1. Introduction

1.1. Reseach Background and Significance

Cultural tourism industry is a part of tourism that using human landscape and historical site to develop tourism industry and disseminate culture. As one of a benefit way to promote tourism, local economic development and inherit the culture, China has introduce series policy to stimulate the development of cultural tourism. What’s more, the "14th Five-Year Plan" and the Outline of 2035 Vision Goals clearly put forward the need to improve the modern cultural and creative industry system, which can see that cultural tourism industry has favourable development foreground [1]. Xi’an has abundant sources of cultural tourism, which will encourage it to develop tourism and local economy.

In December 2019, COVID-19 had spread in China, which led to lockdown and stagnation of tourism, seriously affecting Chinese economy. Until the end of 2022, COVID-19’s impact had reduced. However, there is no doubt that owing to the impact of epidemic, Chinese tourism had stagnated long time and have difficult to recover, which means that the aftermath of the epidemic is still affecting China's economic development. It is gratifying that a long period of home blockade and closure of the city, increasing people's desire to travel. According to 2023 Summer Tourism Market Monitoring Report, during the summer vacation, the number of tourists increased significantly, the number of domestic tourists alone reached 1.838 billion people, and the income brought by tourism also reached 1.21 trillion yuan. It can be seen that the recovery momentum of tourism after the epidemic is good and will continue for some time [2].

We hope our research could provide inspiration and guidance for the subsequent development of Xi'an 's cultural industry. What’s more, the COVID-19 isn’t the first virus to influence human’s life and after all of these natural disasters, people have to face economic recovery and development. In this situation, if human could find out some ways to avoid large outbreaks of disease, or to minimize the impact of the spread of disease on economic development. For example, any scenic area is restricted to current reception, so that if there is a disease, the loss can be minimized. Through our research, we hope it can not only help Xi’an to recover its cultural tourism but also can also provide inspiration for the development direction of tourism in the future.

1.2. Literature Review

This paper focuses on the promotion and development of the cultural tourism industry in China after Covid-19. However, there are some scholars who focus on the future development of urban cultural tourism in Spain, such as Luis Alfonso Escudero Gómez [3]. Although both papers explore the development of cultural tourism after COVID-19, the former focuses more on the study of Xi’an, a city in China, while the latter focuses more cultural tourism in urban areas. It is also worth mentioning that the latter paper researches on the problem by building a model, however, this paper provides more theoretical data and conclusions. Some other papers focus on the quality of cultural tourism in Portugal during and before the COVID-19 epidemic. Such as Richards Greg and Fernandes Carlos [4]. The main difference between the two papers is time line difference, the former studies more of the post-pandemic era and the latter studies the cultural tourism before and during the pandemic. However, this paper also refers to a lot of data and possible policies, while the latter only has a survey as its source. The accuracy of the survey depends on a lot of variables, so this paper should be more precise and accurate than the latter ones.

1.3. Research Content and Framework

This paper will be mainly discussing about the Promotion and development of the direction of the cultural tourism industry in Xi’an after the pandemic COVID-19. COVID-19 has undoubtedly affected many industries, especially the cultural tourism industry in Xi’an, since there was a lockdown in China. The problems of the industry will be illustrated, the suggestions based on actual background will also be provided.

2. Case Description

Xi'an, as one of the ancient capitals of thirteen dynasties, is not only the first of the four ancient capitals, but also is one of the important origins and development centers of Chinese civilization. Xi’an has many historical site, as Giant Wild Goose Pagoda, Terra Cotta Warriors, Ruins of Daming palace in Tang dynasty and stuff. What’s more, compared with areas with high level of economic development such as Shanghai and Beijing, Xi'an is less attractive to foreign brands such as Universal Studios and Disney, and the local natural landscape is less attractive than Suzhou and Lijiang, so it has no competitive advantage in other tourism industries. In this way, Xi’an has great popularity and advantage to develop cultural and creative tourism and relative IP products, which will stimulate tourism development and drive the development of entire Xian’s economy.

Under the background of China's efforts to recover economic development after the epidemic and support the reform of the cultural tourism industry, Xi'an has a unique advantage to develop cultural tourism and restore the economy. Through the local historical and cultural relics in Xi'an, the development of tourism and corresponding IP products and cultural performances can attract foreign tourists at home and abroad to come to play, drive the recovery of local economy, and promote the transmission of historical culture. Theoretically speaking, it is a good strategy for Xi'an to promote the recovery and development of its tourism industry in the post-epidemic era.

3. Analysis on the Problems

Affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and a latter mutant strain called O 'Mykron, people’s willingness to travel had decreased during 2019 and2022, which make a huge influence to tourism. From the report on the impact of COVID-19 on tourist flows in 2021-2022, the tourism market in the north is less active, which had greatly affected the development of tourism in various regions. However, the good news is that Shaanxi Province is still the first tier of tourist cities, and it is still attractive to foreign and local tourists on the whole, which means that the tourism industry in Xi'an needs a relatively short period of recovery and development [5]. Although Xi'an can quickly adjust its status and restore its pre-epidemic business capacity in post-epidemic era, it still faced with serious economic loss and series problems. So, when Xi'an continues to recover and develop its own cultural and tourism industry in the post-epidemic era, there are also some problems to address.

3.1. Low Profit from Tourism Revenue

Although the number of Shanxi’s tourism ranked the first echelon, its tourism revenue is still at a loss in 2022 from the report of Ranking of Tourism Business Revenue in China by region in 2022 (with annual list TOP32 detailed list) [6]. To be specific, the efficiency of tourism resources, especially cultural tourism resources, is low and cannot play an effective role in the economic recovery after the epidemic. Gross domestic product affects tourism competitiveness and thus influence tourism income [7]. In this situation, how to improve the tourism competitiveness, especially in the culture tourism product is become a huge emphasis.

3.2. Lack of Professional Personnel

From Song Zhen’s model, it is clearly to find that the impact of higher education graduates on tourism income is not significant, while patent applications and expenditure have a significant impact on income. In this way, how to enhance the originality and attractiveness of cultural tourism products and improve the utilization efficiency of cultural tourism funds is an important way to promote the cultural tourism industry to promote economic recovery and development after the epidemic.

3.3. Wide Range, Serious Loss and Difficult Recovery

Cultural and creative tourism in Xi'an involves all aspects of people's clothing, food, housing and transportation, i.e., from Giant Wild Goose Pagoda’s temple’s visit to Tang style dress experience shooting. However, owing to the lockdown cause by COVID-19, all aspects of the tourism industry have faced with series problems -- the park closed, the passenger flow reduced, and the pressure to maintain the original opening or operating conditions is great, which taken a hit in revenue. As a result, Integrating the cultural and tourism industry, reducing costs, and boosting its confidence in resuming business after the epidemic are issues that need to be considered. What’s more, ow to combine self-rescue and other rescue is also a problem that needs to be considered [8].

3.4. The Aftermath of the Outbreak Is Still Being Felt

Although after “The 20th National Congress”, China has deregulation of epidemic control, there are still something to influence people's willingness to travel. For example, the epidemic has caused most people lose their jobs, reducing their own economic conditions and limiting their tourism consumption. In addition, travel can be a risk of infection and discourages people from traveling to crowded places. In order to solve these problems, how to achieve long-distance tourism or reduce the cost of tourism, and reduce the risk of large-scale outbreak of the epidemic again is a question to be considered as well. In addition, the previous large-scale regional tourism planning may also cause dense population and cause risks. If the regional thinking is broken, it is also a problem that needs to be considered [9].

4. Suggestion

4.1. Upgrading Consumption and Extending the Industrial Chain

Tourist attractions in Xi'an, especially traditional tourist attractions, have a single revenue structure, with tickets as the primary source of income and transportation as the second source of income. Therefore, the scenic spot can only upgrade consumption, extend the industrial chain, expand the secondary consumption projects. For traditional natural scenic spots and cultural scenic spots such as Lishan Mountain and Xi'an City Wall, due to many restrictions on the natural environment and historical protection, it is difficult to expand secondary consumption, and relevant services can be provided outside the core area to stimulate secondary consumption. In terms of accommodation, comfort is the basic accommodation requirement. Only when combined with the characteristics of scenic spots or Xi'an to create a unique accommodation experience, can tourists be willing to move in. In catering, it addresses the problem of eating and increases income while also helping to extend the tourist stay. Tourist attractions can be held according to their own situation, around the scenic area or inside the scenic area, or in some festivals, the construction of local special food area, through the holding of food culture festival, folk culture festival and other forms, to attract tourists to spend. In terms of goods, many tourists have the habit of buying souvenirs with local characteristics. Scenic spots can even develop interactive products to allow tourists to participate in the production process.

4.2. Improve the Level of Personnel, the Appropriate Increase in Welfare

Tourism administration departments should further improve the system of "working with certificates", Postpose training requires the technical grade certificate and professional technical post certificate, Untrained or unqualified in the training, No post or post, Make education and people and people organically combined; Establish and improve the regular assessment, promotion and reward system for the professional titles and positions of various tourism practitioners, In particular, to further improve the incentive mechanism for tourism talents, In order to better mobilize the enthusiasm of tourism talents in all provinces and regions; Strengthen the institutional construction and function improvement of tourism industry associations at all levels, Give full play to its positive role in representing the interests of the industry and promoting industry self-discipline, For the association work to create a good development environment and government management and so on[10].

4.3. Hold High Rate of Return Events

Scenic spot operators can carry out low-cost and high-return activities, such as making folk custom experience with hot traditional culture. During the major festivals, operators of scenic spots can carry out light shows, fireworks shows, music festivals and other activities with relatively low cost, to attract a large number of tourists to the scenic spot during the holidays. Operators of scenic spots can also launch activities such as issuing tourism vouchers and ticket discounts to boost the recovery of the cultural tourism industry.

4.4. Promote Surrounding Tourism

The best way to achieve low cost and low risk of infection is peripheral travel. Peripheral tourism plays an important role in tourism income. The rounding tourism has put forward new requirements for food, accommodation, tourism, entertainment and other sectors in tourism, so as to promote the high-quality development of tourism. Peripheral tour is a typical kind of leisure close to the original life, paying attention to the quality of experience. People are more and more concerned about the theme, interest and family nature, and the demand for entertainment and play projects is increasing. The operators of scenic spots need to constantly enrich the connotation of the surrounding tour. Surrounding tourism will become a new growth point of cultural tourism consumption, which has positive significance for the development of cultural industry, especially the leisure and entertainment industry, cultural creative design industry, etc. In addition, in the context of rural revitalization, it will also have a good role in promoting agricultural development [11].

5. Conclusion

Since 2022, tourism in the post-epidemic era. However, even under the government, there are still some defects in the economic development of scenic spots. We analyzed the cultural and creative scenic spots in Shaanxi province and gave some suggestions. This paper finds that the scenic spot needs to make improvements in the business scope, business personnel, operation mode and operation publicity. First, the scenic spot can conduct some secondary consumption; Second, the scenic spot conducts personnel training and appropriately increases welfare; Third, the scenic spot can carry out some low-cost and high-return activities during holidays; Forth, scenic spot can promote surrounding tourism.

In China, consolidating the primary industry, improving the secondary industry and developing the tertiary industry are the overall deployment and thinking of economic restructuring. Tourism is a comprehensive industry, has a very prominent correlation leading role, play a core role in driving the development of other industries, not only directly to aviation, transportation, hotel, catering service, commercial outlets, scenic spots, classic brought customers and market, and indirectly drive and influence the rural and urban construction, processing and manufacturing, the development of cultural and sports industries. The development of tourism will increase the proportion of tourism in the tertiary industry, facilitate the internal structural adjustment of the tertiary industry, and increase the proportion of the tertiary industry in the whole national economy, accelerate the structural adjustment among the primary, secondary and tertiary industries, and promote the healthy development of our national economy. The success of China's industrial structure adjustment in the new period depends on the rapid development of tourism.

Based on the analysis of this paper, there are many new problems to be solved, and in the following aspects, further analysis is needed. The paper only considers the scenic spot operator, not from the government, tourism bureau and other aspects of detailed analysis, the solution is not perfect. The paper only considers some basic conditions of the operation of the scenic spot, and the special situation of the scenic spot, and the problems analyzed are not perfect. The solution of this paper is only inferred from the literature and cannot guarantee the implementation.

Authors Contribution

All the authors contributed equally and their names were listed in alphabetical order.