Shanghai Tourism Festival has been held since 1990, and this year is the twentieth. The event lasted for more than 20 days, covering nearly 40 projects in several categories, such as sightseeing, leisure, entertainment, culture and sports, exhibitions, food and shopping, attracting more than 8 million tourists every year on average. After nearly 20 years of development, Shanghai Tourism Festival has fully absorbed the experience of all parties in organizing festivals and tapped the local characteristics and resources of Shanghai. At present, Shanghai Tourism Festival has formed a distinctive festival-running feature.
Usually, the Shanghai Tourism Festival begins with the opening parade and carnival activities, and then a series of urban tourism boutique projects will run through the whole event, such as the float parade and appraisal grand prix, Pujiang float parade, rose wedding and so on. At the same time, the characteristic tourism festivals in various districts and counties also add luster to the tourism festival. After about 20 days of vigorous and wonderful performances, the Shanghai Tourism Festival ended with a perfect curtain call in romantic music fireworks, leaving participants with good memories for many years.
Shanghai Tourism Festival not only draws lessons from the ideas and experiences of some famous foreign festivals, but also innovates constantly, striving to create a unique image of Shanghai Tourism Festival. At present, Shanghai Tourism Festival has become one of the large-scale tourism festivals in Shanghai and even the whole country.
Shanghai Tourism Festival is a people's festival. Over the years, festival activities have made efforts to go deep into the community and get close to the people. Through the diversity, closeness and participation of activities, the theme of "Walking into Beauty and Joy" has been fully explained. Let every tourist festival participant get material and spiritual enjoyment in festival activities, and let everyone feel the happiness and beauty of life.
This year's Shanghai Tourism Festival will officially open in Songjiang Happy Valley on the afternoon of September 12. Then, that night, the opening ceremony parade with the theme of "Better Life through Tourism" will be staged on Huaihai Road, the busiest street in Shanghai. At that time, the grand and spectacular opening ceremony parade will accommodate exotic flowers and plants from all over the world, which will make people feast their eyes. This year, Shanghai Tourism Festival invited performance groups from Korea, Germany, Brazil, India, Scotland, the United States, Thailand, Japan and France, who will present a visual feast for tourists.
In addition, the float parade and appraisal grand prix, Shanghai International Music Fireworks Festival, Pujiang float parade and other wonderful activities will be staged in turn, offering beautiful and unforgettable memories for the majority of tourists. Shanghai Tourism Festival, through the blending and collision of Chinese and foreign cultures, embodies the spirit of the city, and has undoubtedly become a big stage for displaying various cultural elements at home and abroad. Even if they don't leave the country, Chinese and foreign tourists can enjoy the exotic atmosphere of music, dance and carnival. At the same time, whether it is the "Shanghai Tourism Food Festival" in full swing or the lively "Shanghai Tourism Festival Jiu-Er Competition", citizens and tourists can deeply appreciate the cultural characteristics of China, especially for foreign tourists, which will be an unforgettable experience.
In addition to some old classic projects, this year's Tourism Festival has also added several brand-new projects, such as the eight scenic spots in Shanghai, the top ten lighting night scenes in Shanghai, and the Shanghai Tourism and Food Festival. Through the selection of the new eight scenic spots, it reflects the humanistic spirit precipitated by Shanghai's great historical changes and economic miracles created since the reform and opening up, and selects the "New Eight Scenic Spots of Shanghai" which conforms to the spirit of Shanghai, so as to make good preparations for the Expo tourism. In order to fully reflect Shanghai's urban development and show Shanghai's gorgeous moonlight charm, this year's Shanghai Tourism Festival specially launched the top ten night scenes selection activities in Shanghai with the theme of "Bright City, Light Life". Shanghai is famous for its rivers and oceans. As an international metropolis, how can guests feel at home? The Tourism Festival specially launched the Shanghai Tourism and Food Festival, which aims to make Shanghai catering industry an important window to publicize China cooking culture and serve 70 million Chinese and foreign tourists at next year's World Expo by displaying Shanghai cuisine, local dishes, famous snacks and farm dishes.
In addition, activities such as Sichuan North Road Happy Festival, Nanjing Road Happy Week and Germany Week, which are mainly in the form of open-air performances, make the festive atmosphere permeate every corner of the city through close interaction with tourists, so that more tourists can enjoy the happiness of the tourism festival.
Second, the Shanghai Tourist Card has optimized the tourism payment environment.
During the 20 10 Shanghai World Expo, Shanghai will welcome nearly 70 million tourists from home and abroad. In order to improve the service quality of Shanghai's tourism industry, optimize the payment environment in Shanghai, and give a long-term and sustained boost to Shanghai's tourism economy, the Shanghai Urban Tourism Card, which was jointly discussed and planned by the Municipal Tourism Bureau with all districts and counties at the end of last year, was officially issued on June 10 this year.
The accessibility of Shanghai City Tourist Card covers six areas: food, housing, transportation, travel, shopping and entertainment. In the future, it will cover all micro-payment consumption areas in Shanghai and gradually extend to the Yangtze River Delta region. This kind of city tourist card with stored value function provides cardholders with many conveniences and benefits, which can not only avoid the inconvenience of tourists coming to Shanghai to carry cash and change banknotes, but also avoid counterfeit money and optimize the payment environment, especially suitable for individual tourists coming to Shanghai. More importantly, the introduction of Shanghai Urban Tourism Card is of great positive significance for stimulating consumption and promoting the development of tourism industry chain. Well-known enterprises in Shanghai, such as Oriental Pearl, Jinmao Tower, World Financial Center, Shanghai Tower, Jinjiang Hotel, Jinjiang Star, Spring and Autumn International Travel Service, Shanghai Tourism Distribution Center, International Circuit, Tennis Masters Cup and Liangyou Convenience, have all become special merchants of Shanghai Urban Tourism Card.
In addition to the Shanghai City Tourist Card, Shanghai Tourism Bureau also issued the Shanghai Tourist Card (UnionPay Card) on August 10. As the first Shanghai City Image Card, Shanghai Tourism Theme Card and Shanghai Cultural Identity Card, Shanghai Tourism Card has created the first domestic unified card design, simultaneous issuance at home and abroad, and the largest number of participating card issuers. At present, there are 28 institutions involved in issuing cards at home and abroad, including 18 domestic institutions: Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China, China Bank, China Construction Bank, Bank of Communications, Postal Savings Bank, Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, Shanghai Bank, Shanghai Rural Commercial Bank, China CITIC Bank, China Everbright Bank, Minsheng Bank, China Guangfa Bank, Shenzhen Development Bank, Bank of Ningbo, Jiangsu Bank, Hangzhou Bank and some regional commercial banks. Overseas branches above 65,438+00: Japan Travelex, Hong Kong Aeon Credit, Chong Hing Bank in Hong Kong, Wing Hang Bank in Macau, DBS Group, BC Card Company in Korea, Golmud Bank in Mongolia, CSC Bank in Lebanon, Bank of China in Hong Kong and Macau, etc.
By the end of August, 13 banks in China had officially launched Shanghai tourist cards to the market, and issued more than 20,000 cards. The overseas issuance of Shanghai Tourist Card (UnionPay standard prepaid card) is being actively carried out. Hong Kong and Macao will officially issue cards at 5438+00 in late June, South Korea will officially issue cards on September 2, Japan will officially issue cards on September 16, Singapore will officially issue cards at the end of the year, and Australia and major European and American countries will start issuing cards one after another.
Shanghai Travel Card (UnionPay card) is a public welfare comprehensive service platform jointly built by financial industry and tourism industry, which can stimulate domestic demand, serve the Expo, promote the construction of "two centers", enhance the image of Shanghai and facilitate people's livelihood. At present, strengthening the service function, perfecting the service system and fully guaranteeing the World Expo are the primary tasks.
In order to ensure the acceptance of tourist cards, the Municipal Tourism Bureau and UnionPay jointly launched the activity of creating barrier-free scenic spots by swiping cards, and organized banks and specialized service agencies to divide scenic spots, tourist distribution centers and key merchants into packages and break through them one by one. At present, the expansion evaluation of 30 Shanghai-style core preferential merchants such as World Financial Center, Xintiandi, Yuyuan Mall, Xiangzhangyuan, Xinghualou, First Food and Wang Kai Photo Studio has been completed. According to the principle of "focusing on scenic spots, highlighting characteristics and forming series", a boutique route with Shanghai tourism card Shanghai style will be formed and recommended to Chinese and foreign tourists. According to the needs of overseas card issuing and the culture and needs of overseas card issuing countries, a targeted and personalized list of preferential merchants and service manuals have been compiled to improve the preferential services for overseas tourists. In addition, the Municipal Tourism Bureau, Shanghai Branch of the People's Bank of China, the Municipal Finance Office and other units have joined hands with China UnionPay and domestic and foreign financial institutions to form a comprehensive service system for Shanghai tourist cards through a powerful UnionPay electronic payment network and a huge financial institution back-office service system. A detailed service manual, a perfect service webpage (www.chinaunionpay.com/zt/2009/5083149/index.html) and a caring hotline for Shanghai tourist card service have been made to provide information about Shanghai tourism and the Expo for Chinese and foreign tourists, and to ensure professional, standardized and first-class comprehensive services for Expo tourism. In addition, a powerful service consultation and complaint handling system has been established, which integrates the Shanghai Tourism Hotline, China UnionPay and the service hotlines of financial institutions, and formulates a unified consultation and complaint handling process to ensure the all-round follow-up service of the Shanghai Tourism Card and the service quality of Expo tourism.
Third, the promotion of Expo tourism has been further strengthened.
In order to further publicize the Expo and promote Shanghai, the Municipal Tourism Bureau * * * introduced a total of 7 batches of exhibitors/kloc-0 at home and abroad in the first half of this year, covering four countries and regions in Europe, Asia, the United States, Oceania/kloc-0, mainly including Australia, the United States, Japan, Germany, China and Taiwan Province Province of China. Through these promotional activities, we will further attract and attract tourists from home and abroad to participate in the China 20 10 Shanghai World Expo and come to Shanghai for sightseeing. In addition, the Municipal Tourism Bureau also invited overseas journalists and travel agencies 10 batches, with nearly 450 people. These delegations came from India, the United States, Canada, Germany, Japan and other countries, interviewed and inspected the relevant routes of the Expo, as well as the traditional classic scenic spots and emerging hot spots in Shanghai, and listened to the relevant information of the Expo.
Fourth, Shanghai's tourism industry has shown a stable and good development momentum.
When introducing the overall development of Shanghai's tourism economy this year, Dao Shuming said that at present, Shanghai's tourism economy is showing a positive change from stability to good, and positive factors are accumulating.
According to analysis, since the beginning of this year, Shanghai's tourism economy has shown the characteristics of rapid growth of outbound tourism, slowdown of outbound tourism, narrowing of the decline of inbound tourism, and overall low operation of the three major formats. Recently, the unexpected growth of domestic tourism and the decline of inbound tourism have gradually stabilized.
1, domestic travel increased rapidly.
In the first half of the year, the city received * * * 5940 1 10,000 domestic tourists, up by 7.72% year-on-year. Among them, the number of tourists from other provinces and cities was 43129,000, a year-on-year increase of 1 1.27%. Domestic tourism revenue was 93.37 billion yuan, up 17.6% year-on-year. Per capita tourism consumption 1572 yuan, up 9.20% year-on-year.
Since the beginning of this year, the central and local governments have issued a series of policies and measures to support the development of tourism. As the tourism industry itself, the tourism authorities have also made unremitting efforts for the overall stable development of the tourism industry. For example, starting from the overall situation of stimulating demand, promoting consumption and serving the public, they launched and expanded the promotion activities of half-price tours of some tourist attractions on Tuesday; The effect of issuing "Shanghai City Tourist Card" will gradually appear in the future. Affected by the financial crisis, the prices of hotels, scenic spots and aviation dropped sharply compared with last year, which stimulated domestic tourism demand.
2. The growth rate of outbound travel has slowed down.
In the first half of the year, the number of outbound tourists organized by travel agencies in this city reached 396,000, a year-on-year increase of 12.09%, and the growth rate dropped by nearly 5 percentage points compared with the first quarter. Judging from the development trend of outbound travel since this year, the outbreak of influenza A (H 1N 1) curbed the momentum of outbound travel, and the growth rate dropped from 16.8% in the first quarter to 5.9% in the second quarter, from positive growth for five consecutive months to double-digit negative growth in June, thus slowing down the growth rate of outbound travel.
3. The decline in inbound tourism has narrowed.
In the first half of the year, the city received 2,902,700 inbound tourists, a year-on-year decrease of 10.90%. Since the second quarter of this year, with the recovery of some leading indicators of the international economy, the improvement of the financial market and the enhancement of confidence in all aspects, the decline in inbound tourism has narrowed. However, with the continuous appreciation of the RMB against the US dollar and other currencies, the long-term price advantage of inbound tourism has been weakened, leading overseas tourists to travel to destination countries with sharply depreciated currencies. Due to the obvious slowdown of the world economy, the weakening demand for foreigners to travel abroad has become the most important factor dragging down the slowdown of the tourism economy.
4. The overall low operation of the three major formats
The hotel market was most affected by the financial crisis, and the average occupancy rate and average house price of high-end hotels dropped the most. Under the direct influence of the double drop of room occupancy rate and average house price, the operating income of star-rated hotels has been greatly reduced. Enterprise management is in the most difficult period since SARS. The travel agency industry has shown a structural recovery. The performance is as follows: inbound tourism continues to decline; The year-on-year growth of domestic tourism turned from negative to positive; Outbound travel has declined in stages.
Scenic spots (districts) operate smoothly, and traditional scenic spots (districts) are still favored. In the first half of the year, the operating income of major scenic spots was 764 million yuan, up 8.9% year-on-year. The number of tourists was 27.846 million, a year-on-year increase of 32.9%. Among them, Shanghai Botanical Garden increased by 15.8%, Shanghai Guyi Garden by 10.8%, Shanghai Fangta Garden by 34.8%, Shanghai Wildlife Park by 34.6% and Shanghai Science and Technology Museum by 25.6%.
To sum up, although there were many uncertain factors in tourism in 2009, influenza A (H 1N 1) became the biggest variable. But the fundamentals of tourism development should be better than last year. Annual tourism development forecast: domestic tourism will grow rapidly; Outbound travel has grown steadily; Inbound tourism declined slightly or increased slightly; The operating performance of tourism enterprises is expected to turn losses into profits.