“The first reason that people choose to travel is meeting friends and family. The most important event that travelers experience is shopping and catering,” Michael Mitchell stated at the architecture forum in Dalian, China. Whether you agree his opinion or not, satisfying travel customer demand is the direction that developing culture tourism is taking.
Data from Nielsen shows that in China primary tourism activity is shopping and entertainment. The average consumer’s monthly income is 9000RMB. The tourism data of spring festival demonstrates that 72% of tourism activity is family tourism with an average cost of 800RMB. The main factor is if they can afford to buy a train ticket or plane ticket. Secondly, it depends on whether they can reserve the tour route or not. During past 10 years of China tourism, the annual growth rate is 17%, with 14.8 million employed. The frequency of tourism reached 3.1 billion. 11% of travelers chose to fly. There are 12,000 tourism agencies in total.
Michael mentioned five points for determining the viability for culture ecological tourism development:
- 1. How big is the potential of developing tourism and entertainment projects?
- 2. Which tourism projects can operate well?
- 3. What are the basic facilities for supporting tourism?
- 4. How can you phase the project?
- 5. What is the budget?
Meanwhile, Michael also gave the detail analysis:
Project resources analysis：- Natural landscape
- History heritage
- National heritage
- Traditional festivals and activities
- Featured areas, including art, special food street
Market condition:
- Geographic area market: one-day market (2h), day-and-night market
- Traveler taste: their demand
- Travel behavior: residence time, program type
Population composition:
- Annual income 100000RMB family
- City white collar workers
- Country travelers
- Company training and group construction
- Government conference
- Special events such as weddings
- Special events such as golf and camping
- Retirement traveler
- Business tourism
- International tourists
Tourism experience type:
- Local residence (1h drive)
- Leisure and entertainment activity
- 100 km (1 to 2 h drive)
- Second home market
- 4 to 8 h one-day trip
- Destination (2-6h)
- Flight and tourism market
- 3-day stay market
Some suggestions for project construction:
- 1. Analyzing resources
- 2. Planning discussion
- 3. Setting project goals
- 4. Planning for tourism destination (competitive analysis, attraction system, service supporting and route planning)
Michael explained the process of creating a culture ecologic tourism project through the use of two examples of projects done by MCM.