The Business Logic Behind Xi'an's Cultural and Tourism Success: Why Does It Earn 270 Billion More Than Luoyang?
Hello everyone, I'm your financial journalist. Today, we're not just talking about the fact that "Xi'an's tourism is booming," but rather a deeper question: Why, being both ancient capitals with a thousand-year history, does Xi'an generate three times more revenue from tourism than Luoyang?
This article comes from the public account "Shark成龙," and the author provides a very detailed perspective, breaking down Xi'an from a collection of attractions into a sophisticated "city-level cultural consumption system." After reading it, you'll realize that what Xi'an sells is not just admission tickets, but an experience that allows visitors to temporarily become part of the Chang'an community.
Below, I'll break down this in-depth analysis into five key aspects to help you understand the financial and strategic reasons behind Xi'an's cultural and tourism success.
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1. Three Cards in Hand, but Xi'an Turns the "Dead Card" into Cash
Many cities making a move into cultural and tourism often fall into a misconception: they think they have visitors because they have historical sites. However, the author points out that there are only three fundamental assets for cultural and tourism: time (history), space (geography), and IP (symbolism).
- Time Asset: Xi'an is the capital of thirteen dynasties, a wealth of historical stories and legends that never run out.
- Space Asset: This refers to the natural beauty of the area, such as the beaches in Sanya and the mountains in Zhangjiajie.
- IP Asset: This is the most flexible element. The Terracotta Army is a historical artifact, but when it becomes a global symbol, it becomes an IP; the concept of the "Great Tang Dynasty" also becomes an IP through films, games, and other media.
The key is this: Resources determine what you have, but your ability to turn these resources into marketable products determines how much value they have.
Xi'an's strength doesn't lie in its long history (there are many cities with longer histories in China); it lies in its ability to bring these resources to life. Instead of keeping history locked away in museums, Xi'an turns it into tangible products—clothing, accessories, photos, and souvenirs that visitors can take home. Luoyang also has a rich history, but Xi'an has developed a complete industrial chain around it.
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2. History Is Not a Consumable; It's a Resource That Grows Richer with Use
Traditionally, resources are considered limited and diminish with exploitation. However, cultural content becomes richer the more it is developed.
The author outlines a core process: Resource Base → Cultural Productization → Consumer Monetization.
- Just the Tip of the Iceberg: Selling only admission tickets for the Terracotta Army is just tapping into a small part of its value.
- Unlimited Derivation: Tang culture can be transformed into clothing, food, games, and XR experiences.
Examples:
- Daxing Night City: Open to the public for free, providing a vibrant public space.
- Chang'an Twelve Hours: Offers immersive experiences.
- The Song of Everlasting Sorrow: Sells stories and emotions.
- Hanfu Shops/Landscape Photography: Provide a sense of identity and authenticity.
In 2024, the comprehensive consumption around Daxing Night City alone, including Hanfu and landscape photography, reached 1.6 billion yuan, with over 2,300 businesses involved. This shows that the same historical theme can be split into countless new consumer opportunities. Visitors are not just "viewing history"; they are "entering" it. Xi'an sells not just an isolated period of the Tang Dynasty but a "historical universe" that can be continuously explored and developed.
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3. The Most Ingenious Marketing: Turning Visitors into Content Producers
This is the most sophisticated aspect of Xi'an's cultural and tourism strategy: The product itself is the marketing, and the experience itself is the promotion.
In traditional tourism, attractions create products, and the marketing department buys traffic. But in Xi'an, the logic is different:
- A girl spends a few hundred yuan on Tang-style makeup to take photos at the Giant Wild Goose Pagoda.
- She shares these photos on social media, attracting more people to Xi'an.
- New visitors come, spend more, take more photos, and spread the word.
This creates a perfect cycle: The stronger the experience, the more desire to share; the more well-known the city becomes, the more new visitors it attracts, and the more they spend.
Why is this important?
- Free Advertising: Content created by visitors is more authentic and persuasive than any official advertisement.
- Visual Impact: When a few people wear Hanfu on the street, it's just a rental service. But when thousands do, it changes the city's visual landscape, creating a distinct atmosphere.
- Visitors as Part of the Scene: Visitors themselves become the biggest part of the cultural and tourism experience.
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4. A Four-Layer Structure: Turning a City into a Playable World
The author divides Xi'an's cultural and tourism offerings into four layers, like building a large-scale game world:
1. First Layer: Worldview (Soul): Xi'an represents unity, exploration, prosperity, and connection through the Silk Road. It sells the idea that "Chang'an once stood at the center of the world," giving the Tang Dynasty an international and open appeal.
2. Super Entrance (Traffic Generation): Attractions like the Terracotta Army, the city walls, and the Shaanxi History Museum attract millions of visitors, answering the question "Why must I visit Xi'an at some point in my life?"
3. Experience and Consumption System (Monetization): This is where money is made. The experience is designed to engage visitors, turning history into tangible products—clothing, photography, food, and cultural goods that allow them to connect with the past.
4. City Operation System (Customer Retention): This layer ensures visitors stay longer. They can visit museums during the day and explore the night city, and then travel to nearby areas like Lintong and the Qinling Mountains. Accommodation, food, and transportation fill in the gaps in their itinerary.
Data Support: During the Spring Festival in 2025, average visitors spent 3.42 days in Xi'an. Staying longer means more accommodation, meals, performances, and additional spending. The competition in the cultural and tourism industry is for people's time.
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5. The True Moat: Thousands of Independent Businesses Sharing the Same Story
If there's one aspect of Xi'an worth learning from, it's cultural consistency.
Many cities have cultural elements within their attractions, but these disappear once visitors leave. Airports and hotels operate independently, like isolated islands.
Xi'an's uniqueness lies in: The T5 terminal has a museum with exhibits from the past, immediately immersing visitors in history as soon as they arrive. On the streets, toilet signs feature historical figures, and local brands produce Hanfu and other products. Although businesses are owned by different entities (government, private, or individual), they all share the same cultural narrative of the Qin, Han, and Tang dynasties and the Silk Road.
This is what creates a continuous narrative: You leave an attraction, but you don't leave the story behind. One Hanfu shop might be just a business, but thousands of them can transform the city's streetscape. When thousands of independent businesses voluntarily tell the same story, it creates a city-wide immersive experience.
Why is this difficult to replicate?
- You can replicate Tang-style architecture, design, and hire actors, but it's the spontaneous, ongoing commitment of thousands of businesses to tell the same story that forms Xi'an's unique cultural ecosystem and its protective advantage.
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Conclusion: What We Really Buy
In the end, what visitors buy in Xi'an is not just admission tickets. It's the experience of temporarily becoming part of the Chang'an community.
A girl spends hours putting on Tang-style makeup to take photos at the Giant Wild Goose Pagoda. She's not just buying a photography service; she's buying an identity. For those few hours, she sheds the label of a modern urbanite and becomes a part of the Chang'an community. Li Bai wrote, "The moon over Chang'an, with the sound of thousands of people washing clothes." More than a thousand years have passed, but the moon remains the same. Although the Tang Dynasty can't be revived, humans still yearn to enter a time they never lived in.
The ultimate goal of Xi'an's cultural and tourism strategy is to create a complete world. It offers a temporary escape from the present, allowing us to experience a different era. The Qin, Han, and Tang dynasties add depth to time, the Silk Road adds breadth to the world. The Terracotta Army brings people in, the night city keeps them engaged, and the various cultural products complete the experience. This is the secret behind Xi'an's 270-billion-dollar advantage: it's not just about selling scenery; it's about selling a sense of belonging and a sense of time travel. When visitors leave, they miss the world they once belonged to.