Leisure agriculture faces favorable development opportunities: how to choose a development model
In recent years, China's leisure agriculture has developed rapidly and become a new economic growth point. The development of leisure agriculture helps optimize the rural industrial structure, open up employment channels for farmers, advance agricultural industrialization, and promote the development and utilization of rural ecological and cultural resources, becoming an important way to increase farmers' incomes and build a new socialist countryside. However, the existing leisure agriculture models in China still have many problems, and these have become a bottleneck restricting leisure agriculture from becoming stronger and bigger. In developing leisure agriculture, each locality should proceed from its own actual conditions, and under the guidance of leisure agriculture theory, summarize practical experience and choose the correct development model.
Current status of and problems in the development of leisure agriculture in China
China's leisure agriculture began to sprout in the 1980s, went through an initial development stage in the 1990s, and entered a period of comprehensive development in the early 21st century. At present, China's leisure agriculture mainly includes such model types as pastoral agricultural tourism, folk custom tourism, "farmhouse" tourism, village and township tourism, leisure vacation tourism, science education tourism, and back-to-nature tourism. Since the 1980s, Weifang City, on the basis of fully tapping and organizing local folk tourism resources, pioneered folk tourism in China and became the country's most influential folk tourism area. In recent years, leisure agriculture in Weifang City has developed rapidly, and typical models have emerged, such as Weifang Jinbao Amusement Park, Anqiu Qingyun Mountain Folk Amusement Park, Shouguang Linhai Ecological Expo Park, Changyi Green Expo Park, Shouguang Vegetable High-Tech Demonstration Park, Qingzhou Huanglou Flower Leisure Agriculture Sightseeing Park, and Hanting Yimin Cooperative Citizens' Farm.
Overall, leisure agriculture in Weifang City and most parts of China is mostly oriented toward economic functions, without sufficient attention to social and ecological functions, and there is a clear gap compared with leisure agriculture in developed countries. It also commonly suffers from problems such as blind development, identical models, low levels, backward services, environmental damage, poor content, and misguided regulation, absence or overreach of government roles.
Developing leisure agriculture requires attention to and emphasis on local distinctive resources
The key to choosing a leisure agriculture development model lies in how to promote the transformation of the resource advantages of each rural area into competitive advantages; that is, great attention must be paid to and emphasis placed on the development and utilization of local distinctive resources and local elements (time factors, historical relics, spatial distribution, names and concepts, etc.). Weifang City has convenient transportation, abundant resources, many scenic spots, and numerous historic sites. In addition, tourism started early and the agricultural foundation is strong, so the potential for developing leisure agriculture is enormous:
Superior locational resources. Weifang City is the transportation hub of the Shandong Peninsula, with a three-dimensional land, sea, and air transportation network extending in all directions; the south is mountainous and hilly, the center is plains, and the north is coastal tidal flats; the city has a total of 112 large and small rivers, a coastline of 143 km, and the city's forest coverage rate has reached more than 30%. The conditions for diversified and multifunctional leisure agriculture are relatively complete.
Strong agricultural foundation. Weifang is a major agricultural area, one of the concentrated production areas of agricultural and sideline products in Shandong Province, and the birthplace of agricultural industrialization in China. After recent years of agricultural structural adjustment, the city has built a large number of famous, excellent, special, and rare agricultural product production bases and agricultural high-tech demonstration parks, such as Shouguang vegetables, Qingzhou flowers, Zhucheng chestnuts, Anqiu cherries, Changle watermelons, and Weifang radishes. These are the basic conditions for developing leisure agriculture models such as sightseeing, picking, planting, and feeding.
Many scenic spots. In the mountainous and hilly areas of southern Weifang City, natural scenic spots such as Yishan, Yunmen Mountain, Yangtian Mountain, Qingyun Mountain, Shimenfang, Laolong Bay, and Fuyan Mountain are uniquely endowed and breathtakingly beautiful, providing important support for developing leisure agriculture.
Rich cultural heritage. Weifang has a long history and splendid culture. Qingzhou Ouyuan, Fanggong Pavilion and the Shrine of Three Worthies, Li Qingzhao's Former Residence, Anshang Stone Archway, and the Former Residence of Martyr Wang Jinmei and other cultural heritages are found throughout the districts. Many historical and cultural celebrities were born or active in Weifang. The development and integration of religions have left famous ancient temples and grotto Buddha statues of relatively high tourism value. The profound historical deposits and cultural inheritance are an important connotation of leisure agriculture in Weifang City.
Colorful rural folk customs. In Shijiazhuang Folk Village in Anqiu, every year tourists from Japan, the United States, and countries in Southeast Asia and Western Europe come to experience folk customs and enjoy the pleasures of the countryside; the Shijiazhuang Folk Museum, built in 1988, displays, exhibits, and recreates scenes of farm life and customs in the central Shandong area during the late Qing Dynasty and the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China; Yangjiabu Folk Art Grand View Garden has now formed a folk culture sightseeing park with 4 major scenic areas and more than 20 scenic spots, centered on woodblock New Year picture culture, kite culture, ancient shop street folk culture, and Zheng Banqiao painting and calligraphy culture.
Well-known tourism brand. In recent years, the brand awareness of "China Weifang - Carefree Travel" has increased substantially, and tourism has become an important industry driving Weifang's economic development. At present, the number of domestic tourists ranks 7th in the province, up from 9th in 2006, and domestic tourism revenue ranks 4th, up from 9th in 2006. The eight fine "Carefree Travel" routes are gradually reaching the whole country and have also had a certain influence abroad.
Leisure agriculture is facing favorable development opportunities
Weifang City not only possesses the resource conditions needed to develop leisure agriculture, but also, with the gradual increase in residents' income levels, increasingly developed roads and transportation, a marked increase in leisure time, continuous improvement of rural infrastructure, and the strategic transformation of traditional agriculture, leisure tourism is facing favorable development opportunities:
Rapid economic development. In recent years, Weifang City's economy has developed rapidly, and residents' incomes have grown steadily. As of 2010, the city's gross regional product increased by 13.3% year on year, total retail sales of consumer goods increased by 18.6%, local fiscal revenue increased by 28.2%, and the consumer price increase was 2.6%. The city's per capita disposable income of urban residents reached 19,675 yuan, an increase of 13.9%; the per capita net income of farmers was 8,872 yuan, an increase of 15.3%. Economic growth and increased income have laid a solid foundation for urban residents to go out for leisure tourism and for the development of leisure agriculture in our city.
Changing consumption concepts. With steady income growth, the consumption level of urban and rural residents has continued to rise, and the consumption structure has become increasingly reasonable. Expenditures on development-oriented and enjoyment-oriented consumption, such as transportation and communications, culture, education and entertainment, and medical care, have increased substantially, and demand for service consumption has risen for consecutive years. The lives of urban residents in Weifang City have increasingly turned toward the pursuit of spiritual enjoyment, with their attention turning to the suburbs and rural areas around the city. In order to stimulate tourism consumption and the development of related service industries, Weifang City has introduced policies such as the "Tourism All-in-One Card" and the "Benefit the People All-in-One Card," and the market prospects for developing leisure agriculture in Weifang City are promising.
Increased leisure time. At present, China already has 114 statutory holidays, and together with the paid leave system that the state is gradually promoting, the number of holidays that citizens can enjoy each year has increased. People's leisure time is becoming more and more ample, and leisure is increasingly becoming the norm for urban residents.
Transformation of traditional agriculture. Weifang City is the birthplace of agricultural industrialization in China. Since 1993, it has been the first in the country to propose and organize the implementation of the agricultural industrialization strategy, paying increasing attention to the coordinated development among people, resources, and nature. In the transformation of traditional agriculture, the development of multifunctional agriculture in Weifang City has shown strong momentum, and the concept of agricultural multifunctionality has also been widely recognized, gradually forming a good situation of all-round development, diverse forms, and distinctive characteristics.
Principles for choosing leisure agriculture models
Proceeding from Weifang City's actual conditions, in the near term development planning should focus mainly on the urban suburb type, supplemented by the scenic area periphery type; in the long term, the focus should be on developing scenic area peripheries, distinctive rural villages, and high-tech agricultural bases. Since the main source of visitors is urban residents, and proximity to the city, good infrastructure, lower development costs, and higher efficiency and benefits are involved, Weifang City's leisure agriculture is currently concentrated mainly in the suburbs. In the near term, the development of suburban leisure agriculture should focus mainly on sightseeing and farmhouse entertainment; in the long term, it should focus mainly on leisure, vacationing, and shopping. With the increase in urban residents' income levels, leisure demand will tend toward diversification and upgrading, and the existing popular suburban "farmhouse" model will find it difficult to meet new demand. Suburban leisure agriculture should develop in the direction of distinctive, specialized, and technology-based features, and multifunctional, high-grade, green, and environmentally friendly development. Leisure agriculture outside the suburbs, because of its broad visitor base and long distance from the city, should focus mainly on vacation tourism. The positioning of visitor sources and markets should proceed from reality, take into account both internal and external markets while focusing mainly on internal ones, base itself on the city, drive the province, reach the whole country, and influence foreign countries.
Leisure agriculture development models are the combination of theory and practice. Most leisure agriculture development models at home and abroad have gone through three stages: "start-up - development - maturity." The start-up stage generally focuses mainly on sightseeing. The development stage is the key period, when content such as leisure vacations begins to appear, and it is also the stage in which the development model is determined. By the mature stage, the model types of leisure agriculture are basically fixed. Because Weifang City's leisure agriculture has a good foundation, started early, and has great potential, and because of the increase in urban and rural residents' income levels, the strengthening of leisure awareness, and the impetus of domestic and international leisure economic development, it is currently in a stage of rapid development. At the present stage, proceeding from the actual conditions of local leisure agriculture development, and correctly applying theories and concepts such as agricultural development stages, regional economic development, sustainable development, experience economy, leisure agriculture planning, and agricultural multifunctionality and urban agriculture to allocate resources and carry out planning and design, summarizing the experiences and lessons of leisure agriculture development at home and abroad, analyzing the model types, opportunities, and problems faced by leisure agriculture development in the region, and following the principles of market orientation, resource advantage, agriculture as the foundation, scientific planning, sustainable development, farmers as the main body, unified functions, and coordinated consideration, a leisure agriculture development model suitable for the region can be chosen. Weifang City's leisure agriculture will then quickly enter the mature stage and become an important industry promoting stable and rapid local economic growth.