We should make full use of the "14th Five-Year Plan" period of strategic opportunities, adhere to the new development concept to comprehensively promote the field of tourism mechanism innovation, model innovation, scientific and technological innovation, industry innovation, product innovation and service innovation.
The outline of the 14th Five-Year Plan reaffirms the need to "adhere to the central position of innovation in the overall situation of China's modernization drive". Facing the new development environment and stage of development, adhering to innovation drive has become an important way to shape the advantages of new development in an all-round way.
In the tourism sector, as the Spanish government document states, "innovation is a proposition that runs through tourism, although sometimes it is not necessarily expressed explicitly". At the beginning of this century, with the increase of global tourism competition, the promotion of new technology revolution, the iteration of tourism industry model and the evolution of destination life cycle, innovation has been highly valued by international institutions, governments and tourism sectors. The EU invests a great deal of human and material resources in tourism innovation research, forming a positive interaction mechanism between government, the private sector, tourism industry organizations and universities and research institutions; Switzerland, Finland, Denmark, Norway, Germany, Spain, Italy, the United States and other countries have made stimulating innovation the primary goal of tourism strategies and policies. In particular, in the face of the huge impact of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, countries are more urgent to promote the recovery, revitalization and sustainable development of tourism through innovation.
Over the past 40 years, China's tourism industry has made great achievements, except in 2003, 2020 and other individual years, its growth rate is significantly higher than the national economic growth rate, but also significantly higher than the average growth rate of global tourism and the growth rate of the world's tourism developed countries. It is worth noting, however, that this rapid growth depends to a large extent on large-scale inputs and low-cost use of resources, capital, land, labour, etc. The problems of inefficient operation of tourism industry, poor performance of tourism enterprises, insufficient supply of tourism to meet demand, and lack of innovation consciousness, innovation atmosphere, innovation ecology, innovation ability and innovation level are obvious. In the new stage of development, how to put the new development concept through the whole process of development and all fields, and effectively change the mode of tourism development, promote quality change, efficiency change, dynamic change has become an important issue. In this regard, special attention needs to be paid to the following four issues.
First, put innovation at the core of tourism development. We should make full use of the "14th Five-Year Plan" period of strategic opportunities, adhere to the new development concept to comprehensively promote the field of tourism mechanism innovation, model innovation, scientific and technological innovation, industry innovation, product innovation and service innovation. On the one hand, we should improve the efficiency of traditional factors of production through innovation, on the other hand, we should constantly create new factors of production, form new combinations of factors, guide innovation elements and traditional factors through innovation in technology, system, management, business model and so on, and provide insaudible endo-driven development of tourism.
Second, give full play to the key role of government guidance. "While some economists question the need and legitimacy of governments to encourage innovation, we must recognize that government plays an irreplaceable role in promoting innovation in an industry as integrated, relevant and external as tourism," says a report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development called Innovation and Tourism Growth. "Even countries with a high degree of marketization that emphasize free competition attach great importance to the positive role of government in promoting innovation.
For our country, we should study and formulate the national tourism innovation development strategy, clarify the tourism innovation support policy, establish the national tourism innovation platform and high-level innovation decision-making consultation mechanism, guide the establishment of various types of tourism innovation incubation mechanism, improve the innovation network and train relevant talents.
Third, adhere to the system and technology of two-wheel drive. As General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out in his article Working hard to become the world's major scientific center and innovation highland, we should adhere to the two-wheel drive of scientific and technological innovation and institutional innovation, be problem-oriented, take demand as the driving force, work practical carriers, institutional arrangements, policy guarantees, environmental creation, and continue to make efforts in the areas of innovation, innovation foundation, innovation resources and innovation environment. To this end, we should speed up the formulation of special tourism innovation policies, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises, encourage tourism enterprises to increase investment in research and development, improve the independent innovation capabilities of key technologies and products.
At the same time, we should make full use of 5G, Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, cloud computing, blockchain, large data centers, virtual reality, augmented reality, holographic technology and other new infrastructure, new technologies, improve the level of science and technology in the field of tourism, scientific and technological innovation and tourism consumption in-depth integration, expand the application of science and technology, promote the depth and wide application of science and technology in the field of tourism.
Fourth, strengthen the construction of tourism innovation research system. As we all know, without Stanford University, there would be no famous Silicon Valley. The "Golden Triangle" between London, Cambridge and Oxford has bred the UK's most advanced biotechnology industry innovation cluster. Universities, research institutions, think tanks, etc. play an irreplaceable role in driving innovation. Tourism innovation research is still in its infancy in China, some basic and key issues have yet to be explored, and it is urgent to guide relevant forces to strengthen tourism innovation research.
At the micro level, we need to pay attention to: what are the innovation motivations, mechanisms and ways of tourism enterprises of different nature, how to evaluate their innovation degree and innovation effect, what are the key factors that determine the success or failure of their innovation, and what special problems need to be paid attention to in the innovation of Chinese tourism enterprises compared with foreign tourism enterprises.
At the mid-view level, attention needs to be paid to how tourism industry organizations and market structures affect industry innovation, how innovation spreads and achieves synergy within and between industries, and how to build destination innovation systems.
At the macro level, we need to pay attention to: how to understand the relationship between tourism innovation and national tourism competitiveness, how to measure the contribution of tourism innovation to tourism growth and economic growth, how to build a national tourism innovation system, etc.
Source: China Tourism News, Author: Song Rui, original title: "How China's tourism industry achieves innovation-driven."
