In today‘s booming tourism industry, how to stand out and attract more tourists has become the focus of the industry. The Song Dynasty of Kungfu City has successfully attracted a large number of tourists through ingenious planning of performance activities. In particular, the characteristic live action theme performance show, Shenzhou Boat Wonders, which was created by Vanyee, has become a trump card program in the tourist attraction. This article will deeply discuss how the Song Dynasty of Kungfu City can make use of performance to achieve success, and explore some suggestions on how to use performance to create a popular tourist attraction.
I. The role and importance of performance activities in the tourist attractions:
Performance activities play an important role in the tourist attractions, and their importance and role are mainly reflected in the following aspects:
First of all, performance activities can deepen the theme of the tourist attraction and reflect the culture of the tourist attraction. Through performance planning activities, the culture of the tourist attraction can be more three-dimensional, visualized and artistically displayed to tourists. For those tourist destinations with rich historical and cultural resources, performance activities break the tradition that tourists only rely on cultural relics, tourist attractions and other static forms to understand the history and culture, making the "dead" resources "alive" and becoming a vivid and novel form of deep excavation and development of historical and cultural resources. This will not only enable tourists to deepen their understanding and experience of the tourist destination and the culture of the tourist attraction in the artistic enjoyment, but also further enrich the supply of cultural tourism products, enhance the cultural connotation of the tourist attraction and enhance its attractiveness.
Secondly, performance activities can enhance the competitiveness of the tourist attraction. From the perspective of enterprise management, the competitiveness of products comes from the level of price and cost, the advantage of quality, the strength of product brands, the differentiation of product structure, and the quality of customer service. For tourist attractions, as a tourism product, the formation of its competitiveness requires diversified combination of various types of performance products and enhanced experience richness in addition to the quality of plays with unique content. Through the combination of various types of products such as regular performances, street performances and festival performances held at different times, as well as the diversification of performance program means and forms, it can stimulate tourists’ various feelings, make tourists feel richer and more impressed with the activities, thus forming the unique competitiveness of the tourist attraction.
In addition, performance activities can also help to extend the stay time of tourists in the tourist attraction. With the general improvement of the hardware reception facilities in the tourist attractions and the higher level of tourists’ demand, the tourist attractions need to provide more abundant and attractive reasons for tourists’ stay and accommodation. As a night tourism project, performance activities can attract tourists to stay longer in the tourist attraction, or even stay overnight, through their unique charm, thus increasing the economic benefits of the tourist attraction.
Finally, performance activities are also of great significance for deepening the development of tourism resources. With the increasing attention paid to night tourism projects by tourism developers, night tourism has become another important aspect of the charm display of tourist attractions. As an important form of night tourism, performance activities can meet the high-level tourism needs of tourists, especially spiritual and emotional needs, through their rich forms of expression and profound cultural connotation. From a psychological point of view, people’s feelings at night are more abundant, and creating tourism attraction at night is more likely to trigger emotional resonance of tourists, making tourists more likely to “fall in love” with the tourist attraction.
Performance activities are one of the important means for tourist attractions to attract tourists. They can not only enrich the tourist experience, but also enhance the cultural connotation and brand image of tourist attractions. Through performance activities, the tourist attraction can present historical culture, folk customs and other elements to tourists in a vivid and intuitive form, so that tourists can understand the history and culture of the tourist attraction while enjoying the performance. In addition, performance activities can also enhance the sense of participation and interaction of tourists, enhance the competitiveness of the tourist attraction, extend the stay time of tourists and deepen the development of tourism resources. Performance activities can not only provide tourists with a richer and more comfortable tourism experience, but also bring significant economic and social benefits to the tourist attraction, and promote the high-quality development of cultural tourism, improve tourists’ satisfaction and loyalty.
II. The successful practice of performance activities in the Song Dynasty of Kungfu City:
The Song Dynasty of Kungfu City, with the theme of swordsman culture, has successfully created a tourist destination full of martial arts atmosphere through a series of carefully planned performance activities. Among them, the live-scene themed performance water show, Shenzhou Boat Wonders, jointly created by Wansui Mountain and Vanyee, has become a trump show in the tourist attraction, attracting a large number of tourists to watch it.
Shenzhou Boat Wonders presents a feast of vision and hearing for tourists through the ingenious application of dance technology and new media visual arts, with the core of the maritime Silk Road culture, the spirit of the Song Dynasty and the charm of the ancient city customs.
This is not an ordinary light show, but an immersive experience brought by “culture and technology” - breaking the traditional stage performance mode, building a dry and wet switching stage of more than 120 meters long on the water of more than 2000 square meters, with 60 meters of ship hull as the background, forming the first combined live stage in China.
The performance integrates various performance elements such as water, fire, sound, light and electricity, and simulates the magnificent scene of a ship riding the wind and waves on the sea, fearing difficulties and dangers, and fighting with the wind and waves with a combination of reality and fiction, which always brings the audience unexpected surprises.
The hull of the seagoing ship is equipped with beam lights and lasers, surrounded by a fountain matrix and filled with water mist. In the impassioned music, the high spray rose with the trend and rushed into the sky. The fireworks equipment, together with the magnificent fireworks, pushed the performance to a climax, and the historical scenes of the silk road in the Song Dynasty, such as “sailing” “adventure” and “return” were all presented.
The new upgraded version of Shenzhou Boat Wonders light show relies on the legend of the maritime silk road to present the beauty of extensive and profound Chinese culture with the integration of culture and technology, and at the same time, it perfectly matches the history and culture of Kaifeng city.
In addition to Shenzhou Boat Wonders, the Song Dynasty of Kungfu City also launched other various forms of performance activities, such as the most popular Wang Po's Matchmaking, martial arts drama performance, martial arts display, etc. These activities are popular with tourists, bringing a large number of visitors to the tourist attraction.
III. The relationship between space and performance is like water and fish
If the water system is divided into lakes, seas, rivers and ponds, then tourism and leisure space can also be divided into tourist attractions, theme parks, characteristic blocks, ancient towns and villages, and urban parks. Different fishes form diverse ecosystems in the water system. The different forms of performance products and tourism leisure space form a differentiated tourist experience and sensory enjoyment.
Awakening Adam, the world's first "Steampunk machine" live stunt show, jointly produced by Vanyee, is a perfect match with Xiangyang OCT Fantasy Resort. Xiangyang OCT Fantasy Resort is the first creation of “fantasy series” of Happy Valley Group, and “experience the world fantasy together” is its brand concept of setting out for world-class theme parks.
With “strange” as the pen, a future machinery factory with “steampunk machinery theme” is striking. The 4000 ㎡ “mobile” giant machinery factory stage and 20m high “resurrection” giant robot in the venue have made more breakthroughs and surprises in China’s original giant machinery performance, and become the largest outdoor stunt theater in Xiangyang Fantasy Valley. More than 3000 tourists follow a variety of performance forms such as water, land and air in the same time and space. In the 30 minute performance time, they perform with a variety of special effects such as high altitude speed skating, high altitude diving, fancy balance car, motorcycle leap, car leap, supplemented by movie level special effects such as smoke, fire, bullets and explosions, so that tourists can immerse themselves in the sci-fi mechanical world during the industrial revolution and scream together, surprise and burst. Awakening Adam not only gains many honors in the industry, but also becomes the main traffic of Xiangyang Fantasy Valley.
Different space scenes can use performance activities to create a popular public praise. The specific methods include:
1. Excavate the local culture and characteristics: Performance activities should deeply explore the local history, culture and characteristics, and integrate them into the program. This will not only enhance the cultural connotation of the program, but also allow tourists to better understand the local customs while enjoying the performance.
2. Innovate the form and content of programs: In the planning process of performance activities, attention should be paid to innovation, breaking the traditional model, and introducing new and unique forms and content of programs. Fashion elements can be integrated to meet the aesthetic needs of young people to attract more young tourists.
3. Use scientific and technological means to improve the perception: Use modern scientific and technological means, such as VR, AR, holographic projection, etc., to add more scientific and technological elements to the performance activities, and improve the perception and experience of tourists. For example, creating immersive performance projects to make tourists feel as if they are in a story.
4. Enhance tourists’ sense of participation and interactivity: The interactivity and experience of performance activities enable tourists to participate and experience in person. Interactive links can be set up to invite tourists to perform on the stage or participate in games. This will not only enhance tourists’ sense of participation, but also enhance the fun and attraction of the event. Through plot setting, role playing, interactive games and other ways, tourists can be immersed in performance activities to enhance their sense of participation and satisfaction.
5. Unique performance brand positioning: Establish the uniqueness and brand image of the performance in the tourist attraction, and make it match the theme and cultural background of the tourist attraction. Through the unique brand positioning, it can attract tourists’ interest and curiosity and make the performance activities become the highlight of the tourist attraction.
6. Carefully plan the performance content: The performance content should closely follow the cultural characteristics of the tourist attraction, integrate regional customs and historical and cultural elements, and create a performance program with both ornamental and cultural connotation. At the same time, it is necessary to constantly innovate and improve the performance quality, and regularly update the program content to meet the increasing aesthetic needs of tourists.
7. Reasonably arrange the time and number of performances: According to the tourist flow and seasonal characteristics, reasonably arrange the time and number of performances. In the peak of tourist season, the number of performances can be increased to meet the needs of more tourists; In the off-season, the number of performances can be appropriately reduced to avoid waste of resources.
8. Combination with tourism products: Combine performance activities with other tourism products of space scenes to form complementary effects. For example, it is linked with catering, shopping, accommodation and other products in the tourist attraction to launch a package tourism experience to increase the stay time and consumption level of tourists.
9. Promotion through social media: With the help of social media platform, the influence and popularity of the event can be expanded by publishing the preview, wonderful moments and tourist feedback of the performance activities. At the same time, interesting interactive links can be planned in combination with hot topics and festival celebrations to stimulate netizens’ enthusiasm for participation. Establish cooperative relations with local governments, tourism agencies, media, etc., and jointly promote distinctive performance activities. Attract more tourists to watch and participate through resource sharing and mutual benefit.
10. Strengthen safety management: Ensure the safety of tourists during performance activities. Appropriate safety warning signs shall be set up, professional personnel shall be arranged for emergency rescue, and performance facilities shall be inspected and maintained regularly to ensure that tourists can feel at ease when participating in performance activities.
IV. Conclusion
Performance activities play an important role in building a popular tourist attraction, and performance can also play an indispensable role and value in other tourism spaces and scenes. The Song Dynasty of Kungfu City has successfully attracted a large number of tourists and achieved the prosperity and development of the tourist attraction through ingenious performance planning and wonderful program presentation. The Fantasy Valley of Xiangyang OCT attracts thousands of tourists to watch at the same time through the fantastic and distinctive live stunt show, Awakening Adam. Other tourist attractions can learn from it, combine their own characteristics, create a unique tourism brand through performance activities, and enhance the popularity and reputation of the tourist attraction. At the same time, emphasizing innovation, technology application, and tourist participation and interaction are also important strategies for creating popular tourist attraction.
