This past summer, Fujian Province offered a continuous stream of exciting cultural and tourism activities, deeply integrating traditional culture with modern fashion trends, fully unleashing the vitality of summer. Tourists from both inside and outside the province enjoyed the refreshing mountain breezes and seaside coolness at popular tourist destinations such as Wuyishan, Guling, Tulou, and Gulangyu, unlocking new ways to beat the summer heat. Graduation trips, parent-child study tours, and summer retreats, coupled with weekend entertainment events and cultural and intangible cultural heritage exhibitions, continuously stimulated the vitality of the cultural and tourism market.

The Fujian Provincial Government recently released the "Fujian Province's 15th Five-Year Plan for Cultural and Tourism Development" (hereinafter referred to as the "Plan"). The Plan proposes that by 2030, significant progress will be made in building a culturally strong province and a world-renowned tourist destination; solid steps will be taken towards high-quality development of culture and tourism; the system and mechanism for the integrated development of culture and tourism will be further improved; the integration capacity of cultural and tourism resources, the attractiveness of the cultural and tourism market, the competitiveness of the cultural and tourism industry, and the external influence of cultural and tourism will be significantly enhanced; the brand awareness and reputation of "Refreshing Fujian" will be greatly improved; and Fujian's status as an important hub for tourism along the Maritime Silk Road will be further highlighted. The total number of tourists received by the province and the total tourist spending will both achieve an average annual growth of 6% to 7%.

Building a new pattern of "two zones, three belts, and five circles"

The plan adheres to the principles of full coverage, differentiated development, and key breakthroughs, achieving full coverage of development in all prefecture-level cities in the province and ensuring that each region accurately positions itself, performs its duties, and develops in a coordinated manner.

At the Fujian Provincial Institute of Urban and Rural Planning and Design, the organization that drafted the "Plan," Zhou Ailan, a senior engineer and head of the Second Landscape Architecture Institute, explained that the "Plan" focuses on the core theme of "building a high-level culturally strong province and creating a world-renowned tourist destination," accurately setting the overall goals, core indicators, and phased indicators for cultural and tourism development over the next five years. On the other hand, it precisely identifies prominent bottlenecks and difficulties such as the imperfect cultural and tourism integration mechanism, the insufficient level of "Fujian-style" artistic masterpieces, the lack of major leading projects, and the shortage of high-quality tourism products, and plans groundbreaking and feasible measures.

The plan proposes to closely follow the important requirements of "enhancing cultural influence and showcasing a new image of Fujian", focusing on building a higher-level culturally strong province, creating a world-renowned tourist destination, cultivating the cultural and tourism pillar industry, deeply implementing the overall cultural and tourism enhancement strategy, and striving to build a new pattern of cultural and tourism development with "two zones leading, three belts supporting, and five circles linking".

“The ‘two zones’ refer to the Fuzhou Metropolitan Area Cultural Tourism Economic Innovation and Development Zone and the Southern Fujian Golden Triangle Cultural Tourism High-Quality Integrated Development Zone; the ‘three belts’ are the Blue Maritime Silk Road Characteristic Cultural Tourism Belt, the Green Leisure Characteristic Cultural Tourism Belt, and the Red Culture Characteristic Cultural Tourism Belt; and the ‘five circles’ refer to the Greater Wuyi Cultural Tourism Circle, the Taining Danxia Cultural Tourism Circle, the Fujian Tulou Cultural Tourism Circle, the Gulangyu Cultural Tourism Circle, and the Quanzhou Ancient City Cultural Tourism Circle,” said Zhou Ailan. “The ‘two zones, three belts, and five circles’ aim to optimize the overall spatial layout, cultivate a northern innovation hub, strengthen the southern core engine, solidify the overall supporting sectors, create a core cluster of World Heritage sites, and comprehensively enhance the reputation and core competitiveness of Fujian’s cultural tourism in China and even globally.”

32 key tasks in 9 areas were identified.

The plan, themed on promoting high-quality development of the cultural and tourism economy and with the fundamental purpose of meeting the people's growing needs for a better life, focuses on the development goal of building a world-renowned tourist destination, the important requirement of cultivating the cultural and tourism industry into a pillar industry, and the practical path of promoting the deep integration of culture and tourism. It clarifies 32 key tasks in 9 aspects.

The plan proposes to: promote artistic creation and forge a new peak in the "Fujian School" of literature and art; adhere to the principle of protection first and create a new situation for the protection, inheritance and utilization of cultural heritage; enhance service capabilities and build a new cultural space shared by both locals and tourists; promote overall improvement and achieve new breakthroughs in building a world-renowned tourist destination; promote deep integration and cultivate a new engine for the pillar industry of culture and tourism; improve the governance system and create a new environment for standardized and orderly culture and tourism; accelerate the empowerment of science and technology and generate new quality productivity in culture and tourism; deepen exchanges between Fujian and Taiwan and explore new paths for the integrated development of culture and tourism across the Taiwan Strait; and expand cooperation with foreign countries and Hong Kong and Macao to showcase a new image of Fujian's culture and tourism.

Fujian-style living, with its core elements of Fujian's mountains and rivers, customs and houses, tea and food, arts and blessings, combines everyday life with ecological elegance, making it Fujian's most recognizable cultural tourism IP. The plan explicitly proposes to establish the public brand of "Fujian-style Living: Mountain and Sea Retreat," enhance the brand awareness and reputation of "Refreshing Fujian," conduct creative themed marketing campaigns such as "Fujian-style Living," vigorously cultivate new cultural tourism consumption scenarios for "Fujian-style Living," and promote the expansion and upgrading of the entire "eating, accommodation, transportation, sightseeing, shopping, and entertainment" chain.

The plan outlines a special section on the "Fujian-style Life" cultural tourism consumption scenario enhancement project: centered around the theme "Come to Fujian, Abundant Blessings, A Journey Through Mountains and Seas, A Song Along the Way," it emphasizes "cultural flavor, technological sophistication, and everyday life," continuously developing ten categories of scenarios: "Mountain Viewing and Sea Viewing," "Tea and the World," "Enjoying Great Shows in Fujian," "Flavors of Fujian Cuisine," "Intangible Cultural Heritage and National Trends," "Ancient Houses and New Inns," "Fujian Charm and Fujian Tourism," "Greenway Slow Living," "Sailing on the Fujian Sea," and "Continuous Blessings." This aims to organically integrate cultural heritage, digital technology, and everyday life into various scenarios, achieving cross-industry collaboration, efficient resource integration, and iterative experience upgrades, constructing a full-chain system of "scenario + consumption + service," and activating new consumption momentum.

A relevant official from the Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism stated that the province's cultural and tourism system will comprehensively promote the high-quality development of culture and tourism, strive to create a new picture of "poetry and distant places," and allow "refreshing Fujian" to better reach the world, embarking on a wonderful "rendezvous with the world in Fujian."

(Source: Fujian Daily)