Wang Xingbin: Qiao’s Grand Courtyard Closes and Reshuffles, Touching the Soul to Renew

Source: China Academy of Culture & Tourism  Date: August 8^th, 2019

As a 5A Scenery Site, Qiao’s Grand Courtyard has been delisted by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism for a week, which made Jinzhong city a little bit “flustered”. According to the latest reports, a news conference was held in Qi county at 4 pm August 6^th focusing on Qiao’s Grand Courtyard’s rectification and promotion of 5A Site, on which its main rectification goals were announced: focus on rectification in a month, normalize and improve in a year, recreate a 5A as fast as possible, cut ticket prices appropriately. In order to complete the task with the least delay possible, the site announced a suspension of operation for 10 days from August 7^th to 16^th.

Qiao’s closed and focused on the reshuffle, which derived from not only the bottom-top pressure from public opinion but top-bottom political pressure as well.

It’s fairly rare that the delisting of a 5A scenery site got instructions from the secretary of a provincial party committee and a governor. the delisting is not alone by nature. In local area and other provinces, senic spots are indeed slack in innovation, over-priced and over-commercialized.

Capitals scrambled while Qiao’s growing. A state-owned travel agency was established, private capital came and the company went public in the new OTC board in 2017. Though operation rights transferred several times and equity fluctuated between public and private, there’s only one goal: more benefits. This goal resulted in dislocations such as demolishing the real and constructing the fake, unreasonable prices, being filled with shops, and deceiving tourists.

Dislocation is not an inevitable consequence of capital competition. As a national 5A scenery site, Qiao’s can’t escape from answering the questions of how to balance protection and development, how to choose between its interest and public interest, how to abandon the impulse of the once-for-all deal and seek sustainable growth. After all, capitals are blind sometimes, and their profit-driven trend maybe not consistent with the preservation of cultural and historic relics.

Nowadays, Qi county has established a leading group for comprehensive rectification to repent past mistakes and harshly find those to be blamed. It’s sure if Qiao’s is going to “rebuild its image”, it can’t end with the surface to adjust prices, improve facilities, and close shops. Otherwise, it will slip back into the old ways.

According to the instruction of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, there exist many problems in Qiao’s. Products were flat and updated slowly. The over-commercialization impeded its quality improvement. The root of these problems lies in the disorder of the system and the mechanism in its tour exploitation.

Therefore, what’s more important in learning from this lesson is to deal with vested interests. Specifically, on the one hand, the ownership of rights and responsibilities should be redefined. As a state-owned protected cultural site, the nature of the property right of Qiao’s shouldn’t change because of capital intervention. On the other hand, local government should find the correct position on the right of usage and operation. It should protect and supervise it, and also leave room for professional operation where operators can innovate and expand legally.

Now, with the expansion and diversification of business types in destinations, tourism forms have changed a lot. People are not satisfied with hurry glances at scenes and not only refer to the A-level standard. More young people pay more attention to the comfort level and experience, to how unique and fashionable the destination is. They’re used to checking on comments. If a scenic spot still lives on its fat, roads ahead are getting narrower.

Qiao’s not alone. All traditional sites should get nervous. Besides the administrative rectification, they should actively seek deep changes, study new features of the industry, explore new businesses and converge towards tourists. It’s not only to avoid the delisting but also to avoid being abandoned.

Source: Beijing News (Author Affiliation: China Academy of Culture & Tourism)