In “Wenxi Langyuan” in Shuanglin Village, Hu Street, Qiaotou, Ninghai, Ms. Chen, the owner of the homestay, is sitting in the spacious living room drinking tea, and looking out from the floor-to-ceiling windows, the camellia flowers and fire thorns in the courtyard are blooming just right. This is version 2.0 of her homestay, with floor tiles, flowers and plants, a pool and an outdoor promenade, which has become a favorite garden for tourists.
“Last year, we renovated 8 homestays, and this year, more than 10 homestays have taken the initiative to sign up for renovation.” Dong Yun, a propaganda member of the Qiaotou Hu Street Party Working Committee, said. Under the influence of the epidemic, in order to keep the homestay competitive, they chose to “do internal strength” and use fine upgrading and transformation to “lay the foundation” for the quality of the homestay.
As a highlight of the “micro-transformation and fine improvement” of the tourism industry, the transformation of Shuanglin Village B&B can be described as “embroidery work”, not only paying attention to details, but also combining local culture to explore a unique path.
According to the staff, there are more than 30 local artists in the Huangdun Art Club here, who are good at calligraphy and painting, paper carving, etc. In order to make the local micro-transformation unique and local, these artists participate in it, become a local “cultural force”, dig deep into the village resources, and attract villagers to participate; In addition, he also participated in the “Cultural and Creative B&B” and designed many cultural and creative products with local characteristics. Seeing that the neighbor’s homestay is becoming more and more beautiful, the flow of customers is increasing, and more homestay owners are also taking the initiative to join the transformation. Ms. Chen said that her homestay is currently moving from version 2.0 to version 2.5, and plans to create a “starry sky garden” to further enrich the leisure landscape of the small garden.
In the process of transformation, adapting measures to local conditions is a concept adhered to by Shuanglin Village. As one of the first pilot projects for the reform of homestay agglomeration areas in Zhejiang Province, homestay transformation is a microcosm of the “micro-transformation and fine improvement” of tourism in Ninghai County. In this 7.5-kilometre-long valley, meticulous kung fu is also being seen elsewhere and is attracting more villagers, artists and university teams.
“We believe that renovations without mass participation are ‘plastered on the wall’ and will not last long. Therefore, in the process of attracting villagers to participate, we also made full use of the creation of the county art characteristic village, and docked with the China Academy of Art, Ningbo University, Zhejiang University of Technology, Donghua University and other university teams to participate in it. The local staff said.
Walking along the Wen River from the entrance of the village, you can see that a trail is being built by the stream, and more boutique homestay hotels, water parks, agricultural complexes and other projects are also being planned. The second phase of the Xijian Art Museum, which is being built, is also full of unique artistic elements, introducing a new experience with the elements of “sound and light”.
“In recent years, we have cooperated with Shanghai Jingyu Group to build the ‘Mile Yara’ International Rural Resort. Along the road, visitors can see that the infrastructure and functional facilities of the entire valley are constantly improving, and the business formats are constantly enriched. Local staff said, but to varying degrees, there are problems such as old village appearance, insufficient cultural excavation, and low level of original business formats. Based on this, Wenxi Cuigu Art Valley started the renovation work.
For the transformation of Wenxi Cuigu Art Valley, the local staff has also carried out many explorations, school-local cooperation, high-end artists stationed, local artists participate, each path has different and highlights, and also has reference value.
“After carrying out the ‘micro-transformation and fine improvement’ of the tourism industry, we feel that the biggest feature is to grasp the needs of owners and mobilize owners to participate.” Local staff said that for the renovation of homestays, they highlighted the strengths of the owners and created a variety of themed homestays such as succulents, root carvings, calligraphy and paintings.
In addition, the transformation here is deeply integrated with the tourism development of the valley. Use tourism projects to promote the change of practitioners’ way of thinking, and use “micro-transformation and fine improvement” to beautify the environment and improve business formats, and the two promote each other. For example, a water park will be built in Shuanglin Village, and the construction of Xijian Art Museum and the transformation and upgrading of “art accommodation” will be promoted, so that tourists can play, see, eat and live.
And all the renovations have the same goal – to keep tourists staying. The ordinary houses in the village present different styles and tones through artistic transformation, combined with local artists stationed in homestays and cultural and creative product development, which greatly enhances the sense of experience of tourists.
Through all-round upgrading and transformation, Art Valley has attracted different groups of tourists such as study tours and parent-child tours, which not only create its own characteristics, but also drive residents’ income to increase. According to statistics, there are 46 homestays with 936 beds in the valley, which received a total of 300,000 tourists last year and achieved tourism income of 25 million yuan, an increase of 25% over 2020.