Dai Bin | Focusing on world-class coastal tourist resorts, planning for the 14th Five Year Plan for the development of the Beibu Gulf

On November 22, 2020, the 11th General Assembly of the Beibu Gulf Economic Cooperation Organization and the 3rd General Assembly of the Urban Cooperation Organization were held in Maoming. Dean Dai Bin was invited to attend and give a keynote speech at the conference, titled "Focusing on world-class coastal tourism and vacation areas, planning for the 14th Five Year Plan for the new development of Beibu Gulf". During their stay in Maoming, Dean Dai Bin and the research team from the Data Analysis Institute also inspected coastal vacation resources, ecological restoration, and public cultural projects. The following is the full text of Dean Dai Bin's speech:

Respected Secretary Xu Zhihui of the Maoming Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China, representatives of the Beibu Gulf Economic Cooperation Organization, comrades, friends, from the snowy capital to Maoming, where the noon temperature is 29 degrees Celsius, to Maoming, where the city is by the sea and the sea is in the city, to the kind-hearted Maoming of "the first female hero" Mr. Xian, to Maoming, the hub of western Guangdong, the linkage between the port and the city, the strong industry of the city, and the happiness of the people, one cannot help but feel refreshed and imagine: Maoming, Nanning, Haikou, Zhanjiang, Beihai, Yinzhou, Fangchenggang, Yangjiang, Danzhou, Yulin, Chongzuo, Dongfang, Lingao, Chengmai, Changjiang and other Beibu Gulf city clusters, such beautiful scenery and unique culture. Such a beautiful life should also benefit urban and rural residents in Northeast, North, East, Central, Southwest, and Northwest China, as well as the Asia Pacific region More tourists from countries along the the Belt and Road come here for sightseeing and leisure. The Proposal of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Formulating the 14th Five Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development and the Long Range Objectives for 2035, passed at the Fifth Plenary Session of the 19th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, clarifies the guiding ideology, development direction, and work priorities of tourism work in the new era, and aims to "build a number of world-class tourist attractions and resorts with rich cultural heritage". This is the historical responsibility and strategic opportunity of the Beibu Gulf Urban Agglomeration. The Beibu Gulf Economic Cooperation Organization should have the courage and determination to take the lead in the construction of world-class tourist resorts and establish the brand of a world-class coastal tourism and vacation city cluster.

1、 The Beibu Gulf has the natural conditions and cultural characteristics of a world-class tourist resort. From a global perspective, the ocean and related industries have become an important support for the world economy. Currently, 60% of the global economy, 75% of major cities, and 70% of industrial capital and population are concentrated within 100 kilometers of the coast, and the population trend towards the sea is constantly increasing. Humanity has never relied on the ocean as much as it does now, nor has it had such high expectations for the ocean as it does now. Building world-class tourist resorts is a practical experience of developed tourism countries and a necessary path for China to transform from a tourism resource rich country to a tourism powerhouse. From the perspective of resource endowment, world-class tourist resorts often have distinctive natural environments and distinct regional cultures, which together constitute an irreplaceable vacation atmosphere, tourist attractions, and tangible consumable products and services. From the world tourism and vacation map, the source of tourists is mainly distributed in the northern hemisphere, while the destinations are mainly concentrated in the Mediterranean, Caribbean, South Pacific, as well as coastal areas and island cities in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and other regions. The formation of these world-class tourist resorts has natural reasons, such as after experiencing long winters, people in the mid to high latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere are so eager for sunshine, beaches, and seawater that vacation has become an inalienable and rigid demand for anyone. Of course, there are also historical and cultural factors. Unlike differentiated experiences, vacationers prefer to spend their entire vacation in environments with well-equipped facilities and similar cultures. They will introduce international brand hotels, large shopping centers, gourmet restaurants, amusement parks, sports facilities, spa centers, ocean parks, and a variety of entertainment projects. Tourists can meet all the needs of a complete vacation without leaving the resort area. Opening the world map, we can see the Beibu Gulf located in the low latitude region of the Northern Hemisphere, which basically possesses the innate characteristics of a world tourist resort: adjacent to the source market, favorable natural conditions, distinct cultural characteristics, and a complete sea, land, and air transportation system. Open the maps of China and the Beibu Gulf region, and all cities' coastal areas have rich and high-quality coastal zones, islands, and marine tourism resources. The coastline is long, the islands are numerous, the sandy beaches are good, and the seawater temperature is high all year round. The coastal resources of cities along the route have their own strengths. Unlike the vacation needs of tourists from European and American countries, China is still in the process of transitioning from mass tourism based on sightseeing tourism to a moderately prosperous tourism driven by leisure vacation. Tourists are unlikely to simply lie on the beach and bask in the sun when they arrive at their destination. Instead, they will focus on vacation hotels and explore nearby scenic spots, commercial districts, and experience local cuisine, cuisine, and culture. The Beibu Gulf is a regional growth pole that can meet the diverse needs of well-off tourism. Here, natural resources such as mountains, seas, rivers, lakes, and springs are abundant, allowing visitors to observe the ebb and flow of tides, explore the secrets of rainforests, climb mountains and explore high-altitude skydiving, and explore the hustle and bustle of urban alleys. Ecotourism, health tourism, and sports tourism provide tourists with richer route choices and more diverse experience forms. We have noticed that cities in the Beibu Gulf are strengthening marine protection and utilization, and have achieved significant results. Nanhai Tourist Island - China's first beach has been rated as one of the top ten beautiful coasts in Guangdong Province. The visibility around Fangji Island reaches 8 meters underwater at 6-12 meters, ranking first in Asia and second in the world. After the renovation of Beihai City, the "Blue Bay" project has achieved seawater quality at six locations including Guilinyang, Holiday Beach, Dongzhaigang Mangrove Forest, Rongshanliao, Nangang, and Haikou Waste Disposal Area. Zhanjiang City has the only Mal Lake in China, the Huguangyan Scenic Area of the World Geopark, as well as the largest mangrove nature reserve and the largest coral nature reserve in China's coastal area. Most of the beaches in Yangjiang City have reached international first-class quality. Weizhou Island and Xieyang Island in Beihai City have unique and diverse landforms, including rare Ma Er volcanic and sea eroded landforms, as well as coral reefs that thrive at the highest latitude in the world. We believe that through top-level design, thematic planning, and policy support, these resource elements can be fully transformed into vacation products in the new development stage. The Beibu Gulf also has a profound cultural heritage. Maoming commemorates Lady Xian's "New Year Celebration", Zhanjiang lion dance, Leizhou Shigou, Nanning Zhuang March 3rd, Chongzuo Zhuang Frost Descent Festival, and other local and ethnic cultures complement each other, becoming one of the highlights of tourism in the Beibu Gulf region. In addition to the rich and diverse folk culture and intangible cultural heritage projects, sports events and activities such as sailing, windsurfing, beach volleyball, and seaside marathons that are widely loved by young people greatly enrich the lives of local urban and rural residents, and have also become leisure and vacation experiences for tourists. The selection of the pilot area for the construction of a national level coastal tourism resort in the Beibu Gulf is also due to the increasingly close exchanges and cooperation between the bay area cities and ASEAN. At present, China and all 10 ASEAN countries have signed the intergovernmental cooperation document on jointly building the "the Belt and Road". From January to August 2020, the total trade value between China and ASEAN reached 416.55 billion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 3.8%, accounting for 14.6% of China's total foreign trade value. ASEAN has become China's largest trading partner. The 13th Five Year Plan for the Development of National Marine Economy specifically points out that the coast and waters of Beibu Gulf in Guangxi should actively develop multi-level marine tourism products, develop cruise and yacht industries, and build a China ASEAN marine tourism cooperation circle. Just this month, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RECP) between China and ASEAN, as the main contracting parties, was signed. This will provide enormous development space and innovative momentum for tourism exchange and cooperation between the Beibu Gulf and ASEAN. 2、 The Beibu Gulf urban agglomeration has the advantage of world-class tourist resorts in terms of customer sources and market foundation. Through the monitoring of passenger flow big data from 9 provinces and regions, 2 municipalities directly under the central government, 53 coastal cities, and 242 coastal districts and counties in China from March 2017 to February 2018, the scale of China's coastal tourism market was 1.06 billion people, which is about 21.1% of the domestic tourism market during the same period. The length of stay of coastal tourists is higher than that of rural tourism, inland self driving tourism, surrounding tourism, urban tourism and other inland travel. The factors that affect the flow of coastal tourism sources mainly include climate, population density, regional economic development level, coastline length, coastal city settlement density, and coastal tourism resources. Further research shows that northern coastal tourism is more pure, with relatively single motivations and more obvious seasonality; Southern coastal tourism shows diversity and diversification, with less obvious seasonality. The winter coastal tourism market in the South China Sea and East China Sea has not cooled down due to the decrease in temperature.

The average age of tourists in the South China Sea is slightly higher than in other sea areas, but the average stay time and travel distance of tourists are far higher than in other sea areas. Compared to others, tourists visiting the South China Sea and East China Sea exhibit stronger consumption tendencies and purchasing power.

Given the established natural endowment, consumer preferences and technological advancements will further enhance the thickness of the leisure and vacation market, as well as the activity of local consumption. Prospective research on the next five years shows that by 2025, China will form a super large market with 10 billion tourists and 10 trillion yuan in consumption. This level of market is bound to generate upward consumption momentum and further consumption push. The panoramic application of 5G Internet of Things in the sea, land, and air of Shuidong Bay in Maoming, as well as a large number of high-tech and fashionable projects within the framework of Hainan's free trade port, directly point to high-quality scene creation and content creation. With time, more and more young people born in the 1990s, 2000s, and 2010s will come here for vacation, experiencing the beautiful scenery and the wonderful life. The improvement of transportation network will further expand the market radiation radius of Beibu Gulf. The Guiyang Guangzhou and Nanning Guangzhou high-speed railways have realized high-speed interconnection between the Yangtze River Economic Belt, the the Pearl River Economic Belt, the Pearl River Delta Economic Circle, the China ASEAN Free Trade Area, and the Central Guizhou Economic Zone. In the future, Guiyang Guangzhou High speed Railway, Lanzhou Chongqing High speed Railway and Chongqing Guizhou High speed Railway will form the "the Belt and Road" connecting line running through the west. With the relocation, construction, and expansion of airports, as well as cruise ports and routes around the Beibu Gulf and South China Sea, customers within and outside the region can travel more freely. It can be expected that with the increasing international popularity of the Beibu Gulf urban agglomeration, there will be more overseas customers coming here for leisure and vacation, as well as more overseas institutions investing and buying properties.

According to a special survey conducted by the China Tourism Research Institute, 78.4% of respondents have visited coastal cities for vacation, 96% of respondents want to go to coastal cities for vacation, and a quarter want to go to the South China Sea. Interestingly, 92% of the respondents who have been on vacation in coastal cities have knowledge of the Beibu Gulf urban agglomeration, but three-quarters of the respondents are unaware that the Beibu Gulf urban agglomeration is located in the South China Sea. 99% of the respondents who know that the Beibu Gulf is located in the South China Sea want to travel to the Beibu Gulf. Although the waters of the Bohai Sea and Yellow Sea may not be as "fresh" as Secretary Xu said, many people still think of northern cities such as Qingdao, Qinhuangdao, and Dalian when it comes to coastal vacations.

Maoming, Beihai, Nanning, Haikou and other cities in the Beibu Gulf have such beautiful scenery, rich culture, and beautiful lives, yet there are still so many people who do not know about them, and the younger the people, the less they understand. Our annual passenger flow is mostly concentrated during summer and winter vacations, which are the peak periods for students to travel. Later waves didn't even know where the Beibu Gulf was and some cities, let alone visit in person. This data is worth serious consideration, comrades. Is there still room for improvement in our city's publicity and tourism promotion work? What other areas are worth improving?

There are also some reassuring data. A special survey conducted by the China Tourism Research Institute shows that tourists who have visited cities in the Beibu Gulf have a good overall evaluation, scoring above 4 points in terms of food, accommodation, transportation, tourism, entertainment, modernization, infrastructure, and city image. When Maoming enters the peak season of winter and summer tourism, the popularity of Xingji Duck Congee Restaurant, Chencun Seafood City, Ashui Native Chicken, Maoming Donghui City, Windham Hotel on Romantic Coast, Yushuigu Hot Spring Resort and other restaurants, hotels and shopping places increases rapidly. The top three most popular cities among tourists in the Beibu Gulf urban agglomeration are Haikou, Beihai, and Nanning, while the top three cities that tourists most want to visit are Haikou, Beihai, and Zhanjiang. The top ten most desired attractions are Beihai Yintan, Hainan Tropical Wildlife Park, Beihai Old Street, Haikou Holiday Beach, Zhanjiang South Subtropical Botanical Garden, Zhanjiang Forest Park, Beihai Garden Expo Park, Beihai Ocean Window, Beihai Weizhou Island, and Maoming Forest Park. In the open-ended quiz, tourists expressed their sincere hope to see more secretaries and mayors on CCTV and Bilibili, and also hoped that all secretaries could improve the city's infrastructure and public services. 3、 The strategic concept and action framework for building a world-class coastal tourism resort cluster in Beibu Gulf adhere to the development concept centered on the people, and promote the high-quality development of world-class tourism resorts. Many tourist resorts in the Caribbean, South Pacific island countries, and Southeast Asia are built in underdeveloped countries and regions, with facilities and equipment that are basically self-sufficient and self-contained. It is easy to create a sense of spatial folding with Europe inside the resort and Africa outside the resort. Modern planning concepts have begun to emphasize community development and the rights of indigenous peoples, and social participation and community sharing have become prominent topics. The Pumen Lake Resort in South Korea was initially funded by the government in terms of infrastructure and some service facilities, but later attracted a large amount of social capital through preferential policies such as tax exemption and interest reduction, enriching the vacation product system. The French Alps International Tourism Resort combines tourism with agriculture, creating a tradition of small-scale family run tourism in the Alps. In the new journey of building a socialist modernized country, consultation, co construction and sharing, and taking the path of common prosperity are political requirements and objective requirements for building a modern cultural industry system. Whether world-class tourist resorts can gain market recognition depends not on a single brand, but on the reputation of domestic and foreign tourists. Adhere to the development concept of prioritizing protection and being environmentally friendly, and promote the sustainable development of world tourism resorts. From now on, the Beibu Gulf Economic Cooperation Organization will organize a special team to jointly study the spatial layout, development laws, scale principles, and policy reserves of world-class coastal tourism resorts with relevant institutions. Due to the fragility of coastal resources, many countries and regions have concretized, standardized, and legalized ecological and resource protection measures from early planning and control to later protection measures. Some resort areas have clear regulations on the height of supporting facilities construction, distance from the coastline, and whether advertising boards are allowed to be placed. In 1972, the Mexican government formulated a comprehensive plan based on the protection and inheritance of Maya culture, steadily promoting the construction of infrastructure such as highways, international airports, and seaports, gradually improving hotels and other vacation products, and ultimately making the Cancun tourist resort stand out among many island tourist resorts. Adhere to the development concept of putting tourists first and sharing experiences between hosts and guests, and promote the integrated development of culture and tourism in world-class tourist resorts. World class tourist resorts generally use the scale and duration of international tourists' visits as reference indicators, attract tourists through international brands, gather tourists with convenient access conditions, and retain tourists with refined services. Sentosa Singapore has rapidly formed a destination brand and gathered overseas tourists by introducing world-class theme parks such as Universal Studios and Marine Biological Park. More resort areas cater to the main customer base, with specialized designs and refined services in signage, inquiry systems, international payments, and duty-free shopping, creating a relaxed and comfortable vacation atmosphere for tourists. To build a world-class tourist resort, we need to have a global perspective, actively learn from and absorb advanced experience, and more importantly, enable people to appreciate the beauty of Chinese culture during the tourism process, enhance cultural confidence, and lead the new development of cultural undertakings, cultural industries, and tourism industry in the 14th Five Year Plan with socialist core values. In the planning, construction, and operation of world-class coastal tourism resorts, it is necessary to inherit the excellent traditional culture of Beibu Gulf, promote revolutionary culture, tell the story of China well, and promote advanced socialist culture. To meet the comprehensive experience needs of vacation tourists, we need to build a number of scenic spots, cultural and creative blocks, rural markets, sports towns, specialty bookstores, small theaters, cultural and entertainment venues, and other multi format cultural and leisure and tourism consumption gathering places that can sustain effective markets and integrate with the government to promote the modernization of the governance system and governance capacity of world-class tourism resorts. Building a world-class tourist resort requires the development of the tourism market, the involvement of social forces such as investment, commerce, and technology, and the full development of the market's decisive role in resource allocation. The construction of world-class tourist resorts also requires the role of the government as a "tangible hand" to effectively promote and regulate in medium - and long-term planning, spatial optimization, macroeconomic regulation, and industrial policies. In 1992, the State Council issued the "Notice on the Trial Operation of National Tourist Resort Areas" (Guofa [1992] No. 46), which approved 12 national tourist resort areas successively. In 2019, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism issued the "Management Measures for National Tourist Resort Areas", which recognized a new batch of national and provincial tourist resort areas. A pyramid shaped development pattern has been formed, led by 30 national level tourist resorts, supported by 456 provincial-level tourist resorts, and relying on different types of resorts in various regions. From the current situation, it is necessary for the central government to issue the "Opinions on Building a World Class Tourist Resort in Beibu Gulf", optimize the layout of aviation and shipping hub ports, improve transportation infrastructure, and implement more convenient customs clearance policies. During the process of writing the speech, my colleagues Dr. He Qiongfeng, Dr. Zeng Tian, and colleagues from the research group provided a large amount of data and cases. Commissioned by the People's Government of Maoming City, the "Beibu Gulf Coastal Resort Development Report (2020)" created by the China Tourism Research Institute, as well as the "Beibu Gulf Coastal Resort Joint Initiative" of the 11th Member Conference of the Beibu Gulf Economic Cooperation Organization and the 3rd Conference of the Urban Cooperation Organization, are now released.