Q: From the perspectives of product supply and consumer demand, what new characteristics and changes have emerged in the mountain tourism market in recent years? In what ways do you think outdoor sports and mountain tourism can advance together and integrate with each other?
A: In China, we had a phrase in the past called "wandering among mountains and rivers," which described all travel as exploring mountains and waters. Wandering among mountains can actually be understood as early mountain tourism, but at that time, mountain tourism was a very singular form. Over the years, with the development of mountain tourism, from the consumer side, from the tourists' demands, many new characteristics have emerged. I summarize them as three key points: firstly, diversification of demands; secondly, segmentation of demands; and thirdly, personalization of demands. These three aspects are mainly reflected in mountain tourism products, experiences, activities, and services.
To meet the new demands of tourists for mountain tourism, three new characteristics have also emerged on the supply side. I summarize these three characteristics as follows: firstly, deep connotation; secondly, broad content; and thirdly, high quality. In terms of deep connotation, mountain tourism used to only serve the function of tourism, but now it is more about exploring, uncovering, and inheriting the natural environment, ecology, culture, and humanities of mountains. It also embodies the concept of sustainable development.
In terms of content, mountain tourism now combines with culture, nature, ecology, educational tours, health and wellness, sports, and other elements, creating a very rich array of mountain tourism products, activities, and experiences.
From the perspective of high quality, a major factor that used to constrain the development of mountain tourism was transportation. Especially in Guizhou, where there are many mountains, it was very difficult to travel from one place to another due to inconvenient transportation, making it hard to develop even the best tourism resources. Now, Guizhou has made significant progress in air, rail, and road transportation, eliminating the external factors that constrained the development of mountain tourism. Coupled with the development and utilization of Guizhou's rich mountain tourism resources, cultural resources, landscape resources, and various other resources, mountain tourism in Guizhou has seen tremendous growth.
Internally, a large number of high-quality mountain tourism products have emerged, offering high-quality tourism activities and experiences in areas such as health and wellness, educational tours, cultural interaction and exchange, and low-altitude sports. These are the three major points I want to summarize from the supply side.
So, how can mountain outdoor sports be integrated with mountain tourism? From the perspective of outdoor sports, many sports can be combined with the characteristics of mountains, including geographical and cultural environments. These include mountain biking, mountain cross-country running, mountain golf, low-altitude mountain sports, and many more. Of course, when developing outdoor sports related to mountains, it is important to combine them more with the local geographical and cultural environments, not only focusing on the sports themselves but also integrating them with the unique local culture to enrich the product content and provide tourists with better tourism products and activities.
Q: How can international organizations like the International Mountain Tourism Alliance leverage the new wave of technology to boost the development of mountain tourism?
A: In the wave of technological development, how can we combine mountain sports with mountain tourism? We have to mention the recent emphasis by the central government on developing new forms of productivity. The driving force behind the development of new forms of productivity comes from innovation. There are three aspects that drive the emergence of new forms of productivity: breakthrough developments in technology, innovative allocation of productivity factors, and deep transformation of industries. Among these three aspects, breakthrough developments in technology are a core element. Technological development can drive leapfrog development in our industries.
Therefore, if mountain tourism is to achieve leapfrog development or move towards higher quality development, I believe it must be combined with technology. We need to create scenarios for technological applications, such as artificial intelligence, virtual reality, augmented reality, 3D, or 7D. One of our companies has set up a 7D spherical screen experience facing Meili Snow Mountain, which can show tourists angles that are normally invisible, creating a completely different experience. I believe we must combine scenarios with corresponding technologies to create mountain tourism service experiences and activities empowered by technological applications.
Q: From your perspective, how can we strengthen exchanges and cooperation among mountain tourism destinations to achieve sharing, joint construction, and mutual benefit?
A: The development of an industry is never the development of a single enterprise alone; it requires the entire industry to unite and work together to promote the industry's development, and mountain tourism enterprises are no exception. I believe mountain tourism enterprises should utilize various platforms or establish relevant platforms. The International Mountain Tourism Alliance is a very good platform for sharing market information, product information, and development trend information about mountain tourism, as well as organizing joint promotion activities. Only through such joint activities on various platforms can we make the mountain tourism industry even more prominent.
Q: Have you or some member organizations or countries participating in this conference carried out any relevant cooperation? Are you looking forward to any cooperation with Guizhou?
A: As a think tank, we have exchanges with many other members. Our think tank mainly provides intellectual support and advice for the development of governments and enterprises. We have always maintained cooperation with relevant member organizations, hoping to fully leverage the role of the think tank and make more contributions to the development of mountain tourism destinations or enterprises.
Q: Qianxinan, including Guizhou, has been actively exploring the development of mountain sports in recent years, such as the upcoming Mass Walking Event, marathons, and some low-altitude paragliding projects, and has also invited foreign tourists to participate. However, in terms of promotion and dissemination, the effects are often not sufficient, and foreign tourists are not aware of Qianxinan. From the perspective of a think tank, what suggestions can you give us?
A: I personally worked abroad for a long time, specifically promoting Chinese tourism destinations, so I have a deep understanding of this issue. In fact, our country has many excellent tourism destinations and products that are very attractive to both domestic and international tourists. However, due to inadequate promotion and dissemination, we face challenges in attracting foreign tourists.
But I think the main issue here lies in the fact that our current mountain sports, including low-altitude mountain sports, mountain exploration, mountain hiking, cycling, marathons, and various other activities, are very niche or targeted towards specific groups. The customer base for these sports is very unique, and our promotional activities need to effectively reach these specific groups directly to be effective.
Overall, in terms of promotional funding, not only in our country but also in the tourism promotion departments of other governments worldwide, there is a shortage of funds. To use promotional funds effectively and efficiently, we must segment the target market and customer groups and precisely identify our customers. Once we have identified our customer groups, we can then discuss which promotional methods to use, whether it's online promotional methods or offline methods, tailored to the customer group. This is the only way to achieve more effective dissemination. If we just promote broadly without targeting, we may spend a lot of money, but if the audience is not interested in the activity, our money will be wasted. Therefore, precise marketing is essential for niche products.
Editor Ⅰ: Zhang Wenwen
Editor Ⅱ: Wu Dan
Editor Ⅲ: Liu Guosong
