As the most important cultural tourism destinations, there are two main competitors-Wuzhen and Tongli:
Chart 1: SWOT analysis of Wuzhen and Tongli
Name of sight spot S W O T
Wuzhen
(Zhejiang, China) Precipitated historical connotation in millennium; unique human landscape; original feature and style of water county Traffic condition of water county restricts its development Government established Management committee of protecting old town and tourism development to manage uniformly; 12 enterprises with good economic strength jointly form Wuzhen Protection and Tourism Development Co., Ltd to conduct projects developments Within a short period, there appeared a large amount of scenic spots of water county. There is severe competition and the competitors distribute the customers in some extent
Tongli Profound historical culture; excellent traffic conditions Small scale; not ancient town; relied on villages and towns; low-end business Characterized positioning of building is flexible; many of the buildings can be rebuilt There are a lot of ancient towns in regions at south of the Yangtze River， where the market is highly homogeneous
3.5 Anren’s tourism software and hardware
From the above, what can be found is that Anren has rich historical cultural resource, as well as good tourism hardware resource, but its tourism reception service system is not perfect. The contradiction of single function is very distinctive. The supporting resources of tourism purchasing, catering, accommodation, entertainment and tourists service are far from satisfactory, and cannot meet the requirements of tourists at different consumption levels. Therefore, it blocks the development of the market, as well as the development of cultural museums and construction of the museum town in China.
Regional competition is so fierce that Anren is lack of competitive advantage: From Anren to the east, there are E’mei Mountain, Leshan Giant Buddha, Shixiang Lake and Bifeng Valley; to the west, there are Qionglai, Xiling Mountain, Huashui Bay and Pingle Town; to the north, there are Chongzhou, Jiezi Town and Chengdu, a big modern city where is facilitated with various means of recreations. Although Anren has strong advantage at industry positioning of development of cultural tourism, the tourism consumption form is almost same as other places. There is no obvious differentiation, no distinct core tourism production and no brand image and lacks competitive advantage.
Impeded market channels cause insufficient market confidence: at present, there are few tourism agencies operating the tourism route product of Anren. Previously, most of the consumer groups are independent travelers, among whom most are low-income people from surrounding areas of Chengdu and Dayi. The customer market is singular. In addition, the reception supporting facility is insufficient. The tourism consumption structure is singular and lacks abundant and high-level consumption form. There is no popularity, so that neither tourism market nor commercial investment market is without confidence.
Support to the industry is restricted because of monotone tourism consumption: currently, most of tourism consumption in Anren is touring in museums. However, seeing from the overall industry market, most of the museums are in the state of loss and being financially supported by the governments. Singular product structure, insufficient utilization of resource transformation, imperfect supporting facilities, not distinctive advantage of core product, etc., will be the subjects that we are going to study and focus on for establishing world-class museum town in China. (Wei, 2008)
4. The ways to enhance the tourism destination competitiveness
4.1 Enhance the qualities of the scenic spots
4.1.1 Republican Cultural Street
For the republican cultural street, it should take the cultural experience of manors and mansion as the theme, create a cultural experience area integrating cultural experience, entertainment, food and reception and other functions. In Anren Town during Republican period, there are a lot of political and business celebrities. Manors and mansions are distributed. On the street, the business is busy. The big families lived an extravagant life, when despotic gentry sand and danced to extol the good times. These make the small town become a genuine “the most prosperous town in southwest China”. “inland commercial port” and “southwest Waitan”. And the followings are the functions distribution:
(1) Shuren Street: Modern consumption area in Republican Period, taking theme purchasing, family museum and house club as dominant commercial activities, to create a reminiscent space for innovative purchase and appreciation and a leisure space of clubs.
(2) Yumin Street: Area of experience images of Republican period, taking theme catering, entertainment, films and performance as dominant commercial activities, to create leisure life of food and amusements of fashion Republican period.
(3) Hongxing Street: Set a catering mall which can offer the Chinese and Western snacks in Chinese Republican period.
4.1.2 Area of experiencing mansions
Mansion of Liu Wencai is an important scenic spots which should concentrate the lives of landlords in recent China to reflect the display content of big family’s life in western Sichuan, such as traditional lineage culture, complicate pedigree of a clan, daily life, offering sacrifice to ancestors, wedding, funerals and some other contents. Transform the invisible cultural resource to tourism products; create an impression scenic spot of experiencing landlords’ family life in China. For example, in the mansion, a theme room for tourists can be set up to experience and take photos. In the room, reserve the original scene. Experience a day’s life of being landlord and knowing the life in big house. Meanwhile, considering that the later generations of Liu Wencai to record and describe in person, to strengthen the tourists’ sense of reality and relying on the reserved traditional family house, hold artist performance reflecting traditional big family in western Sichuan to strengthen cultural experience.
4.1.3 Jianchuan Museums Cluster
For Jianchuan museums cluster, it should develop more souvenirs and pay more attention to the packaging quality and innovative design quality of products. For the tourism commodity, make it unique and monopolistic. Second, planning diversified and effective activities to attract tourists is necessary. Meanwhile, it should highlight thematization of service facilities, perfect friendly facilities and provide multilingual-supported service.
4.2 Enhance the software and hardware of Anren
Firstly, start to from the sale. Construct while combining with commercial real-estate projects, and form sale distributing center of products of cultural museum. Measures: obtain the sole agency sale right for popular museum derivatives around the world; construct center of souvenir of cultural museums, innovative goods street, market of cultural museum and other commercial forms, and open anchor store of cultural museum.
Secondly, enlarge the current basis. Relied on the production basis of stoneware and wood ware, make the industry bigger. Measures: enhancing the industry of stone ware and wood ware, and classic furniture from the sections of design, production and sale, to form a characterized and specialized market.
Thirdly, the relevant industry chain should be formed. Concentrate on growing the innovative products of cultural museums and characterized souvenir of Anren’s historical culture, and form a national influential production base of derivatives of cultural museums. Measures: construct industrial park of cultural museum, invest on important sections including research and development, sale, perfect industry chain and public service supporting.
5. Conclusion
From the analysis above, with the introduction of the basic theories, this paper mainly focuses on the ancient town-Anren. As a town which is filled with culture and theme, seeking cultural enjoyment of Anren has become a fashion for current tourists. For Anren, its cultural tourism can be divided to the following four levels: the historical culture level being represented by Cultural relics, historical records, ruins and ancient architectural structures, etc; meanwhile, its software and hardware are also important. In the future, the scenic spots, software and hardware should be improved in order to enhance the tourism destination competitiveness.
References:
Zhang, G. R., Wei, X. A., & Liu, D. Q. (2005). China tourism development analysis and forecast (2002–2004). Beijing: Social Sciences Academic Press.
Jiang, Y. L., & Zhang, G. (2007). Theoretical thinking on improving core competitiveness of Chongqing tourism industry. Probe, (1), 178–180.
Huang, S. J., & Huang, Q. H. (2007). Modern business administration. Beijing: Economic Management Press.
Huang, Y. L., Li, F., & Li, F. (2006). Urban tourism competitiveness based on competitiveness elements and spatial scale. Areal Research and Development, (8), 94-98.
Qi, Z. P., & Zhang, W. (2003). Tokens of cultural context and tourism industry development. Economic Management, (17), 46-47.
Li, W., Yang, Y., & Zeng, K. F. (2007). Tourism destination system and its core competitiveness. Journal of Anhui Agricultural Sciences, 35(26), 8320-8321.
Asch, D. and Wolfe, B. (2001) New Economy-New Competition: the Rise of the Consumer? St Martin’s Press/Palgrave, New York.
Dwyer, L., & Kim, C. (2003). Destination competitiveness: Determinants and indicators. Current Issues in Tourism, 6, 369–414.
Wei, Z. (2008). A review of tourism development in China. Tourism Studies, 5(5), 214–216. (in Chinese)
Xiao, H. (2013). Dynamics of China tourism and challenges for destination marketing and management. Journal of Destination Marketing and Management.
Breakey, N. (2005). Tourism destination development beyond Butler (PhD thesis). School of Natural and Rural Systems Management
Buhalis, D. (2000) Marketing the competitive destination in the future. Tourism Management.
Crouch, G. and Ritchie, J.B.R. (1995) Destination competitiveness and the role of thetourism enterprise. Proceedings of the Fourth Annual Business Congress (pp. 43–8).
Faulkner, B. (1997) A model for the evaluation of national tourism destination marketing programs. Journal of Travel Research.