Rural tourism is more appealing when it cultivates both internal and external strengths
A relevant official of the National Tourism Administration recently said at the “China Modern Rural Tourism 30 Years Forum” that China's annual domestic tourist trips reach 3.6 billion, of which 1.8 billion are in rural areas, and at least more than 600 million involve direct hosting by farmers. It is expected that in the next 5 to 10 years, rural tourism receptions can reach 2 billion trips, and direct hosting by farmers can reach 1 billion trips. It can be said that rural tourism is still a thriving industry with great potential for market development.
In recent years, rural tourism has flourished in various places, forming a new type of tourism business in tourism consumption. Rural tourism integrates the agricultural production process with tourism, catering and services, and can transform potential resources such as the rural ecological environment and folk culture into products, increasing farmers' income. Tourism is a highly interconnected industry, involving multiple elements such as food, accommodation, transportation, sightseeing, shopping and entertainment. The development of one rural tourism site can drive the rapid development of many industries such as catering, accommodation, transportation, commerce and entertainment. Moreover, tourism is a labor-intensive industry. Many jobs can be taken up by farmers after only short-term training, providing employment opportunities for farmers with relatively lower educational levels. Developing rural tourism can promote localized employment of rural surplus labor. Therefore, developing rural tourism can, after expanding rural industrial development and broadening farmers' employment channels, drive an increase in farmers' income. As economic conditions improve, farmers' living consumption levels and cultural consumption levels will also continuously rise, making farmers' material life increasingly comfortable.
However, in the process of rural tourism development, there are also problems such as backward infrastructure and insufficient cultural connotation. This requires different regions, according to their own characteristics, not only to continue strengthening hardware aspects, but also to continuously highlight their soft power advantages in culture, folk customs and other aspects, achieving cultivation of both internal and external strengths, expanding the content of rural tourism, and enabling tourists to come, have something to see, and want to stay.
From the perspective of strengthening hardware facilities. Rural tourism can take advantage of the opportunity of new rural construction to vigorously strengthen hardware facility construction. National new rural construction is in the stage of demonstration and exploration. From the central to local governments, substantial financial support will be given in areas such as road construction, environmental improvement, comprehensive agricultural development and industrial development. For rural tourism lacking funds, it should make full use of opportunities in policy and funding to leverage development. New rural construction planning should focus on promoting the construction of “tourism culture villages, ecological culture villages, and secure and adequately fed villages.” For demonstration villages and advanced villages with the conditions, new rural construction and rural tourism can be planned and laid out in a unified way. Combined with special funds for new rural construction, overall arrangements can be made in infrastructure construction, environmental improvement and fund use, focusing on building a group of rural tourism villages with distinctive features, a solid foundation and the ability to play a demonstration role. This can produce twice the result with half the effort for both developing rural tourism and new rural construction. In the specific implementation process, on the one hand, urban public infrastructure can be extended to rural areas to support the infrastructure needed for rural tourism services; on the other hand, tourism resources such as “urban areas, scenic areas, parks and suburbs” can be coordinated and planned in a unified way, forming tourism routes ranging from urban tourism, scenic area tourism and industrial tourism in cities to “farmhouse fun” and “ecological tours” in rural areas, and strengthening the supporting construction of rural tourism hardware facilities through integrated urban-rural development.
⟦NL> From the perspective of strengthening soft power such as cultural and folk customs characteristics. Tourism, as an economic activity that links consumers' needs, identification, emotions and culture, is an external presentation of consumers' lifestyles and consumption culture. In the “urban cage” built of reinforced concrete, people often maintain a longing for the “pastoral idyll” and yearn to return to nature and return to a “slow life” state. Modern people's tourism is no longer simply eating, drinking and having fun. Tourists, starting from initially seeking stimulation such as newness, specialness, novelty and exoticness, are beginning to pay more and more attention to the pursuit and exploration of culture. Local traditional folk ways, folk customs and historical charm are the roots of rural tourism culture and the foundation for forming the characteristics of scenic areas. To attract tourists and form charm, it is necessary to be good at discovering tourism culture and integrate cultural connotation into the construction of scenic areas and attractions. Therefore, to enhance the attractiveness and competitiveness of rural tourism, on the one hand, it is necessary to preserve the authentic natural scenery, and at the same time, on this basis, combine its own characteristics and carry out a certain degree of appropriate development, endowing it with a certain folk cultural connotation and highlighting the position of soft content such as culture and folk customs in rural tourism. This allows tourists to fully experience the unique pastoral scenery and strong nostalgia of the countryside in rural tourism, making tourists' travel more quality-oriented and better able to meet spiritual needs.
The pressure of transformation and the challenge of innovation test every rural tourism practitioner. Only by solving problems such as primary products, a single model, market saturation and vicious competition, and only by allowing tourists to experience humanistic feelings while experiencing natural scenery, will rural tourism enable tourists to “remember nostalgia.” Through cultivating both internal and external strengths and vigorously expanding the content of rural tourism, rural tourism can go further.
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