Since the reform and opening up, with the improvement of people's living standards, tourism, as a new industry, has been increasing its proportion in GDP, and tourism has become an important part of the national economy. Shanxi, as a province with rich tourism resources in China, has built a certain foundation after nearly 20 years of development. Under the new situation, how to make Shanxi's tourism stronger and bigger, how to transform resource advantages into economic and industrial advantages, and how to realize scientific development is a new topic, for which we have organized research and special research. I. Present Situation and Characteristics of Tourism in Shanxi Province (I. Advantages of Tourism Resources) Shanxi Province is located in the middle reaches of the Yellow River and the eastern part of the Loess Plateau. The territory is surrounded by mountains and waters, with complex terrain, diverse landforms, mild climate and distinct seasons, and nature has created colorful scenery. Shanxi is also one of the cradles of Chinese civilization with a long history and splendid culture. Known as "China Museum of Ancient Art" and "Country of Documents". Modern anti-imperialist and anti-colonial wars, such as War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the Liberation War, also left many places of interest for Shanxi. Natural beauty, historical civilization, revolutionary historical sites and achievements in the new period have become unique, ancient, modern and colorful tourism resources in Shanxi. 1. Rich in natural tourism resources. Shanxi's complex topography, rivers and mountains form a very rich natural tourism landscape. Shanxi has many magnificent and charming natural landscapes, such as famous mountains and rivers, grotesque caves, clear springs and lakes, rapids and waterfalls, magical phenomena and precious creatures. Except the ocean and desert, it has almost all natural landscapes and rich natural tourism resources. Shanxi is the only province in China with five mountains, five towns and four famous Buddhist mountains. The most famous are Hengshan Mountain in Beiyue, one of the five mountains, Huoshan Mountain in Zhong Zhen, one of the five towns, and Wutai Mountain, the first of the four famous Buddhist mountains. The Yellow River, the largest in Sichuan, is the natural dividing line between Shanxi and Shaanxi provinces. It flows through 19 counties in Shanxi with a flow of 965 kilometers, and successively flows into 18 larger tributaries and thousands of streams, forming a famous scenic spot Hukou Waterfall. There are many beautiful peaks on both sides of the Yellow River, which are like beautiful scrolls, forming many scenic spots and becoming inexhaustible tourism resources in Shanxi. There are many limestone caves in Taihang Mountain, Luliang Mountain and Zhongtiaoshan in Shanxi, such as Qinshui Baiyun Cave, Huguan Zituan Cave, Yuxian Wanhua Cave, Yuhua Cave, Taiyuan Tianlong Cave and Xinzhou Wangyu Cave. Most of them are well preserved, with vast caves and various stalactites. The climate in Shanxi is seasonal and complex. There are not only the frozen scenery in the north, but also the conditions to carry out various temperate tourism activities and enjoy the strange atmospheric landscape. Shanxi has built 45 nature reserves at or above the provincial level, such as Pangquangou, Luya Mountain, Lishan Mountain and Manghe River, among which ancient and famous trees and rare birds and animals are hidden, among which brown-eared pheasant, macaque and giant salamander are rare animals. 2. There are many cultural tourism resources. Shanxi has a long history, which has left us a lot of cultural tourism resources, ranking in the forefront of the country, and is known as the "China Museum of Ancient Art". There are1818 ancient buildings in Shanxi, ranking first in the country in terms of quantity and historical and artistic value. Among them, there are 106 wooden buildings before Liao and Jin Dynasties, accounting for 72.6% of the buildings in the same period in the country. There are more than 280 ancient pagodas in the province, among which Sakyamuni Pagoda of Buddha Palace Temple in Yingxian, Baita of Wutai Mountain, Ashoka Pagoda of Daixian, Twin Pagodas of Shuangta Temple in Taiyuan, Hongfei Pagoda of Guangsheng Temple in Hong Tong and Yingying Pagoda of Yongji Pujiu Temple are the most famous. There are 9 large-scale grottoes/kloc-0 in Shanxi province, including 2 in the Northern Dynasty, 2 in the Song Dynasty, 2 in the Yuan Dynasty and 5 in the Ming Dynasty, plus Yungang Grottoes and Tianlongshan Grottoes ***5 1 seat; Shanxi is a battleground for military strategists in past dynasties. The Great Wall inside and outside extends to eight cities including Datong, Shuozhou, Xinzhou, Jinzhong, Lvliang and Yangquan, covering an area of about 3,500 kilometers. There are many important passes, such as Yanmenguan, Pingxing Pass, Ning Wuguan Pass, Niangziguan Pass and Pianguan Pass. Pingyao City and Niangziguan City are relatively complete ancient city walls; There are 27,000 square meters of temple murals and nearly13,000 pieces of ancient colored sculptures. Many ancient cultural sites with high research value have been excavated, including the Xihoudu site in Ruicheng, Shuhe site, Xiangfen Ding Cun site and Qinshui Xia Chuan site in Paleolithic and Neolithic Age. Shanxi is an old revolutionary base area, and the modern revolutionary struggle left many precious revolutionary cultural relics and old places for Shanxi. The famous red tourist attractions include the former headquarters of the Eighth Route Army in Wuxiang County, the memorial hall of the Eighth Route Army in Taihang in Wang Jiayu, Wuxiang County, the headquarters and memorial hall of the Hundred Regiments War, the headquarters of the Anti-Japanese Military and Political University, the memorial hall of the Red Army's crusade, the battle of Pingxingguan, the model hospital of Songyankou in Wutai County, and the Liu Hulan Martyrs Memorial Hall. Shanxi's folk customs, folk songs, folk dances, folk music, operas, paper-cuts, shadow play and New Year pictures are all very distinctive. After the founding of New China, especially in the past 30 years of reform and opening up, people have created a number of new tourist landscapes in Shanxi's ever-changing construction and development. Up to now, 29 national industrial and agricultural tourism demonstration sites have become new highlights in Shanxi's tourism products, including: Dazhai Village in Xiyang, Qian Hao Village in Xinzhou, Jiajiazhuang Ecological Agriculture Park in Fenyang, East Lake Vinegar Garden in Taiyuan, Pingshuo Open-pit Coal Mine downstream of Jinhuagong Coal Mine in Datong, Fenhua Village in Fenjiu City, Yuncheng Salt Lake Health City and other tourism projects integrating sightseeing, leisure, experience and culture. (II) Operating Characteristics of Shanxi Tourism Industry In 2007, Shanxi's tourism industry innovated its development ideas, implemented the strategy of "government promotion, open interaction, innovation drive, project start-up and harmonious interaction", integrated tourism resources, innovated tourism mechanism, accelerated factor construction and improved industrial quality with the 11th Five-Year Plan as the main line, and the province's tourism economy showed a good trend of rapid growth, structural optimization and efficiency improvement. 1. The number of tourism professionals and the construction of tourist attractions have begun to take shape, which has promoted social employment and economic development. By the end of 2007, there were 6,369 tourism business units in the province, and the total number of people in tourism professionals reached1146,000, accounting for 7. 18% of the total number of employees in the province. Among them, there are 628 scenic spots (spots), more than 230 scenic spots that can receive tourists at present, 60 A-level scenic spots, and industrial and agricultural tourism demonstration sites 104; 650 travel agencies (including 44 international travel agencies and 606 domestic travel agencies); There are 8778 licensed tour guides and 3849 tourist reception facilities (including hotels, restaurants, guest houses, resorts, etc. ) and 236 tourist star hotels; 368 tourist catering units; There are 47 tourist transportation units, 28 tourist handicraft production and sales units/kloc-0, 682 tourist entertainment units and 6 other tourist service units/kloc-0. 2. The number of overseas tourists in this province shows a rapid growth trend, ranking fifth in the country. In 2007, the province received 737,888 overseas tourists, a year-on-year increase of 28.62%. Foreign exchange earned by tourism was US$ 2,265,438 +0.705 1 10,000 yuan, up 35.0 1% year-on-year, ranking fifth in the country in terms of growth rate. 3. The number of domestic tourists in the province is increasing steadily. In 2007, the province received 85,292,900 domestic tourists, up by 13.47% year-on-year, and domestic tourism revenue was 563.677 billion yuan, up by 36.74% year-on-year, ranking 15 and 14 respectively in the country. 4. The growth rate of the province's tourism economy is higher than the overall growth rate of the national economy. In 2007, the province's GDP reached 569.62 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of14.2%; The total tourism revenue was 58157 million yuan, up 35.76% year-on-year, 210.56 percentage points faster than the GDP growth rate, ranking fourth in the country, equivalent to10.2% of the province's GDP. 5. Outbound tourism has become a new highlight of the province's tourism industry. The increase in the income of urban and rural residents has promoted the development of outbound tourism. In 2007, the number of outbound tourists in the province reached 64,899, an increase of 1 1.43% year-on-year, which realized the benign interaction between the outbound tourism market and the inbound tourism market. 6. Substantial steps have been taken in agricultural sightseeing and farmhouse tourism. In recent years, a number of rural areas with characteristic resources in the province have successively launched farmhouse tourism projects. The "Jujube Festival" in Taigu County earned nearly 400,000 yuan by picking only one jujube in the seven days of the National Day Golden Week in 2007. Mianshan Scenic Area has transferred 60% of the local rural labor force to tourism and become the main channel of rural labor income. Farmers around Phoenix Happy Valley in Lingchuan and Taihang Mountain Grand Canyon have set up family hostels to provide accommodation for tourists. In 2007, the National Day Golden Week earned millions in seven days. About half of the farmers in Qikou Town and Qianhao Village of Xinzhou City are engaged in rural tourism-related industries, which has increased farmers' income and promoted the construction of new countryside. 7. The number of self-help tourists has risen rapidly. In 2007, self-driving tourists accounted for a large proportion in the province, especially during the Golden Week, and self-driving tourists in some scenic spots accounted for more than 60%. In the whole year, the number of self-help tourists in the province reached 22 million, and the income was 65.438+0.8 billion yuan. 8. The tourism economy of the top ten tourist attractions in the province (Jinci, Yungang Grottoes, Hengshan Mountain, Wutai Mountain, Guancen Mountain, Yanmenguan, Mianshan, Pingyao Ancient City, Hong Tong Sophora japonica and Hukou, Jiezhou Guandi Temple, etc.) is relatively prominent. In 2007, the top ten scenic spots in Shanxi Province included in the "13 1 1" project received a total of120.190,000 domestic tourists, accounting for13 of the total domestic tourists in Shanxi Province. 2. Difficulties and problems faced by Shanxi's tourism industry In recent years, Shanxi's tourism industry has complied with the idea of economic construction and industrial structure adjustment in the whole province, explored the tourist market in an all-round way, vigorously created excellent tourist routes, and paid close attention to the standardized management of tourism, which has made the province's tourism industry show a stable, sustained and rapid development trend and achieved good results in tourism efficiency, tourism order and tourism safety. However, the situation and problems faced by Shanxi tourism can not be ignored. (A) tourism infrastructure and the rapid development of tourism does not adapt, the province's tourism infrastructure is relatively backward. Tourism includes six elements: eating, living, traveling, traveling, shopping and entertainment. At present, among the six elements of tourism in the province, there are not many projects with outstanding characteristics or advantages. Relatively speaking, the four elements of food, shelter, transportation and travel are developing rapidly, while the two elements of shopping and entertainment are lagging behind. The six elements are uncoordinated in quantity and quality, with poor traffic and poor ecological environment, resulting in pollution. ? (II) Insufficient investment in tourism According to the data, during the Tenth Five-Year Plan period, Shanxi's total social investment was 6000 1 billion yuan, while the investment for tourism infrastructure construction and resource development was 6.964 billion yuan, accounting for only 65.438+0.2% of the total investment. Judging from the funds invested by provincial finance in tourism during the Tenth Five-Year Plan period, only 245 million yuan, accounting for 3.5% of the investment in social tourism development. Insufficient investment directly leads to the backwardness of tourism infrastructure construction and low reception capacity, which is incompatible with the status of Shanxi as a province with large tourism resources and the requirement of a substantial increase in the number of tourists entering Shanxi. (3) The management system and operation mechanism can't meet the requirements of the market economy. Shanxi is not only a big province of cultural relics, but also a big province of tourism resources. Due to the different development conditions of tourism economy in different places, the establishment of tourism management institutions at all levels includes administration, business and even the integration of government and enterprises. Among the tourism management departments of eleven cities in the province, five cities are foreign affairs tourism bureaus, three cities are cultural relics tourism bureaus and three cities are tourism bureaus. Due to the multi-head operation and multi-head management, it is difficult to form a joint force, and the tourism industry lacks a unified, coordinated and efficient operating mechanism, which has affected Shanxi's tourism industry to become bigger and stronger. (4) Tourism is small in scale, low in level and lacking in market competitiveness. Tourism enterprises in the whole province are small in scale, poor in quality and lack of market competitiveness. Taking travel agencies as an example, 665.438+0% of the annual turnover of travel agencies in the province is less than 6.5438+0 million yuan, and only 4% is over 6.5438+0 million yuan. Among the top 100 travel agencies in China, none of Shanxi entered. Tourist hotels are small in scale and low in grade, and the sanitary conditions of tourist catering units are poor. In the tourist passenger transport market, "black cars", social vehicles and shuttle buses without operating qualifications participate in tourist passenger transport at lower freight rates, which interferes with the normal operation of regular vehicles and disrupts the market order. Small, scattered, weak and poor are still the main problems of tourism enterprises, lacking powerful large-scale operation and collectivization. (E) Tourism lacks pillar products. Shanxi provincial government regards tourism as one of the four new pillar industries, and pillar industries need the support of pillar products. For a long time in the past, our province only paid attention to the construction of scenic spots, ignoring the supporting construction of six elements based on routes, failing to create a national and even world-class tourist boutique route with complete elements and lacking selling points. There is still great potential for tourism economic growth. (vi) Lack of effective external publicity; The basis of promoting tourism is the feeling and experience as a commodity, which is decentralized and interactive. Only more publicity can arouse people's desire to travel to Shanxi. In the past, our publicity and promotion only stayed at the promotion level of caravans, promotion conferences, trade fairs, inspection and promotion, and did not use modern media to carry out extensive publicity and promotion. Coupled with the low investment in publicity expenses, Shanxi's rich tourism resources have not had a great impact on the outside world. Three. Countermeasures to Accelerate the Development of Tourism in Shanxi The Shanxi Provincial Party Committee and the provincial government have identified tourism as one of the four emerging pillar industries during the 11th Five-Year Plan period. In accordance with the spirit of the 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, we should thoroughly implement Scientific Outlook on Development, change the mode of economic development as soon as possible, strive to transform the advantages of tourism resources into economic advantages and industrial advantages, enhance the proportion of the tertiary industry, and realize the leap from a province with large tourism resources to a province with strong tourism economy. ? (1) The six elements of tourism develop in harmony, and the six elements of tourism "eating, living, traveling, traveling, shopping and entertainment" cannot be neglected. They are a complete industrial chain of the tourism industry and are indispensable. To promote the tourism industry, we must focus on these six essentials. According to the principle of market segmentation, provide tourism products with different levels, structures, needs, seriation and diversification, realize the coordinated development among tourism elements, and enhance the overall industry to play a comprehensive effect. (2) Increase the investment of the government and various funds, speed up the construction of tourism infrastructure and supporting facilities, and draw lessons from the advanced experience of developing tourism at home and abroad to formulate strong support policies. Increase financial investment at all levels, introduce relevant preferential policies, actively guide foreign capital and private funds to enter the tourism industry, and promote the development of tourism with the help of projects. First, speed up the construction of traffic road infrastructure in scenic spots in the province to facilitate tourists' access. The second is to build tourist hotels, commercial points, villas and scenic spots with high standards, improve hardware facilities and reception capacity, and meet the needs of tourists for tourism, shopping, accommodation, catering, entertainment, leisure and tourism. The third is to build a national eco-tourism demonstration zone as a carrier, accelerate the integrated development of tourism products along expressway and build a tourism prosperity belt along expressway. Fourth, take the national development of red tourism resources as an opportunity to do a good job in the restoration and construction of revolutionary sites. (3) Straightening out the tourism management and operation system In accordance with the requirements of the market economy, straighten out the tourism management and operation system, clarify the responsibilities of management institutions and business units, change the situation of overlapping functions and separating government from enterprises, and establish a unified, orderly, efficient and harmonious management and operation system. (4) To strengthen the integration of tourism industry, improve the intensive level of tourism industry, and vigorously develop the group management of tourism in Shanxi Province, we should change the status quo of small, scattered, weak and poor, intensify industrial integration, enhance the intensive level of the whole industry, vigorously develop group management, and improve the management ability, economic benefits and social benefits of enterprises. For example, the travel agencies that occupy a dominant position in the tourism industry should, on the basis of the existing state-owned international travel agencies that operate relatively well, form travel agency group companies, group tourist hotels, tourist passenger transport companies, tourist attractions development companies and so on by integrating resources. Adopt modern enterprise management system, introduce high-quality talents who understand tourism and management, introduce funds and facilities, increase government investment, and gradually build the giant ship of Shanxi tourism to make it develop scientifically, harmoniously and continuously. (e) To build a first-class boutique pillar industry in China and even the world, it must be supported by pillar products. Pillar products, that is, fine products, should choose the best among the best and the best among the strong. The creation of fine products needs high grade, high starting point, high input and high output. At present, the six tourist boutique routes built in the whole province have gained a certain popularity in China after continuous efforts in recent years. Shanxi needs to extract the influential boutique routes from these boutique routes at home and abroad, improve the core competitiveness of tourism industry development, integrate the cultural connotation of Shanxi tourism resources into tourism products, make tourism products innovate constantly, enhance the stamina of tourism industry and promote the sustainable development of tourism economy. (6) Make full use of modern media to promote sales. As the saying goes, "good wine is afraid of the deep alley." There are so many cultural tourism resources in Shanxi, but few people know them. The main reason is insufficient publicity. A TV series "The Qiao Family Courtyard" has pushed the Qiao Family Courtyard to the whole country, with a flood of tourists. Every golden week can be said to be a sea of people, which makes the hospital's tourism income climb steadily. The whole province should make full use of modern media to produce high-grade and high-level tourism resources and publicize them widely at home and abroad through radio, television, internet and other communication tools. Government departments at all levels should increase investment in external publicity and promotion. Subdivide the domestic and foreign markets and promote the province's tourism products in a targeted manner. China is vigorously promoted by CCTV and provincial TV stations, and at the same time by well-known online media. Internationally, video materials are translated into different languages and provided to tourist destination countries, and their attraction and influence are enhanced by modern and internationally common means in a way that is easy for foreign public to understand and accept. Shanxi tourism should also run its own network and provide all-round information and information that inbound and domestic tourists want to know.