May 18 is the 46th International Museum Day. Museums in many parts of the country have adopted the combination of Wuxi Online Offline Communication Information Technology Co.Ltd(300959) and to launch exhibitions and activities with rich content and various forms.
The same trip released the popularity data of Chinese museums in 2022 and announced the “top ten popular museums in China”. Ctrip also disclosed data that from January to may 2022, the museum and exhibition hall ranked fourth among the most popular scenic spots in China, and one out of every 10 tourists who booked tickets from Ctrip booked a museum.
Tourists not only like to visit museums, but also like to share their knowledge. According to Ctrip community data, the number of Museum related notes increased by about 80% year-on-year in the first half of 2022.
more than 70% of young people
It is reported that today, Beijing officially opened the “Beijing Museum cloud” service platform. Citizens only need to open a small program to understand and “one click reservation” exhibitions and activities held by Beijing museums; In Jiangsu, museums across the province will launch 154 new and special exhibitions, 158 educational activities, more than 160 cultural and creative competitions, public welfare appraisal and other activities around the theme of “the power of museums”; In Sichuan, “Sichuan Chongqing Museum alliance” will launch the establishment of Sichuan Chongqing Museum alliance and the theme promotion activity of “hundreds of museums and objects – Sichuan Chongqing treasures”, as well as a series of supporting activities such as lectures by cultural and Expo experts and identification of Sichuan Chongqing public welfare cultural relics at Yibin Museum. The China main venue of the International Museum Day was held at the Hubei Provincial Museum. Wuhan will hold dozens of wonderful cultural and Expo activities, including the theme forum of “the power of Museums: potential and ability”, the theme exhibition of “the power of music – Early Chinese musical instrument culture”, the Yangtze River light show of “walking through the river city – opening the journey of Yangtze River Civilization”, etc.
According to the popularity list of Tongcheng, in terms of popularity, the Palace Museum, Nanjing Museum, Guanghan Sanxingdui Museum, Terra Cotta Warriors Museum of the first emperor of Qin Dynasty, Shaanxi History Museum, Hunan Museum, Henan Museum, Yangtze River Civilization Museum (Wuhan Natural Museum), Nanjing Chinese imperial examination Museum (Jiangnan Gongyuan) and Jinsha Site Museum have become the top ten most popular museums among Chinese tourists in the first half of 2022.
In recent years, from “I build cultural relics in the Forbidden City”, “national treasures” to “Tang Palace Banquet” and “only green”, the presentation of cultural and Expo elements on the screen has made the cultural heritage more vivid. This not only awakened people’s interest in museums and history and culture, but also made cultural and Expo tourism really “hot”.
Ctrip may day data show that in the past May Day golden week, cultural and Expo tourism has performed well in the local tourism market. Ticket bookings for the local museum on May day increased by 260% compared with the Qingming Festival. More and more tourists choose to enter the museum to feel the cultural charm.
In addition, the data of Ctrip and Tongcheng show that the users of Wenbo tour are mainly post-80s and post-90s. In the first half of this year, the post-80s accounted for 42% and the post-90s accounted for 29% of the users who booked museums through Ctrip. It is worth mentioning that with the continuous upgrading of young people’s identity with Chinese traditional culture, cultural scenic spots represented by museums are becoming more and more popular among young tourists. In addition, in the first half of the year, “generation Z” (people born between 1995 and 2009) booked 25% of Museum orders. Among the people searching for museums, the post-95 accounted for nearly 30%.
The same trip data also show that parent-child tour groups are becoming the main force of museum tours, and the young groups represented by post-90s and post-00s have also increased significantly. The consumption ratio of post-80s and post-90s users was 35.7% and 39.7% respectively; After 70 and 00, they accounted for 11.1% and 11.3% respectively. In terms of gender distribution, men are more likely to visit museums than women, accounting for 9% more than women.
Museum evolution
The younger users also bring new challenges to the museum. The display of cultural relics and exhibits is not enough to meet the needs of young people. How to operate, innovate and increase interactivity has become an urgent problem to be solved for the museum to maintain its “popularity”.
The rejuvenation path of “net red” Henan Museum is worth mentioning. Since 2020, Henan Museum has successively launched a series of blind boxes with the theme of Archaeology and cultural relics restoration. As long as you wear white gloves and pick up Luoyang shovel, everyone can become an “archaeological officer”. Taking the popular blind box as the starting point, Henan Museum reproduces and creates a “one-stop” archaeological experience of “cultural relics” excavation, restoration and restoration for the general public.
Many parents said that the museum launched the blind box of cultural innovation with “big brain hole”, which overturned their “stereotype” of Museum souvenirs. Taking the blind box of cultural relics restoration as an example, children and parents participate in a series of “simulated” archaeological processes such as “unpacking”, earth excavation, treasure hunt and restoration, which can not only strengthen the interaction between parents and children, but also deepen children’s impression of cultural relics in the collection and cultivate children’s interest in history and culture.
With the frequent search of cultural and creative products such as museum blind boxes, ice cream and environmental protection bags, many museums began to actively explore the transformation of online traffic into offline participation, so as to further establish a strong connection with potential audiences. To this end, museums across China have “made unique moves” and launched colorful offline activities such as special exhibitions, night shows, treasure appreciation, popular science lectures and cultural and creative charity sales.
For example, Ctrip introduced a third-party partner to jointly create an immersive script Tour “awakened brewer” with Tsingtao Brewery Company Limited(600600) Museum. The script belongs to a large-scale suspense reasoning script of the retro Republic of China, which can not only meet the brainstorming of the plot party, but also include elements such as role-playing, puzzle solving, latent espionage and so on. While visiting the museum in depth, cultural and Museum lovers can also immerse themselves in the script with the help of the cultural background of the museum.
Sun Jie, CEO of Ctrip group, believes that cultural experience has become an important part of tourism consumption, especially young people growing up with the Internet. Their demand for personalization and sense of experience has led to the continuous iterative upgrading of museums from technology to services. More and more museums rely on new technologies to explore new ways, increase personalized and immersive experience, activate history, and shorten the distance between cultural relics and people’s life.
In fact, tourists’ demand for in-depth cultural and Expo tourism is far more than that. With the in-depth and refined development of cultural and Expo resources, customized cultural and Expo tourism products with parent-child themes such as “cultural and Expo + Exhibition”, “cultural and Expo + performing arts” and “cultural and Expo + research and learning” have sprung up. Many travel agencies have been inspired in product development and design, deeply integrating cultural and Expo elements into traditional tourism routes, and further promoting the iterative upgrading of tourism products.
It is worth mentioning that in recent years, the interpretation mode of the museum has caught up with the trend of “cloud” and opened a new “copy” of live broadcasting. For example, tuniu’s “follow Beijing” video number takes the lead in taking the in-depth explanation of the museum as the top priority of the live broadcast of outdoor scenic spots. Online viewers can immerse themselves in the scene and enjoy a cultural feast with tuniu’s “gold guide”.
How to better walk out of a “long red” road of sustainable development? Ma Congling, associate researcher of the Institute of financial strategy of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, previously said in an interview that the future cultural and Expo tourism needs to meet two aspects: one is the innovation of user experience. A cultural tourism industry chain from archaeology, to exhibits, to performing arts and to cultural innovation is taking shape, with both public welfare and industrial content. On the other hand, the digital management of the museum permeates every link, such as the protection and restoration of cultural relics, monitoring and evaluation, experience and utilization and so on.
Gao Shunli, a special researcher of the tourism research center of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said, “Cultural and Expo tourism belongs to a more professional market segment. At some time, major discoveries such as Sanxingdui, haihunhou tomb and Zhang Xianzhong’s silver sinking site may attract the public’s attention in the short term. But such discoveries are rare after all. It will take a long time for cultural and Expo tourism to develop a mass market like wind, landscape and light tourism.”
