Cultural Tourism and Ranlv Media jointly launched the scenic area influencer empowerment model – the Ranlv Station model. Relying on the China Scenic Area Association Development and Operation Committee, it integrates multiple resources such as influencer products, influencer business formats, influencer experts, new media communication, etc., forming an operation model that quickly boosts products and triggers traffic. Through the integrated implementation model of 'planning-design-construction-marketing-operation', it uses influencer techniques to integrate the scenic area's products, brand, marketing methods, and achieve an integrated structure of scenic area operation. This model can both make products influencer-oriented and achieve rapid marketing promotion, and can effectively realize investment returns through tickets, secondary consumption, etc.

Lvwei Cultural Tourism Scenic Area Service Innovation

Since its establishment in 2005, Lvwei Cultural Tourism has proposed the concept of 'Creative Classics · On-the-Ground Operation'. After more than ten years of innovative development, it has cultivated and integrated professional teams in planning, design, development, operation, investment and financing, etc. It has accumulated rich experience in basic scenic area research, scenic area development and upgrading, scenic area planning and node design, scenic area A-level creation and upgrading, and interactive design of scenic area exhibition halls. It has provided planning, design, upgrading, construction, and operation consulting services for hundreds of scenic areas, covering mountains, lakes, coastal areas, former residences of celebrities, theme parks, and other types, exploring 'integrated planning and operation' from top-level design to on-the-ground operation, creating a full-industry full-process incubation service platform for scenic area development.

In the new development stage, as the lead unit of the China Scenic Area Association Development and Operation Committee, Lvwei Cultural Tourism is continuously innovating and exploring, committed to providing innovative solutions for scenic areas and regional comprehensive development operation and project implementation. In 2020, Lvwei Cultural Tourism launched Ranlv Video. On the basis of original planning and design services, it innovated a comprehensive service of 'scenic area check-in + smart tourism', providing scenic areas with a complete set of check-in services and marketing solutions including travel check-in services, in-trip smart service platforms, and new media marketing operations.