Night economy has become an important part of urban commerce and an effective carrier to highlight urban characteristics and vitality. The development of night economy can not only meet the people’s growing needs for a better life, but also expand domestic demand, prosper the market, create jobs, and display local culture.
In July this year, the General Office of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism issued the Notice on Carrying out the Construction of the First Batch of National-level Night Culture and Tourism Consumption Clusters, requiring the selection and construction of more than 200 national-level night culture and tourism consumption clusters in batches. According to the survey report of the Ministry of Commerce on the consumption habits of urban residents, 60% of consumption takes place at night, and the sales of some large shopping malls from 18:00 to 22:00 every day account for more than 50% of the whole day. Night economy has become an important indicator of urban economic vitality. At present, how is the development of night economy? How to further enhance the vitality of night consumption? The reporter conducted an interview.
Richer content
The nightly economy involves a variety of business forms and consumption scenarios, and various regions have explored a number of distinctive practice models
On August 25, the Great Tang Night City in Xi’an, Shaanxi Province, was re-lighted. On August 26, Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, orderly resumed night economic activities in Gusu District and other places. On August 30, the Longmen Grottoes in Luoyang, Henan Province resumed its opening at night.
On August 27, the joint prevention and control mechanism of the State Council held a press conference to announce that the current round of epidemic in China has been effectively controlled. With the reduction of epidemic risk level in many places, its nighttime economy gradually returned to normal.
“Eating hairy crabs in Guanqian Street, taking a boat trip to Jinji Lake at night… It’s more interesting to go out at night than in the daytime
In Suzhou, tourists can take the rail transit line 1 to visit Jinji Lake, Gusu Guanqian Street, Shishan in the new area, and Mudu Ancient Town in Wuzhong at night. At the same time, 35 A-level scenic spots and the first six museums in Suzhou are open at night, and a series of night tours, night performances and experience activities are launched.
According to the relevant person in charge of the Suzhou Municipal Bureau of Culture, Radio, Television and Tourism, Suzhou is promoting the normalization of the night economy, and has launched the “Gusu 8:30” series of activities, including six major theme activities, including night tour, night show, night shopping, night food, night entertainment, night reading, and integrating night performances and catering, cinemas, theaters, bookstores and other special activities. In the future, the “bustling Suzhou night” will continue to upgrade and ignite the consumption enthusiasm of night culture and tourism.
The Longmen Grottoes at night have a unique historical charm against the light.
Luoyang City last year issued the Action Plan for Building the “Ancient Capital at 8:00 p.m.” Cultural Tourism Consumption Brand, which aims to enrich the night tourism, night shopping, night snack, night entertainment and other consumption formats through innovative night tourism products, prosper the night cultural tourism market and activate cultural tourism consumption. Among them, “Night Tour Longmen”, “Ancient City Night Rhyme” 3D light show and other projects not only bring new experience to tourists, but also inject new vitality into the tourism night economy.
At present, many domestic cities have explored a relatively mature night economy model. For example, Shanghai is committed to building a number of nightlife clusters around the three characteristics of “international style”, “Shanghai flavor” and “fashion trend”; Xi’an mainly promotes the “night tour of Xi’an”, and makes the “Tang culture” into a tourist card of the ancient capital; Wuhan’s “Yangtze River Light Show” and Nanjing’s “Confucius Temple-Qinhuai Scenic Belt” have become the “golden signboards” of their night economy.
According to AIMedia Consulting data, China’s nighttime economic development scale will exceed 30 trillion yuan in 2020, and it is expected that the development scale will increase to 36 trillion yuan in 2021. The night economy involves a variety of business forms and consumption scenarios, including catering, shopping malls and other business forms that focus on both day and night, as well as bars, KTV and other business forms that focus on night. Cultural and sports activities have gradually become the carrier to undertake urban night activities, and have formed special products such as fitness, concerts, art exhibitions, and late-night bookstores.
Needs are constantly upgrading
More and more consumers pay attention to spiritual and cultural consumption
With the improvement of people’s living standards, more and more consumers begin to pay attention to spiritual and cultural consumption such as pleasure in body and mind, interest in learning, fitness and sports. In order to better meet the upgrading of consumer demand, local governments pay more attention to improving the quality of night economy.
A pot of tea, bursts of laughter. Listening to crosstalk in the teahouse is a favorite night entertainment activity for many Tianjin people. “The actors here are relatively young, and there are magic performances in the middle of the opening of Allegro, which are very innovative. The performances have strong Tianjin characteristics, and are very suitable for entertaining friends from other places.” Tianjin citizen Zhao Junjie said, “Tianjin has another cultural atmosphere in the evening.”
In April of this year, the Tianjin Municipal Bureau of Commerce issued the “Key Work of Developing the Night Economy in Tianjin in 2021”, with the theme of creating the “Night City”, improved the night consumption scene, continued to improve the night economy demonstration block, and supported the holding of artistic performances, music festivals, immersive dramas, talk shows and other activities in the night market block.
A good book moistens the soul. In June this year, 30 branded physical bookstores in Shanghai also launched the “Reading Good Time · Late Night Bookstore Festival” activity. More than 70 night reading activities, such as thematic book exhibitions, cultural lectures, live broadcast of new books, art guides, cultural and creative experiences, parent-child activities, have empowered the cultural and tourism industry and infused the night economy with scholarly charm.
“The late night bookstore festival not only means the extension of business hours, but also meets people’s cultural consumption needs, and makes people deeply feel the cultural background and charm of Shanghai,” said Zheng Chongxuan, a researcher at the Institute of Literature of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences and director of the Public Culture Research Office.
Have a game and relax. “Boxing is different from traditional fitness programs and more competitive. Judging from the recent evening competitions, the contestants and the audience are very enthusiastic, and there are many students who come to exercise in the evening.” said the head of a boxing club in Suzhou.
In May this year, some areas in Suzhou adopted the form of government subsidies and business concessions to distribute cash to offset red packets to the masses. The subsidies covered theatres, bookstores, sports and fitness venues and other cultural and sports consumption places, better meeting the citizens’ demand for high-quality night consumption.
Dai Bin, president of the China Tourism Research Institute, said: “There is a huge market potential for developing the night economy in China. The forms of catering, shopping, night tourism and other industries are far from meeting the needs of consumers. Health care, culture, leisure, health and other aspects of the night economy are becoming more and more important. Focusing on the spiritual needs of consumers and innovating the forms, services and products of the night economy are the breakthroughs for our cities to further develop the night economy.”
Management matching
Improve transportation, safety, environment and other supporting measures to improve the convenience and activity of night consumption
“The night economy has become an important part of urban commerce and an effective carrier to highlight the characteristics and vitality of the city. The development of the night economy can not only meet the growing needs of the people for a better life, but also expand domestic demand, prosper the market, create jobs, and diversify the local culture.” The relevant head of the China Federation of Commerce believes that relevant supporting measures should be improved to further prosper the urban night economy.
In 2019, the Opinions on Accelerating the Development of Circulation and Promoting Commercial Consumption issued by the General Office of the State Council proposed to activate night commerce and market, increase investment where conditions permit, create night consumption scenes and gathering areas, improve night traffic, safety, environment and other supporting measures, and improve the convenience and activity of night consumption.
——Convenient public transportation.
“In the past, when I went out to play in the evening, I didn’t want to go far away, so I always felt that it was easy to go when I went back. But since the ‘night shift subway’ was available at the weekend, I felt secure.” Zhou Qunfei, a resident of Chaoyang District, Beijing, was going to visit Wukesong in Haidian District this weekend evening to watch the art exhibition and stroll around.
Recently, Beijing has extended the operation time of Metro Lines 1 and 2 every Friday and Saturday in order to further prosper the night economy and meet the needs of citizens for night travel. Take Wukesong Station as an example, the last bus to Sihuidong is 00:45 after the extension, and the last bus to Gucheng is 01:15.
Niu Wentao, associate professor of the Cultural Tourism Creative Industry Research Institute of Zhengzhou University, believes that relevant departments should build a multi-dimensional fast transportation system to meet the consumer’s consumption demand at night to the greatest extent.
——Improve urban management.
“The current night market is managed orderly, clean and sanitary, breaking the impression that the night market was messy and bad in the past.
To promote the sustained development of the night economy, good supporting management is indispensable. The person in charge of Wencui night market said: “The local regulatory authorities promote the point management system for night market stalls. If the points are qualified, the stall owners can automatically continue to receive the temporary road occupation permit for the next year, which improves the intrinsic motivation of the stall owners’ self-restraint.”
Suzhou issued the Opinions on Promoting Urban Refined Management and Prospering the Night Economy last year, requiring the sanitation department to increase the cleaning force in the region, adjust the cleaning level and extend the cleaning time; Public toilets will be built in night economic areas.
——Strengthen digital construction.
“Since the summer of this year, we have empowered catering merchants through digital new products such as menu transformation and merchant diagnosis report, helping catering enterprises understand the night consumption demand and improve services.” said Shen Yi, head of the night snack section of the Hungry Mo Summer Action.
At present, new technologies such as 5G, mobile internet, intelligent communication and mobile payment are changing people’s production and lifestyle. The relevant head of the China Tourism Research Institute believes that digital technology is reconstructing the supply side, demand side and supply chain of the night economy and reshaping the industrial development pattern. Both the government and enterprises should use digital technology to improve management efficiency and promote the continuous growth of quantity and quality of night economy.