Jiangxi's Yudu District, leveraging its status as the starting point of the Long March, has attracted a large number of youth study tour groups. Qinghai's Atomic City has launched a special red study tour train to create a "mobile ideological and political classroom"... As we enter mid-August, the popularity of red tourism during the summer vacation remains unabated.

Summer red tourism is a vivid practice of normalizing red education and a key approach to revitalizing red resources and deepening the integration of culture and tourism, effectively transforming short-term seasonal traffic into long-term development momentum for the industry. From the perspective of the summer market, domestic red tourism exhibits three main characteristics, and the direction of industry transformation is clear.

First, the customer base is trending younger. Red tourism has shifted from being primarily dominated by middle-aged and elderly tourists to a focus on teenagers and young adults. Statistics show that young tourists accounted for nearly 65% of red tourism visitors this summer. Regular ideological and political education practices and off-campus study tours are widely implemented, transforming red tourism from leisure sightseeing into a platform for moral education, continuously attracting visitors to the upstream and downstream of the cultural tourism industry.

Second, it balances public welfare attributes with market operation. Red venues adhere to their public welfare and education positioning, innovate immersive experiences and scenario-based courses, so as to "build a solid foundation for public welfare and expand the space for market", thus solving the practical problem of "emphasizing education and education but neglecting transformation" of red resources.

Third, the development pattern continues to broaden. Red tourism is increasingly moving beyond the single site visit model, connecting rural, ecological, intangible cultural heritage, and folk resources for coordinated development, abandoning superficial business combinations, and promoting deep integration based on red culture to extend the industrial chain and enhance industrial value.

Amidst the fervor, development shortcomings have also become apparent. Some regions possess rich revolutionary cultural resources but struggle to translate these resources into industrial advantages. Others have pursued superficial integration of culture and tourism, simply piling up various business formats without a comprehensive plan centered on revolutionary culture. Tourism products are often imitative, lacking distinct local characteristics. Furthermore, the industry's development relies excessively on summer study tours, and the temporary boost in popularity is unlikely to translate into long-term competitiveness.

To achieve long-term development, we must abandon short-sighted thinking, focus our efforts on specific areas, and continuously accumulate momentum for industrial development.

Deepen the exploration of the connotations of revolutionary culture and promote the deep integration of culture and tourism. Localities can trace their local revolutionary history, integrate scattered revolutionary sites, and create distinctive and high-quality study tour routes. Utilize digital technology and immersive performances to revitalize revolutionary stories and enrich cultural and creative experiential businesses. Coordinate various supporting industries around revolutionary culture, promote the integrated development of "revolutionary history + rural areas," "revolutionary history + ecology," and "revolutionary history + intangible cultural heritage," create distinctive products, and transform cultural advantages into industrial advantages.

Optimize operational methods to alleviate the imbalance between peak and off-peak seasons. Improve study tour courses and interpretation services for young people, and improve the training and incentive mechanism for tour guides. Strengthen collaboration between cultural and tourism departments and education departments to regulate the study tour market and rectify formalistic study tours. Make good use of the brand effect formed during the summer vacation, carry out red propaganda and Party building activities on a regular basis, revitalize idle resources during the off-season, and reduce seasonal fluctuations.

Adhere strictly to the bottom line of development and coordinate the revitalization, utilization, and protection of revolutionary resources. Prioritize social benefits, safeguard the red line of revolutionary resource protection, and prevent excessive commercialization and vulgar development. Localities can leverage their unique resource characteristics and develop differentiated paths tailored to their specific circumstances, achieving sustainable development of revolutionary resources while preserving their cultural heritage and innovating development models. (Source: Economic Daily)