Many places have introduced ticket reduction and exemption policies, short-term marketing restarts tourism market experts believe
Reducing or exempting scenic spots tickets should not be "one size fits all"
● Many regions make a fuss about scenic spot tickets, aiming to quickly gather popularity. It is also a short-term marketing method for grabbing the golden period of summer tourism. It has positive significance for restarting the tourism market in various places, but ticket-free cannot be a long-term marketing behavior, nor is it healthy for scenic spots. The right way for long-term development
● The short-term diversion results brought about by the ticket price reduction may be relatively outstanding, but the price reduction cannot make the cake bigger, but can only temporarily divide the cake. Under the background of rising prices in all walks of life, the development costs, management costs, and maintenance costs of the tourism industry are rising, and it is difficult to lower the price of scenic spots in accordance with market rules.
● When the tourism market is restarted, scenic spots should also innovate products, enhance attractiveness, improve service quality, and attract more tourists to enter the scenic spot for secondary consumption in response to market demand, forming a new profit model. Local governments can appropriately subsidize tickets, strengthen marketing promotion, or reduce or exempt taxes, etc.
□ Our reporter Zhao Li
my country's epidemic prevention and control battle has achieved major strategic results, and the resumption of work and production in various regions has continued to advance. As one of the industries most severely affected during the epidemic prevention and control period, the recovery of the tourism industry has attracted much attention.
A reporter from the "Rules of Law Daily" recently interviewed a relevant person in charge of a Beijing travel agency and found that consumers inquiring about travel products have increased significantly, especially for some types of summer vacation. There are indications that the tourism demand accumulated for a period of time is waiting to be further released.
With the gradual recovery of inter-provincial tourism, many regions have started a "price war" in order to stimulate tourists to travel, and have lowered the ticket prices of scenic spots to gain the favor of tourists. For example, Shandong, Henan and other places have introduced preferential policies that reduce the price of scenic spots or even exempt tickets.
The operation of reducing or exempting tickets for scenic spots caused heated public opinion for a while. Many tourists applaud this policy, believing that the reduced ticket prices and even free tickets stimulate consumption, which is conducive to economic recovery and benefits everyone; but some people questioned that in the current economic downward pressure, scenic spots that originally relied on tickets to make money Losing the income pillar, this move is detrimental to the long-term development of the scenic spot.
Experts interviewed by the "Rules of Law Daily" believe that the implementation of the ticket-free policy for scenic spots cannot be "one size fits all." The development of the "ticket economy" should be tailored to local conditions, comprehensively considering resource attributes, development and construction, cost input and other factors to conduct classified management.
Ticket reduction or exemption in many scenic spots
Short-term marketing gathers popularity
After the resumption of inter-provincial group tourism, the long-silent tourism market slowly recovered again. In order to attract tourists, various places have released big moves.
In Xi’an, Shaanxi Province, starting from August 1st, scenic spots such as Datang Furong Garden and Louguantai Eco-cultural Tourism Resort will be open free of charge. More than 80% of all state-owned museums, industry museums, and non-state-owned museums in Xi’an are open to It is open to the public for free, and the Bell and Drum Tower gradually extended its opening hours.
In Yunnan Province, tourist teams can make reservations through the "Tourism managed by a mobile phone" platform and enjoy relevant preferential treatments for scenic spots across the province.
In Shandong Province, 81 state-owned scenic spots such as Mount Tai, Sankong, and the First Spring of the World have substantially reduced their ticket prices from August 1 to the end of this year. Except for legal holidays, 9 5A-level scenic spots are based on the original government-priced ticket prices. On the above, all the fare discounts of no less than 50% are implemented.
In Hubei Province, from August 8 to the end of this year, including the "Eleventh" Golden Week, nearly 400 A-level tourist attractions are exempt from tickets for national tourists. Tourists from areas with low epidemic risk across the country make real-name appointments, temperature measurement and scan After the health code, you can enter the scenic area. Each scenic area will be in accordance with the opening requirements of "Limited, Appointment, and Staggered Peaks", and appointments will be made at 50% of the maximum capacity of the approved day.
Han Yuanjun, an associate researcher at the China Tourism Research Institute, believes that currently, many regions are making a fuss about scenic spot tickets in order to quickly gather popularity. It is also a short-term marketing method for grabbing the golden period of summer tourism, which has positive significance for restarting the tourism market.
Liu Simin, director of the Tourism Research Institute of the Cultural and Creative Industry Research Center of Beijing Foreign Studies University, also believes that free admission to scenic spots is actually a marketing strategy in the process of tourism recovery. It is a short-term marketing behavior that will promote the restart of the tourism market in various places.
"The essence of tourism is the attention economy and eyeball economy. At present, consumers are faced with diversified choices. Price reductions are actually the weight for businesses to increase their choices. At present, in the process of tourism recovery, the competition is fierce, and the tourism industry urgently needs to increase customers. Source, identify the soft underbelly of consumers. At the same time, it should be noted that the free admission of scenic spots is more a government action than a market action." Liu Simin said.
According to Qi Xiaobo, assistant director of the Tourism Research and Planning and Design Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, free admission to scenic spots is nothing new. During Golden Week holidays, many scenic spots across the country will be open for free for a limited time, or corresponding ticket preferential policies will be introduced. The exemption of tickets is actually to seize the tourist gold market during the summer vacation. It can only save the emergency but not the poor. It cannot be a long-term marketing behavior, nor is it the right way for the healthy and long-term development of the scenic spot.
The interest chain is extremely complicated
Hard to say goodbye to the ticket economy
In fact, the issue of scenic spots' over-reliance on the "ticket economy" has long been taken seriously by government departments.
In 2013, the "National Tourism and Leisure Outline (2013-2020)" issued by the General Office of the State Council mentioned that the national tourism and leisure environment should be improved, and the ticket prices of scenic spots and attractions such as urban leisure parks should be stabilized, and low ticket prices should be gradually implemented.
Why is it difficult to say goodbye to the "ticket economy"? Insiders in the tourism industry believe that behind the high ticket prices, there are unreasonable institutional problems and deeper complex interest chains.
At present, domestic scenic spots are divided into three types, namely, government-priced scenic spots, government-guided scenic spots and market-priced scenic spots. There are also three types of management and operation of state-owned scenic spots, namely, direct management and operation by the management committee of the government dispatched agency; operation by local state-owned enterprises invested by the government; local investment and investment from the society, entrusted to state-owned or private enterprises for management and operation.
According to industry insiders, there are two core factors that determine the ticket price of state-owned scenic spots: one is the financial support of the central and local governments for scenic resource protection, ecological restoration, capital construction and labor costs, and the second is the market demand for scenic resources and services. strength. The two counterbalance the level and trend of ticket prices. In addition, the revenue sharing of scenic spots, the collection of corporate business tax and income tax, and the profit sharing of enterprises are all the benefits of the local government from the scenic spot, and increasing the ticket price is the easiest way to increase the revenue of the scenic spot.
In this regard, tourism expert Wang Xingbin once told the media: “Due to the continuous strengthening of the market mechanism, the cost of scenic spots is passed on to tourists through high-priced tickets, which has led to an imbalance between the business and industrial attributes of state-owned scenic spots, as well as public welfare and commerciality. The imbalance between."
Qi Xiaobo analyzed the reporter of "Rules of Law Daily" that the reason why the scenic spot cannot get rid of the ticket dependence is because of the extensive and single source of income. Different from the ticket system of foreign tourist attractions, the management of tourist attractions in our country is invested and operated by the government and regulated, or local governments invite investment from the society, and entrust state-owned or private enterprises to manage and operate. The price is affected by the level of resources in the scenic area, the financial investment in capital construction, and the intensity of market demand, and they are mutually restricted and balanced.
"With the rapid development of the market economy, a large number of corporate operations have intervened in the operation of scenic spots. There has been multi-management in scenic spots. Governments and enterprises are inseparable, and powers and responsibilities are blurred. As a result, scenic spots are independent, management system conflicts have intensified. The price issue was first exposed." Qi Xiaobo said.
Liu Simin analyzed that in the early stage of reform and opening up, China’s tourism industry developed rapidly, but the central government was unable to invest in the construction of tourist attractions on a large scale. Therefore, it has issued an initiative to encourage the state, localities, collectives, individuals, and foreign investment to "five together" and "who invests." The development policy of "benefit" tourist attractions is exactly the same as the model of "borrowing to repair roads and repaying loans with tolls" in China's highway construction. Therefore, most of the local governments occupying the mainstay of the development of tourist attractions develop, manage, and operate "key state-owned scenic spots" for the purpose of profitable development of the local economy. If there is no corresponding compensation mechanism for scenic spot tickets, it is possible to "change the order day and night." "After all, tourism is only a right, not a welfare. The local government has no obligation to'treat' foreign tourists."
"At present, only scenic spots above the 4A level are truly profitable in the country. The profitable state-owned scenic spots have experienced one or two rounds of price reductions before. The current national financial resources are not enough to support the losses caused by the long-term price cuts. The results of the diversion may be relatively outstanding, but the price reduction cannot make the cake bigger. You can only divide the cake temporarily.” Liu Simin said that in the context of rising prices in all walks of life, the development costs, management costs, and maintenance costs of the tourism industry are rising. It is difficult to lower the price of scenic spots in accordance with market rules.
Classified management according to local conditions
Healthy restart of the tourism market
On June 29, 2018, the official website of the National Development and Reform Commission issued the “Guiding Opinions on Improving the Ticket Price Formation Mechanism of State-owned Scenic Spots and Lowering the Ticket Price of Key State-owned Scenic Spots”, which clarified the two-stage goal: In 2018, we will improve the ticket price of state-owned scenic spots. At the same time, the task of reducing ticket prices for key state-owned scenic spots has achieved remarkable results; by 2020, based on the reasonable operating costs of scenic spots, a scientific, standardized and transparent ticket price formation mechanism for state-owned scenic spots will be basically sound. More important than reducing the ticket price of scenic spots is to sort out and improve the ticket price mechanism of scenic spots.
It is over half of 2020. Although the sudden epidemic has affected the operation of scenic spots, can countermeasures such as ticket reduction and exemption allow my country to bid farewell to the "ticket economy", or at least become a future development trend?
Han Yuanjun believes that from the perspective of the law of the development of the tourism industry, bidding farewell to the "ticket economy" and making efforts in comprehensive tourism consumption should be a development trend. Under the epidemic situation, the tourism market has become more competitive, which may further accelerate the transformation and upgrading of tourist attractions.
"In foreign countries, many scenic spots are tourism without tickets. This is a trend. Due to different national conditions and different attributes of scenic spots, China still has a long way to go to bid farewell to the'ticket economy'. The current wave of price reductions cannot be truly achieved. Say goodbye to the'ticket economy'." Qi Xiaobo said.
In Qi Xiaobo's view, behind the exemption of tickets is actually a problem of survival of the fittest in the market. To restart the tourism market, in addition to reducing or exempting tickets, scenic spots should also innovate products, enhance attractiveness, improve service quality, and attract more tourists to enter scenic spots for secondary consumption in response to market demand, forming a new profit model. Local governments can appropriately subsidize tickets, strengthen marketing promotion, and reduce or exempt taxes. "Only in this way can the scenic spot transform and upgrade from sightseeing tourism consumption to comprehensive tourism consumption, and achieve a qualitative leap and development."
Liu Simin also told the reporter of "Rules of Law": "Farewell to the'ticket economy' is actually an important part of transformation and upgrading, but in fact there is no such kind of upgrading. The transformation and upgrading need to improve quality, and need to invest in human, material and financial resources. The current situation is that the operators do not have capital, and the consumption level of residents obviously cannot support this upgrade."
The industry experts interviewed generally believe that the implementation of the policy of free admission to scenic spots cannot be “one size fits all”.
In Qi Xiaobo's view, for the tourism market under the epidemic, free admission to scenic spots can be used as a stopgap measure to stimulate tourism recovery and recovery, but we must pay attention to strategies. For different scenic spots, such as state-owned scenic spots and private scenic spots, the nature and attributes of scenic spots are different. Therefore, it is necessary to formulate a ticket reduction or exemption strategy according to local conditions.
Liu Simin believes that starting from the resource attributes, development and construction, cost input and other factors, the horizontal classification of scenic spots can be divided into three types: public welfare, market, and mixed:
Public welfare scenic spots refer to scenic spots with great social welfare value, such as the Forbidden City and Jiuzhaigou, whose tourism resources are very irreplaceable. Such scenic spots should be free or charge less, and strive to enable the whole people to share them fairly. At the same time, the ticket plan should be tilted to key educated groups such as minors to achieve the greatest social welfare effect.
Market-oriented scenic spots refer to scenic spots that generate market value, such as Happy Valley, Disneyland, etc., that do not rely on the traditional tourism resources of the location, but rely on the developer's investment in capital, land and other tourism development elements to generate market value. Such scenic spots are purely market-oriented products, and ticket price decisions are entirely market behaviors.
Hybrid scenic spots refer to scenic spots that rely on state-owned resources such as forests and general humanities and historical sites, and at the same time rely on developers to invest in capital, land and other tourism development elements to generate market value. Such scenic spots are both public-welfare and market-oriented. In the process of transforming tourism resources into tourism products, local governments or investors need high-cost investment. Therefore, ticket pricing must take into account the interests of the public in part, while facing the relationship between supply and demand. A certain range of price fluctuations is a normal phenomenon, and government-guided prices or maximum price management should be implemented.
"According to horizontal classification, classification management is implemented to allow public welfare scenic spots to bid farewell to the'ticket economy.' For example, urban parks have become the welfare of urban residents. Local financial expenditures and local residents' income have formed a virtuous circle of expenditures and incomes. The corresponding increase in the land value of the city will bring more benefits to the local area. Urban parks have found an effective model for healthy development and bid farewell to the'ticket economy'." Liu Simin said.
In addition, Liu Simin suggested that, from a vertical perspective, in order to achieve scientific management of scenic spots, the responsibilities of governments at all levels should be clarified, and a three-level public welfare scenic spot system consisting of national parks, provincial parks and urban parks should be gradually established to strengthen the natural landscape. And the protection of cultural landscape to meet the increasing material and cultural needs of the masses.
Cartography/Gao Yue