During the recent Spring Festival, Jimei tourism achieved a strong start, with a significant boost in revenue-generating capacity. Data shows that during the 2019 Spring Festival holiday, Jimei District accommodated 96,500 overnight visitors at local lodging establishments, a year-on-year increase of 17.26%, with an average occupancy rate nearing 80%. The average length of stay rose from 1.5 days to 2 days, and total visitor numbers reached 969,700, generating tourism revenue of 513 million yuan. The surge in popularity also led to booming hotel and restaurant businesses, with multiple hotels such as Grand Mercure Haiwan Huilong and Lion King Hotel reporting over one million yuan in food and beverage revenue. Capitalizing on this momentum, Jimei tourism is gearing up for Lantern Festival events, aiming to extend the benefits of the winter holiday season and offer visitors a unique family-friendly experience.
As the tourism industry transitions from high-speed growth to high-quality development, Jimei District, an important administrative region within the tourist city of Xiamen, has witnessed a continuous rise in both its “charm index” and “revenue index,” serving as strong evidence of its rapid catch-up and high-quality development. In recent years, under the guidance of cultural and tourism authorities in Fujian Province and Xiamen City, the Jimei District Party Committee and government have focused on building six major industrial chains and seven key investment projects. By precisely targeting the family market, deepening reforms in tourism supply-side structural innovation, and leveraging creative thinking to develop tourism products, they aim to meet the consumption demands of visitors. This strategy continuously enhances the quality and experience of tourism, attracting more tourists to visit, stay, and spend in Jimei. The approach has fostered a comprehensive tourism “Jimei Model” that integrates “brand events + integrated marketing + immersive experiences + quality consumption,” driving a shift in Jimei tourism from “quantity” to “quality.” From 2016 to 2018, both tourist numbers and revenue in Jimei District tripled, maintaining the highest growth rates in the city. Notably, during the 2018 National Day holiday, Jimei District saw tourist numbers rank first in Xiamen for the first time, while accommodation and catering revenue growth ranked first in the city for the entire year.
Precise Positioning, Innovative Products Drive Strong Revenue
“The family market is a high-quality tourism sector and a crucial focus for Jimei tourism development. This Spring Festival, the festive activities at various scenic spots and hotels across the district were colorful, making a trip to Jimei with family truly unique,” said a Jimei District official. Major scenic spots in Jimei leveraged big data analysis to plan distinctive family-oriented activities, quickly drawing crowds.
At the Chengyi Science and Technology Exploration Center, the Snow Park and the “Hezheng Ancient Animal Fossil Exhibition” became the most popular attractions among children, receiving 30,700 visitors over five days, a 55.3% increase. Tianmu Hot Springs created a uniquely captivating “Hot Springs Light Show,” maximizing the leisure and entertainment appeal of the site, with 6,000 visitors, up 18.5%. The popularity of Jimei’s nighttime tourism offerings during this Spring Festival also encouraged visitors to stay longer. The Lion King Circus’ Lunar New Year performance, “Dragon Soaring and Phoenix Dancing – Golden Pig Celebrates the New Year,” was a sell-out, attracting 94,700 visitors, a 18.6% increase. The performing arts scene also saw high demand with the “Legend of Southern Fujian” show at Xiamen Old Courtyard, which had sold-out performances and welcomed 111,000 visitors, up 13.1%. Additionally, events such as the Prayer and Flower Appreciation Festival at Yuanbo Garden and the Fruit Paradise Fruit Cartoon Festival infused strong festive vibes, ensuring visitors could enjoy different highlights every day in Jimei.
During the Spring Festival, the proportion of individual (non-group) visitors at Jimei scenic spots rose from 50% to 60%, with self-guided tours and family trips becoming the main drivers of consumption. The main scenic areas in Jimei also saw significant increases in revenue, boosting overall tourism economic benefits. Yuanbo Garden saw a 4% increase in visitors but a remarkable 31.2% rise in ticket revenue, earning 2.001 million yuan. Lion King International Circus City received 18.6% more visitors, with ticket revenue climbing 35.5% to 10.7664 million yuan from 94,200 attendees. Notably, secondary consumption such as dining and shopping within the scenic areas was also brisk, further lifting overall tourism economic gains.
While individual scenic spots made their own efforts, Jimei also adopted an innovative “cross-sector integration” approach to create tourism products, including “tourism + culture,” “tourism + sports,” “tourism + wellness,” and “tourism + technology,” fully meeting the consumption needs of diverse groups. During the Spring Festival, Jimei tourism launched a series of “Family and Friends Travel” products, bundling options to cater to the needs of residents hosting relatives and friends. Rural sports and leisure tourism and eco-experience tours led by destinations like Shuanglongtan Scenic Area and Tasman, as well as urban escapes, also attracted many city dwellers. Meanwhile, the new Xiamen Library branch and the cultural and creative district of Jimei Dasha quickly became popular photo spots in Jimei, rapidly driving foot traffic.
Service Innovation Enhances Immersive Experiences and Visitor Retention
“Quality tourism is the inevitable trend in the evolution of the tourism industry. Only by perfecting every detail can we elevate the quality of tourism and keep visitors coming back,” said a Jimei tourism representative. With this philosophy, Jimei continues to deepen and innovate its tourism services, encouraging more visitors to stay longer and explore more of what Jimei has to offer.
During the Spring Festival, the Jimei Tourist Shuttle – a historic tram service – operated without interruption, providing direct access to scenic spots and hotels, addressing transportation challenges during the holiday. It also improved connectivity between various attractions. Additionally, the tram offered special group booking discounts and customized tour routes based on individual needs, giving both locals and tourists a VIP-like experience exploring Jimei.
Catering to the characteristics of Spring Festival travelers and their consumption needs, Jimei improved the tourism experience through more humanized services, thereby boosting visitor spending in the district. During the holidays, Jimei produced and distributed comprehensive play-eat-shop-entertainment guides, placing them directly in hotel rooms for targeted marketing. Training sessions were also conducted to enhance the knowledge of hotel staff about scenic spots and for scenic spot personnel to be informed about hotel and F&B offerings, turning both into mutual promoters. This effectively addressed visitors’ dining concerns during the festive season. Through such collaborative innovations, hotels and scenic spots referred guests to each other, fostering mutual promotion, coordinated cooperation, and shared benefits across Jimei’s tourism resources.
Meanwhile, during the Spring Festival, Jimei also strengthened market regulation and management. Through pre-holiday planning, on-site inspections, and joint enforcement involving multiple departments such as tourism, traffic police, fire services, market supervision, pricing, law enforcement, and health, the district ensured that both residents and visitors enjoyed a safe and joyful holiday in Jimei.
Every detail mattered as Jimei’s scenic spots and hotels provided humanized, heartfelt, and personalized services, which also contributed to an increase in the average length of stay for overnight visitors. Statistics show that the overall average occupancy rate of accommodations in Jimei continued to rise during this Spring Festival, nearing 80%, with the average stay extending from 1.5 to 2 days. Despite an addition of nearly 3,000 beds, the occupancy rate of star-rated hotels remained high. The top three performers – Lion King Hotel, Haiwan Wanda Hotel, and Ridong Garden Hotel – achieved occupancy rates of 89.45%, 86.5%, and 83.6%, respectively. In addition, distinctive homestays emerged as a highlight, with nine registered homestays on Jimei Street reporting over 90% occupancy this spring.
Integrated Marketing Boosts Visibility for Scenic Spots and Hotels
“During the Spring Festival holiday, the Chengyi Science and Technology Exploration Center became one of the most popular attractions in Xiamen. Aside from the strong appeal of our own special events, this success was also due to the mutual promotion and collaborative marketing among scenic spots and hotels this year,” said Lin Jiesheng, head of the Chengyi Science and Technology Exploration Center.
In recent years, to drive tourism quality and efficiency improvements, Jimei District has conducted precise market analysis and introduced big data tools and third-party evaluations. It innovatively created the “International Jimei Festival,” a unique tourism IP for Jimei, which organically connects and integrates brand events with the district’s scenic spots, hotels, commercial resources, and other tourism assets into an upgraded tourism platform. Leveraging the Jimei Festival, the district has continuously refined its marketing strategies, achieving precise positioning and driving tourism growth through integrated online and offline efforts.
This Spring Festival, Jimei placed greater emphasis on the linkage and synergy of its tourism resources, launching innovative campaigns such as “New Year Ji Fortune” and “New Year Dingding Lucky Draw.” From the first to the fifteenth day of the lunar new year, residents and visitors could visit designated check-in spots at scenic areas or ride the Dingding tram to participate in red envelope giveaways, ushering in good luck for the new year. These activities not only provided discounts to visitors but also united various scenic spots, enhancing collaboration across Jimei’s tourism resources and further boosting overall visitor numbers.
In intensifying its marketing efforts, Jimei tapped deeply into the power of self-media promotion, upgrading its marketing techniques by using visitor tagging to deliver more precise outreach. For example, proactive marketing targeted family and student demographics, using fun diary-check-in formats to engage users. Additionally, Jimei tourism employed trendy new media tools such as creative posters, short videos, and online contests with prizes, helping the tourism sector thrive. Notably, the official “Jimei Tourism” WeChat account frequently ranked first in influence among county- and city-level tourism WeChat accounts in Fujian. During the Spring Festival, the Jimei Tourism WeChat account saw a 6.6-fold increase in followers compared to normal times; its Baidu search index on mobile devices rose 212% year-on-year and 54% month-on-month.
Tourism Merchandise Innovation Strongly Drives Market Consumption
Jimei tourism has consistently used innovative thinking to develop tourism derivative products. By creating travel merchandise and offering extended recommendations, it meets market demands and enhances the district’s ability to attract revenue and stimulate consumer spending.
Different from traditional tourism souvenirs, Jimei innovatively blends “study tours” with derivative products, crafting distinctive items rich in cultural and tourism attributes. During the Spring Festival, various scenic spots in Jimei chose unique focal points based on their features, developing specialized study travel courses and products. The Lion King Animal Kingdom emphasized packaging around the national treasure giant panda IP, promoting panda-themed science education. The Chengyi Science and Technology Exploration Center hosted the Hezheng Ancient Animal Fossil Exhibition and offered over ten science courses, including “Deep Space Decoding” and “The Ever-Changing Moon Phases,” bringing joy to many visitors.
In developing study tour-related derivatives, Jimei continuously taps into its own scenic and academic resources, emphasizing the integration of tourism products with cultural education. Guided by the “Four Beams and Eight Pillars” concept, it enriches the content and spatial dimensions of Jimei’s study tour offerings. In 2018, Jimei established a diversified “1+X” study tour system comprising one study headquarters, 29 course bases, and over 600 sub-courses. It also launched several study tour brands, including the Jimei International Cultural Exchange Season for Chinese and international students and cross-strait study exchange programs.
Jimei tourism also adheres to a people-oriented philosophy, creating an innovative online derivative product – the “Jimei Tourism” mini-program. Free to use, data-efficient, and user-friendly, it serves as an official online ticketing and information platform, comprehensively meeting users’ tourism needs and becoming a handy travel companion for visitors.
Additionally, Jimei has designed a variety of tourism derivatives based on market demand, such as hand-drawn postcards, China’s first travel-themed “Monopoly” online mini-game, Jimei gesture-based E-Tong cards, and custom souvenirs from scenic spots. These efforts have built an online trading platform and marketing IP brand for Jimei tourism, continuously enhancing its added value, brand depth, and urban brand influence, laying a solid foundation for sustained growth in tourism revenue.
Spring Festival scenic activities are just a microcosm of Jimei’s deeper implementation of tourism supply-side reforms. Since 2016, Jimei District has developed the “International Jimei Festival” as a tourism version of “Ctrip + Taobao.” Backed by official endorsement, it hosts large-scale brand events such as the Family Fun Festival, Cross-Strait Temple Fair, and Migu Half Marathon, quickly generating business opportunities and transforming “off-season” into “peak season.” By bundling these major events with discounted offers from Jimei’s scenic spots and hotels, and marketing them as a unified package, the district precisely targets family travelers, offering the most comprehensive range of tourism products to continuously elevate the sector.
Moving forward, Jimei District will continue to drive reform and innovation in the cultural tourism industry’s supply side. Using the “Jimei Festival” as a platform, it aims to build a comprehensive tourism framework, linking cultural, sports, and tourism projects across the jurisdiction to create a collective effect. This will form an optimized, spatially organized, product-rich, and industrially advanced tourism ecosystem, advancing “big tourism, big industry, big market, and big development.” The goal is to genuinely improve the quality and level of Jimei tourism, establish it as the “most beautiful tourism destination,” and provide visitors with an integrated “eat, drink, play, entertain, shop, and learn” service package, achieving the “small goal” of making “a trip to Xiamen incomplete without visiting Jimei.”