[Economic Interface]
Under the night, the city is brightly lit. The bustling pedestrian street, the people coming and going are not tired; The theater and theater of the night show, the audience is in high spirits; Bar party, friends dinner … … With the enrichment of people’s nightlife, the fiery "night economy" began to release its great potential.
At present, China’s nighttime economy is on the rise, and all localities have seized the opportunity to launch policies to encourage nighttime economic development and further promote urban consumption growth. In this process, how to highlight the cultural characteristics of the city, improve the supporting management level of the city, and innovate the diversified night economic formats has become a "proposition" worth thinking about.
1. Rich "nightlife" releases residents’ consumption potential.
Today, the traditional way of life of sunrise and sunset has gradually gone away, and night shopping, catering, tourism, leisure and entertainment, cultural consumption and so on constitute a prosperous and growing night economy.
The change of young people’s lifestyle makes them the "main force" of night consumption. China tourism academy’s research data shows that "post-80s" and "post-90s" account for 40.0% and 19.8% of night tourism consumption respectively. For young people, after a busy day’s work, night is the best time to relieve stress and relax — — Midnight shows of hot movies are often particularly popular; Musicals and theater performances are mostly arranged at night; More and more midnight snack demand has caused many restaurants to adjust their business hours; Theme parks have opened night shows one after another, extending entertainment activities to the night … … These lifestyle changes make night a "golden age" to stimulate economic consumption.
According to statistics, in first-tier cities such as Beijing, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, the proportion of night consumption has already accounted for more than 50% of all-day consumption. According to the relevant report of the Ministry of Commerce, 60% of the consumption occurs at night, and the consumption of large shopping malls accounts for more than half of the whole day from 18: 00 to 22: 00 every night. This situation is more obvious on the e-commerce platform that is open 24 hours a day. According to the data from Lexin’s installment mall, the amount of orders placed on this platform from 7: 00 am to 6: 00 am the next day accounts for 36% of the total order amount. Orders are mainly concentrated from 7: 00 pm to 11: 00 pm, but even at the lowest peak of trading at 5: 00 am, 0.3% of users are placing orders, and the average customer unit price at night is about 30% higher than during the day.
The rise of "Midnight Food Store" has formed a landscape of the city at night, and merchants in special dining areas are open until late at night to meet people’s catering consumption needs for supper and night parties. Bars, KTV, clubs and other places with night activities as their main business have also flourished and become more social leisure and entertainment methods. Tourists have also started "night activities" in addition to traveling during the day — — Embark on the waterfront landscape trail and feel the life culture of the city; Climb the landmark building and enjoy the night lighting of the city; Come to Wenhua Street and Pedestrian Street and feel the local specialties.
In response to the "night tour" needs of tourists, more and more night tour projects have been launched. The starry summer activities in Gubei Water Town in Beijing, the night tour of Huangpu River in Shanghai, the night tour of the two rivers in Chongqing, the "Datang City that Never Sleeps" in Xi ‘an and the "Lancang River Mekong River Night" in Xishuangbanna are all particularly popular. In recent years, the well-received landscape real-life performance project perfectly combines real-life and lighting, making it a good choice for tourists’ night activities. In 2018, the number of orders for products with the label "Night Tour" increased by 9.0% year-on-year.
Night economy is becoming an important indicator to measure urban vitality and residents’ quality of life. Fu Yifu, a senior researcher at Suning Financial Research Institute, pointed out that people’s enthusiasm for consumption at night is high, which helps to expand domestic demand and release the consumption potential of residents. At the same time, the night economy has also provided more jobs for urban residents, promoted the growth of related industries, and prompted the city to continuously improve infrastructure, transportation and public services.
2. Deep integration of night economy and urban culture.
Night economy is also a window of city life culture. Sanlitun in Beijing, Xintiandi in Shanghai, Qinhuai River in Nanjing and Chunxi Road &hellip in Chengdu; … The bustling nights in these places have become a beautiful business card of a city. Whether it’s the brightly lit "Night Shanghai", the Qinhuai River with a unique classical style, or the Tianjin Quyi with full charm, the nightlife with local cultural characteristics makes people appreciate different urban charm.
However, people who have traveled through many cities will find that the night economy in most cities in China has not yet formed its own characteristics. Many cities have night markets, but most of them sell similar snacks and souvenirs with similar formats, and there is a problem of homogenization development.
Dai Bin, president of china tourism academy, pointed out that to develop the night economy, we should fully tap the local night leisure resources and combine our own cultural characteristics to create leisure and entertainment projects, such as cross talk and folk art culture in Tianjin and pingtan culture in Suzhou. The night economy should be deeply integrated with the city’s history and culture, reflect the city’s cultural heritage, build a city’s characteristic brand, and provide differentiated and diversified nightlife for residents and tourists. In the survey of china tourism academy’s demand for tourists’ night tour experience, cultural festivals, visits to cultural sites and other activities are in the forefront, which also shows that the night economy has great room for development in enhancing the advantages of characteristic culture.
At present, many cities are exploring ways to enhance the economic and cultural connotation at night and shape night experience projects with urban cultural characteristics. In Harbin, colorful ice lanterns make night ice and snow tourism projects become city signs; Guangzhou combines its own night tea culture to promote the development of night leisure catering; In Tianjin, which is near the Haihe River, diversified night consumer brands such as "Night Tour of Haihe River", "Night Appreciation of Tianjin Music" and "Night Purchase of Tianjin Goods" are becoming increasingly popular. In Chengdu, activities such as night tour of Wuhou Temple, Jinsha Sun Festival and night tour of Caotang combine history and life culture. Jinan takes the "old streets and lanes" as an attractive element, and develops "punch-in" attractions such as night folk art performances, cultural museums and workshops for non-genetic inheritors.
More rich formats of night economy are coming: late-night cinemas, late-night theaters, late-night bookstores, and night shows in music clubs, art galleries and museums, which can meet the spiritual and cultural consumption needs of residents. For example, the "Sleepover Museum" activities launched in Beijing, Changsha, Hangzhou and other places combine summer camps with parent-child tours and are deeply loved by children; Sanlian Taofen Bookstore, which is brightly lit at night, has also become a phenomenal "urban landscape". The development of fun run, fitness, sports and other projects can guide residents to take part in sports activities outside their homes. fun run around the city wall of Xi ‘an has become the best choice for a large number of fun run fans to "warm up".
3. To be stronger and better is inseparable from standardized development.
Although the development of night economy in some cities has been quite distinctive, on the whole, the development of night economy in China is still in its infancy. Compared with the growing demand, most areas do not have the conditions and ability to develop the night economy, the consumption scene is relatively scarce, and the night economy format is not rich.
"At present, the night economy in China’s cities is mainly catering and shopping, and there is still a big gap between enterprises’ related investment and the supply of products and services during the day, which requires guidance and support from relevant policies." Dai Bin pointed out. Zhao Ping, director of the International Trade Research Department of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, believes that China’s nighttime consumption structure needs to be further optimized and gradually upgraded from commodity consumption to service consumption.
In recent years, seeing the great potential of night economy, various places have launched policy documents to support the development of night economy. Since the end of 2017, Nanjing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Jinan and other cities have successively issued implementation plans to promote the development of night economy, actively laid out functional areas for the development of night economy in cities, and promoted the development of various consumer formats. At the same time, they also introduced measures such as environmental transformation, lighting projects, increasing leisure facilities, and strengthening public service facilities.
Compared with the booming economy, some local residents are worried about the negative impact of the night economy. For example, in noisy bar streets and other places, noise and light pollution may affect the rest of the surrounding citizens; Whether the management of garbage disposal and food hygiene in the night market can be put in place; There are still many citizens who are worried about hidden dangers in safety and fire protection; People who travel at night may encounter problems such as "difficulty in taking a taxi" and "parking chaos" … … These factors undoubtedly put forward higher requirements for urban management. According to the survey in china tourism academy, among the factors that limit tourists’ night experience, 49.4% respondents are worried about safety and 25.8% are worried about inconvenient traffic at night.
In this regard, experts pointed out that in addition to the corresponding extension of business hours by merchants, basic supporting facilities and public services also need to be in place, and the joint promotion of various departments such as transportation, fire protection, public security and market supervision is needed. For example, open more night traffic bus lines or extend the bus operation time, appropriately extend the garbage removal time, increase security patrols, strictly supervise food safety and commodity prices, and protect the legitimate rights and interests of consumers.
Drawing on the international experience, the policy documents issued by Jinan and Shanghai both put forward the system of establishing "night district chief" and "night life chief executive officer", with district heads in charge and people with relevant industry management experience as the posts respectively to co-ordinate and manage the development of night economy. At the same time, all localities also require scientific planning of urban functional areas, creating nightlife gathering areas, forming landmark brand areas, and trying not to disturb the people.
With the continuous attempts to create a new format of multi-form night consumption in various places, the night in the city is no longer a quiet "sleeping city", and the colorful night makes the city glow with new vitality.
(Reporter Lu Yuanzhen)