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Why are the 5A-level scenic spots in China becoming more and more popular?
A famous Buddhist holy land, first walk to Erli Commercial Street when you enter the door, the incense is heavier than the soul;
A 5A scenic spot in a certain film and television city, the tickets are so expensive that it seems that he is the starring actor. But when you go in, you will see that it is full of antique cement buildings and 50 cents special effects theaters.
Of course, there are also Qingliu, benchmark players like Jiuzhaigou and Forbidden City, which at least make you feel worth the ticket price.
But generally speaking, many 5A scenic spots have long fallen into the vicious circle of "expensive tickets, rich experience, strong commercialization, and high homogeneity" - as if the mountains and rivers of the country have finally become "ancient town street + glass plank road + sightseeing car + barbecue stall" gift package copied and pasted by the same template.
But this is not the most magical one. What’s magical is that on one side, tourists complain about the poor experience, while on the other side, the number of 5A and 4A scenic spots has grown wildly.
In 2012, there were 6,042 A-level scenic spots nationwide, with an annual revenue of 289.3 billion yuan; by 2024, the number of scenic spots directly soared to 16,541, but the revenue only increased to 481.4 billion yuan.
Just counting, you will understand: the average annual income of a single scenic spot plummeted from about 48 million in 2012 to less than 30 million in 2024.
The more you review the scenic spots, the more you pay, but your ability to make money has dropped sharply - you obviously didn't make much bigger, but you insisted on cutting small pieces desperately.
What's even more outrageous is that ticket prices are still rising.
Ten years ago, you spent 100 yuan to enter the scenic spot, but now you may not be able to touch the door if you don’t have 15 or 200 yuan. Data shows that the average ticket price of domestic 5A-level scenic spots in 2024 increased by about 30% compared with 2019. In a scenic spot in Xi'an, tickets increased from 10 yuan to 85 yuan, an increase of up to 750%;
The common people are paying money while cursing, and the scenic spots are collecting money while shouting about losses. This has become a "classic paradox" of the contemporary tourism industry.
Then the question is: Why is the rating of the scenic spot more and more, and the tickets are getting more and more expensive even though the reputation is clearly declining and tourists are not satisfied?
To put it bluntly, behind it is still "policy economics".
Many places regard scenic spot ratings as ZJ projects and SS tools - once rated as 5A, it means that it can attract more tourists, drive the surrounding economy, raise land prices, and increase local S collection. The scenic spot is no longer just a scenic spot, but a chicken that can lay golden eggs.
Essentially, the administrative department is both the rulemaker, the resource owner, and the ultimate beneficiary.
For example, a well-known mountain scenic spot was exposed to pay more than half of its ticket revenue, including "resource usage fees", "infrastructure fees", "regulation funds", etc. In other words, what you buy is not only a ticket, but also a "invisible crowdfunding" for local infrastructure, new rural construction, and even unit bonus pools.
From the economic model, this is a typical "experience devaluation of oversupply".
The scenic spots strive to upgrade A, expand facilities, and increase tickets because of huge investment in the early stage - they must quickly recover their capital with high ticket prices. But tourists are not stupid. Once the experience fails to meet expectations, they vote with their feet and turn around and leave, causing the scenic spot to fall into a spiral of "the more the price increases, the less people, and the less people, the more they increase the price."
The high tickets didn't get a good experience: tourists in Zhangjiajie were blocked until midnight and could not get off the mountain. Hukou Waterfall built a wall to block the scenery, and it cost extra money to take a fresh bath in Weizhou Island...
There are also many scenic spots that blindly launch and lack core content, which have begun to "explode":
Dayong Ancient City in Zhangjiajie, Hunan has a huge loss of more than 500 million yuan after three and a half years of opening; Shuisi Building, which has invested 800 million yuan, has been unfinished for many years; "Qinghai Travel Investment" recently declared bankruptcy, with 480 million yuan capital exhausted; "Only Emei", which has invested 819 million yuan, has suffered a loss of more than 600 million yuan in six years.
On the other hand, in the age of social media, the way of travel has long been completely revolutionized.
Young people would rather go to museums, hike wild lines in cities, and dance at music festivals than be locked up in scenic spots as "human ATMs". It’s not that they don’t like to travel anymore, but that they refuse to be defined, arranged, and harvested. What they want is real experience, emotional resonance, identity - and these are exactly what many 5A scenic spots cannot give.
Zibo does not have top tourism resources, but relies on a oven to ignite the enthusiasm of the whole people to go there; Harbin put down his "ice city" posture and conquers the market with a "find the money" mentality of pampering customers; Su Chao did not invite a "star", but it drove 38 billion yuan of consumption.
So, why is the 5A scenic spot getting more and more watery?
To put it bluntly, it’s not that people don’t like to play anymore, they just don’t want to make their eyes, heart and wallet feel “not worth it” during the precious holidays.
When we complained that the 5A scenic spot is "becoming waterier", what we complained is not that the mountains and water are no longer beautiful, but that journey that should have been unique, was trapped in an overly similar template.
After all, scenery itself is not scarce, what is scarce is the joy that makes people willing to stay.
When the same antique streets, outrageous sightseeing cars and over-packaged "humanistic performances" consume our expectations again and again, voting with your feet becomes the most instinctive choice.
The best scenery is the free sunset, the alley you accidentally break into, the interesting soul you meet on the road, rather than a water-filled authority to tell us what "beautiful scenery" is.
