Recently, the landmark achievement "China Cultural Tourism Development Report 2024-2025" (hereinafter referred to as the "Report") organized and compiled by the Cultural Tourism Research Base of China Tourism Research Institute has been officially published and distributed by China Tourism Press. Professor Dai Bin, President of the China Tourism Research Institute, pointed out in the preface of the report that "seeing the cultural heritage of ancient towns and the endless vitality of tourism": firstly, prosperity is not just a memory. Ancient towns in history have never been simply geographical spaces, but cultural spaces that carry the life of the city and the memories of its citizens, and are also tourist destinations shared by both hosts and guests; 2、 The culture of longing and the ubiquitous business. Ancient town tourism has shifted from focusing on sightseeing in the early days to emphasizing both sightseeing, leisure, and vacation. It has shifted from solely emphasizing the protection of architectural style and the inheritance of regional culture to placing equal emphasis on tourist sharing and community development. Above the landscape lies life ", mass tourism has entered a new era of comprehensive development, and tourists are more eager to deeply experience the local culture. We must adhere to the people-centered tourism development concept, steadily promote the creative inheritance and innovative development of excellent traditional culture in ancient towns, vigorously promote revolutionary culture and advanced socialist culture, create modern civilization, and cultivate new driving forces in science, technology, culture, art, and fashion. 3、 Carrying the memories of time, illuminating the desired future. In the new era of ancient town tourism, tourists should see the cultural past, but more importantly, residents should see the creative future. Only by injecting the vitality and resources of modern civilization into traditional living scenes, forming a shared way of life between hosts and guests, and creating a symbiotic development model between hosts and guests, can ancient towns radiate endless vitality and attraction. The report stands at the historical intersection of the conclusion of the 14th Five Year Plan and the formulation of the 15th Five Year Plan, comprehensively examining and analyzing the trends, challenges, and opportunities faced by China's cultural tourism development from the perspectives of supply side, demand side, new features, and new trends. The report generally points out that, from the supply side, the rapid expansion of platform economy, homogenization of cultural and tourism products, and lack of core competitiveness have led to changes in economic form, industrial structure, and business model, and the phenomenon of internal competition in traditional cultural tourism formats continues to escalate; Secondly, from the perspective of demand, the market is constantly changing, and the unchanging supply of products cannot adapt to the changing demands of the cultural and tourism market. New gameplay, new experiences, and new scenarios are beginning to dominate the development of future cultural and tourism products, and emotional experiences such as healing, emptying, relaxation, and self enjoyment are becoming the pursuit of value; The third is the reshaping of tourism and lifestyle. Entering a new era, tourists are beginning to delve into urban communities and broader living spaces, giving rise to a new round of urban life transformation. At the same time, daily life content is also accelerating its layout towards tourist and vacation destinations, and the "store scenic area" has become a beautiful living space shared by hosts and guests; Fourthly, Culture and Tourism 3.0 has become the trend. Culture and Tourism 3.0 reflects the innovative application of new quality productivity in the cultural and tourism industry. Cultural creativity has been upgraded to IP leadership, and technological innovation has been transformed into AI driven. Continuous generation, iteration, and transformation are necessary to win the market competition in the new era and build a strong modern industrial system. The main body of the report is divided into industry section, market section, and thematic section. The Industry section specifically focuses on the supply of tourism and performing arts, theme parks, theme hotels, museum tourism, intangible cultural heritage tourism, world cultural heritage tourism, rural cultural tourism, tourism and cultural creativity, cultural and tourism towns, tourism and leisure blocks, etc. It systematically reviews the current development status, existing problems, and trends of each industry. The market section focuses on industry hotspots, conducting comprehensive analysis of sub sectors such as health and wellness tourism, festival tourism, study tours, night tourism, digitalization of cultural tourism, cultural tourism services, and internationalization of cultural tourism, and proposing suggestions and countermeasures. The special topic mainly focuses on in-depth research on the construction of national cultural parks, national cultural export bases, and the integrated development of culture, tourism, culture, and creativity. Combined with regional development realities, it provides useful references for the development of local cultural and tourism industries. Introduction of the main creative team: The "China Cultural Tourism Development Report 2024-2025" is a landmark achievement of the Cultural Tourism Research Base of the China Tourism Research Institute and the seventh annual report compiled by the base organization. The Cultural Tourism Research Base is a peripheral research institution focused on the field of cultural tourism established by the China Tourism Research Institute with the support of Henan University. The director and chief expert is Professor Cheng Suiying, a famous speaker on CCTV's "Hundred Lectures". The base currently has more than 30 full-time and part-time personnel, and has published over 100 papers in authoritative journals such as SCI, SSCI, and CSSCI. It has also published more than 30 monographs such as "The Ancient Capital on the Yellow River" and compiled and published the annual "Annual Report on the Development of Chinese Cultural Tourism". The base has undertaken major bidding projects for the National Social Science Fund, as well as over 60 projects from the National Social Science Fund, National Natural Science Fund, and provincial and ministerial level projects, and over 300 cultural tourism consulting projects, with a wide range of social influence. Cheng Suiying, Director and Chief Expert of the Cultural Tourism Research Base of China Tourism Research Institute, Second level Professor, Doctoral Supervisor, and Speaker of CCTV's "Hundred Lectures". Main research areas: National Cultural Parks, Ancient Capital Cultural Tourism.

Peng Hengli is a professor and doctoral supervisor at the Cultural Tourism Research Base of China Tourism Research Institute, and also serves as the chairman of the Henan Folk Literature and Art Association. Main research areas: Traditional Chinese culture, inheritance and protection of intangible cultural heritage.

Xiao Jianyong, Deputy Director, Associate Professor, Master's Supervisor of the Cultural Tourism Research Base of China Tourism Research Institute, Member of the Henan Provincial Cultural and Tourism Industry Think Tank, and Member of the 15th Zhengzhou Municipal Political Consultative Conference. Main research direction: Integration of cultural tourism.

Zhang Ye, Associate Professor, Master's Supervisor, and Director of the Tourism Management Department at the Cultural Tourism Research Base of China Tourism Research Institute. Main research areas: Tourism and Performing Arts, National Cultural Parks.

Contribution | Cultural Tourism Research Base of China Tourism Research Institute

Editor in Chief | Liu Xin Source | China Tourism Research Institute (Data Center of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism) Please indicate the source when reprinting