September 13, 2020, the early autumn scenery of Guo Hua, Lianyungang, Jiangsu. Vision china information
This past National Day holiday, Jiangsu Huai 'an Westward Journey Park received more than 654.38+million tourists, making it one of the top ten scenic spots for National Day travel in East China. This comprehensive paradise, known as the first theme of China's westward journey, has just opened for three months and has become a "heavy weapon" for Huai 'an to develop its cultural tourism industry.
Journey to the West, as the strongest IP in the history of China, has a long history from TV series, movies to various games. Some institutions predict that the output value of the cultural and creative industries of Journey to the West will exceed 1 100 million in the next decade.
Lianyungang, Jiangsu Province, as the prototype of Huaguoshan, the hometown of Great Saint the Monkey King in The Journey to the West's story, has been tepid in playing Journey to the West and using Journey to the West IP, and even been "upstaged" by Huai 'an, a brother city in the province.
In recent years, Lianyungang Huaguoshan's tourism revenue and the number of tourists are not outstanding, so it is difficult to rank in the top of Jiangsu Province. The state of Huaguoshan is in a "nominal" situation, and it also lacks an opportunity to "go out of the circle". As the most iconic and recognizable cultural tourism resource in Lianyungang, how to play The Journey to the West well is still a problem that needs serious consideration in this old tourist city.
Lianyungang missed the "Journey to the West"?
In Journey to the West, the Monkey King called himself the Monkey King and lived in Huaguoshan. In the original novel, Guo Hua described it like this: "There is a land overseas called Ole Country. This country is close to the sea, and there is a famous mountain in the sea called Guo Huashan. This mountain is the ancestor of ten continents and the origin of three islands. It has been standing since it was opened, and it was made by the HarmonyOS system. "
According to many experts' research, only Huaguo Mountain, located at the southern foot of Nanyunshan Mountain in Lianyungang, Jiangsu Province, meets the description of "China in the east and the sea in the west", and Huaguo Mountain has been known as "the first scenic spot in the East China Sea" and "one of the four major Lingshan Mountains on the sea" since ancient times.
Today, Huaguoshan Scenic Area is also a domestic 5A-level scenic spot. It can be said that Hometown of Sheng Da is the largest natural IP for Lianyungang to develop its tourism industry.
However, compared with the deep cultural and historical background of Huaguoshan, Lianyungang's exploration of IP resources on the westward journey has been tepid and the path is vague.
For example, when you mention Hangzhou, you will think of the West Lake, and when you mention Suzhou, you will think of gardens. However, when it comes to Lianyungang, it seems that you may not immediately think of Huaguo Mountain. Lianyungang and Huaguoshan have not yet reached a close relationship.
Even, many foreign tourists who come here bluntly say, "Sun is coming, but the elements of the journey to the west in Huaguoshan are not rich." This "psychological gap" spread inadvertently on the Internet. Over time, Huaguoshan fell into the embarrassing situation of "although it is famous all over the country, it is actually a regional scenic spot".
The document points out that the main features of Jiangsu Province are exquisite and delicate scenery, such as ancient towns, water towns, classical gardens and the ruins of the capital. The scenery of Lianyungang and Huaguoshan is different from that of Jiangsu Province, which is a rare resource. However, Huaguoshan has not become a benchmark tourist landmark in Jiangsu, and Lianyungang has not squeezed into the first echelon of the province in developing tourism industry.
According to the travel report card of this year's National Day Golden Week, Lianyungang received 410.2 million tourists, Nanjing 8.03 million tourists, Suzhou 7.88 million tourists and Wuxi 610.5 million tourists. There is still a big gap between Lianyungang and other famous tourist cities in Jiangsu Province.
Of course, Lianyungang has been trying to tap the cultural industry of westward journey, but it is indeed frequent, but it seems to have little effect. For example, 20 1 1 Lianyungang proposed to invest 4 billion yuan to build the Journey to the West Cultural Theme Park, but it attracted heated public opinion.
At that time, some commentators believed that Lianyungang spent 4 billion yuan to build a theme park to the West, which obviously pushed the "GDP impulse" and "political anxiety" of some local officials to the peak. In the end, the theme park also "disappeared".
In terms of festival creation, Lianyungang began to hold the "Huaguoshan Golden Autumn Mountaineering Festival" from 65438-0997. In 200 1 year, Lianyungang began to hold the "Journey to the West Cultural Festival", which continues to this day. However, due to the flattening of its propaganda strategy, its popularity is limited to local and surrounding cities, far from reaching the brand reputation of Huai' an "Xuyi Lobster Festival".
In addition, Lianyungang's overall external packaging publicity mainly focuses on several major elements such as ports, medicines and Eurasian continental bridges. Huaguoshan did not appear as an "absolute protagonist", which may also lead to Lianyungang not forming a "covered" cultural extension for the westward journey culture.
Huai 'an should be the "new spokesman" of the westward journey culture.
Compared with Lianyungang, which has a solid flower and fruit mountain, Huai 'an, Jiangsu Province has no advantage in the westward travel resources. The only thing that can link the resources of Huai 'an and The Journey to the West is that Wu Cheng'en, the author of The Journey to the West, is from Huai 'an.
Wu Cheng'en's former residence in Huai 'an is a 4A-level scenic spot, which is the only place in China to fully display the culture of Journey to the West and commemorate Wu Cheng'en. Located in the northwest of Huai 'an, backed by the Li Canal, it is one of the scenic spots for tourists to punch in.
However, in all prefecture-level cities in China, there are not many particularly successful cases in which "the former residence of celebrities" is used as a lever to incite the development of local cultural tourism.
In the face of many domestic competitors who want to use the Westward Journey IP, Huai 'an adopted the path of "saving the country by curve", and turned disadvantages into advantages through a series of measures such as actively "linking" the Westward Journey culture, and became a "new spokesperson" to tap the IP value of Westward Journey.
What really brought the popularity of Huai 'an Journey to the West to a climax was a domestic 3D animated film. The 20 15 movie "The Return of the Great Sage of the Journey to the West" has achieved extremely high ratings. After becoming a domestic movie dark horse with a box office of nearly one billion, it has been sold to more than 60 countries around the world. Huai 'an Westward Journey Industry Group Co., Ltd. happens to be one of the producers of this film.
With the global popularity and good reputation of The Return of the Great Sage on a Journey to the West, Huai 'an's westward journey culture has also been promoted, so that more people know this famous canal cultural city in the past because of the westward journey culture.
Of course, Huai 'an is also very good at "* * * emotion" in the capture of Westward Journey IP. On 20 19 CCTV Mid-Autumn Festival, the 86th edition of Journey to the West TV series was broadcast more than 3,000 times, played by four people, and staged the scene of Huai 'an seeking roots and "going home together", which attracted a wave of tourism upsurge and closely linked the culture of westward journey with Huai 'an.
This year, Huai 'an once again entered the public eye because of the westward journey to heaven. Westward Journey Park has a total area of about 66,000 square meters and a total investment of 3.084 billion yuan. Based on the Tang Priest's mentoring, through role-playing, live performance, real-life simulation and large and medium-sized amusement projects, the old scenes such as Huaguoshan, Gaolaozhuang and Leiyin Temple are presented in multiple dimensions with new technologies.
The newspaper learned that many The Journey to the West and Park fans in China have high expectations for Westward Journey Park, and many people fantasize that it can become a foreign classic theme park like PK Disney and Universal Studios, and build a brand-new IP theme park in China.
Many cities want to take the "mobile car" in The Journey to the West.
Journey to the West IP has a strong ability to attract gold, and many cities in China are "grabbing" and "borrowing" Journey to the West IP. This also makes it difficult for Lianyungang to rely on Huaguoshan to realize the "one big family" in the westward journey.
In fact, the connection between Suizhou in Hubei and Journey to the West is far less than that of Huaguoshan in Lianyungang, but Suizhou made good use of the IP of Journey to the West and established Suizhou Journey to the West Myth World Cultural Industry Co., Ltd., which mainly adopted the strategy of developing travel routes to the West. Its tourism projects include the Journey to the West in the West Garden of Suixian Hot Spring Village and the Journey to the West in Tongbai Mountain at the junction of Henan and Hubei. Among them, Journey to the West Park covers Girls' Country Hot Springs, West Street Strange, Flame Mountain Stone Forest, Flat Peach Garden and Tiangong.
In addition to combining the hot spring resources with the westward journey culture, Suizhou, Hubei Province developed the hot springs in Daughter's Country, and also developed more than a dozen places of westward journey cultural experience through modern science and technology, such as walking in the clouds, making a scene in heaven, and Honghaier Amusement Park, so as to enhance its westward journey cultural tourism experience.
Suiping county, Henan Province took the lead in declaring "China's Hometown of Westward Journey Culture". Starting with the cultural interaction of the Journey to the West, elements of the Journey to the West are laid out in the city, such as holding large-scale folk performances of the Journey to the West, imitation show competitions of the Journey to the West and so on.
From the perspective of scenic tourism, the rise of The Journey to the West began with the popularity of 1986 version of Journey to the West TV series. Famous tourist attractions such as Zhangjiajie and Huangguoshu Waterfall are closely related to the 86th edition of Journey to the West TV series.
Take suiping county as an example. chaya mountain, also known as Stone Monkey Fairy Mountain, is in its territory. Xuanzang, a famous monk, practiced chanting in chaya mountain in his early years. His first disciple, Dao Quan, and his third disciple, Yi Dao, came from Mount Yi. This makes the cultural ties between chaya mountain and Westward Journey closer. The 86th edition of Journey to the West TV series was filmed here, which further strengthened the ties between chaya mountain and Westward Journey.
Zhangjiajie Scenic Area in Hunan Province is the location of the 86th edition of Journey to the West "Monkey King Thrice Defeats the Skeleton Demon" drama series, which has opened up a westward journey route. Zhangjiajie has gradually become a "professional place" for westward journey film and television, and has also become a popular scenic spot in China.
In contrast, whether Lianyungang, the hometown of the Great Sage and Huaguoshan, can break the embarrassing situation of "applauding but not calling for seats" and "playing the Westward Journey card badly", thus driving the city's cultural tourism industry to "come first and then arrive" has attracted much attention from the outside world.
Proofreading: Zhang