Abstract: Ethnic minority festivals are favored by tourists because of their strong participation and strong ethnic characteristics, and have become a hot spot for tourism development. Ethnic festivals are the essence of cultural and sports activities of ethnic minorities. They display a nation's songs, dances, costumes, religious beliefs and folk customs. This article analyzes the significance of festival tourism development and explores the role of the development of Liangshan Yi Torch Festival in promoting tourism development in Liangshan region.
Keywords: Torch Festival; intangible cultural heritage; development; promotion; role
Ethnic minority festivals are part of folk customs and an important material support for folk customs tourism. An important part of the attraction. As the largest Yi inhabited area in the country, Liangshan Prefecture has rich ethnic characteristics and a complete display of Yi customs, ranging from clothing, singing and dancing to daily necessities and Bimo culture. The development of the Torch Festival, the most representative festival of the Yi people in Liangshan, will attract a large number of tourists to Liangshan for sightseeing, drive the development of Liangshan tourism, and greatly promote the development of the local tourism economy.
1. Liangshan Yi Torch Festival
The Torch Festival is a unique traditional festival of the Yi people and the most solemn and joyful annual event for the Yi people. It has been practiced for more than a thousand years since the Han and Tang Dynasties. Every year on June 24 of the lunar calendar, in Xichang, the famous aerospace city and "moon city", the Yi compatriots who live there dress up in festive costumes, sing and dance, and hold huge beauty pageants and costumes, horse racing, wrestling, and archery. games, and lit torches at night to parade in the wilderness to commemorate their heroes. Today's Liangshan Yi "Torch Festival", with the economic development and social progress of Liangshan, in addition to retaining the traditional form and content of the festival, has been closely linked to Liangshan's opening up to the outside world, strengthening horizontal ties, and promoting material exchanges. The traditional festival "Torch Festival" has added new ideas with the characteristics of the times.
2. The development status of the Liangshan Yi Torch Festival
The Liangshan Yi Torch Festival is one of the top ten ethnic minority festivals in the country, one of the three major tourism festivals in the province, and one of the six major tourism products created by Liangshan Prefecture. First, it is the country’s first batch of intangible cultural heritage. It has a profound and unique cultural heritage of the Yi people and is known as the "Oriental Valentine's Day" and "Oriental Carnival". During the Torch Festival, various ceremonies will be held to allow visitors to feel the unique charm of the Yi people. The Liangshan Prefecture Government strives to make the Torch Festival an important festival that showcases the history and folk customs of the Yi people, and build it into the first ethnic customs tourism festival in western China. This will take the Torch Festival as an opportunity to promote the development of tourism in Liangshan. At present, the Torch Festival has become a well-known brand at home and abroad, and has become the business card of Liangshan tourism, attracting tourists from all over the world.
3. Analysis of the impact of the development of the Torch Festival on Liangshan tourism
(1) The Torch Festival activities are colorful and colorful, fully demonstrating the image of Liangshan as a cultural resource state
In recent years, with the development of the Torch Festival Development, while preserving the original traditional elements, has injected many new elements. Such as: Bimo cultural performances during the Torch Festival, Yi characteristic song and dance performances, traditional Yi competitions, large-scale original ecological real-life Yi song and dance performances "Millennium Yi Rhythm? Colorful Liangshan", "Revisiting Red Classics and Reminiscing about the Revolutionary Years" Baba film activities, There are a variety of rich activities such as "Red Grape Manor" special grape picking tour and other rural tourism projects. These activities comprehensively demonstrated the charm of Xichang's tourism resources and the level of festivals held, and were welcomed and highly praised by Chinese and foreign tourists. At the same time, the holding of these activities not only displays the image of Liangshan as a cultural resource state, but also brings objective economic benefits to Liangshan Prefecture.
(2) The Torch Festival has extended the stay of tourists in Liangshan
The Torch Festival has been extended a lot from the original three days, and many new activities have been injected into it. This will inevitably It will extend the time tourists can spend in Liangshan. In addition to participating in a series of festival activities during the Torch Festival, tourists will inevitably choose other scenic spots in Liangshan Prefecture for sightseeing, which effectively increases the tourist rate of scenic spots and promotes the development of local tourism.
(3) The holding of the Torch Festival has significantly improved the source structure of tourists in Liangshan
At the beginning of tourism development, the source of tourists to Liangshan was generally concentrated in the 17 counties and cities surrounding Liangshan. Nowadays, with the vigorous holding of the Torch Festival, more and more foreign tourists come here. Tourists are all over the country, and many foreign friends come to experience the Eastern Valentine's Day. Through the holding of the Torch Festival, Liangshan's tourist source structure has been significantly improved.
(4) The holding of the Torch Festival has enhanced the tourism image of Liangshan Prefecture
The core productivity and competitiveness of the tourism industry is image, and the essence of the brand is image. Through the holding of the Torch Festival, the popularity of Liangshan Prefecture has been greatly improved. At the same time, the Torch Festival has gradually become a city card of Liangshan Prefecture, which makes the image positioning of Liangshan Prefecture clearer. Liangshan gives tourists the image positioning of a sea of ??torches, and the whole city looks enthusiastic and unrestrained because of the Torch Festival. Mentioning Liangshan, a paradise of torches will appear in front of people's eyes. The fire-like city attracts tourists from all directions.
(5) The holding of the Torch Festival has improved Liangshan’s tourism infrastructure and raised the reception level
In order to better hold the Torch Festival and provide a good public environment , the Liangshan Prefecture Government spent more than 200 million yuan to build Torch Square. At the same time, a wetland park has been built around Qionghai. The first two phases of the project have been completed and the third phase of the project is under construction. By then, foreign tourists will be able to tour the lake around the Qionghai Wetland Park. In addition, Xichang's basic transportation facilities have also been greatly improved. The opening of the Yaxi Expressway has greatly eased the traffic pressure in Xichang. Tourists no longer have to worry about the difficulty of getting train tickets, which affects their itinerary arrangements. The improvement of transportation facilities has Liangshan tourism development provides basic conditions. For tourism companies, in order to achieve better economic benefits during the Torch Festival, they will definitely strengthen their training management, improve the overall quality of their employees, strengthen their service awareness, and spare no effort to improve the quality of their tourism services. .
6. Conclusion
The Torch Festival itself is a tourist attraction. As a special folk festival, it is highly participatory and has great appeal to domestic and foreign tourists. The development of the Torch Festival will drive the development of related service industries in Liangshan Prefecture, attract more foreign tourists to Liangshan for sightseeing, greatly increase the visibility of Liangshan tourism, and greatly promote the development of Liangshan tourism. Therefore, we should spare no effort to develop the Torch Festival, better utilize the role of the Torch Festival in promoting Liangshan tourism, and make Liangshan tourism more and more prosperous!
About the author: Gepo Tiezhi (1983-), female, Yi nationality, lecturer at Xichang University in Sichuan Province, master's degree; research direction: tourism culture, ethnic tourism development.