Creative product design for tourism and cultural development is a core component of tourism products and plays a crucial role in sales at retail outlets focused on the tourism industry. Furthermore, it not only directly impacts destination brand promo...
Creative product design for tourism and cultural development is a core component of tourism products and plays a crucial role in sales at retail outlets focused on the tourism industry. Furthermore, it not only directly impacts destination brand promotion and economic benefits, but also serves as a crucial expression of a region's cultural elements and a vehicle for cultural promotion. According to relevant data, creative product design related to tourism and culture in developed countries contributes to economic income and accounts for 40-60% of the country's total tourism output. However, in China, revenue from tourism and cultural creative products accounts for only about 20% of the country's total tourism output. This significant disparity reveals that the core problem lies not in China's weak consumer base, but in the quality of China's tourism and cultural creative products themselves. Key factors include a lack of distinct regional characteristics, a lack of innovation, and a weak sense of brand protection, leading to increasingly severe homogenization of tourism and cultural products. The similar tourism and cultural products commonly found in the tourism market today fail to meet the personalized consumption needs of tourists seeking novelty and differentiation, directly influencing their purchasing behavior. Chongqing, a city steeped in Chinese history, boasts a unique local culture and diverse tourist resources, attracting countless tourists from both China and abroad. Its tourist reception has long ranked among the highest in the country. According to historical data from the Chongqing Municipal Culture and Tourism Commission, it welcomed approximately 390 million tourists in 2015, surpassing 650 million in 2019, maintaining its leading position nationwide. Chongqing's consumption potential is greater than that of other cities. Chongqing is not only a tourist destination but also a consumer metropolis, with traditional cuisine and cultural products generating positive responses among tourists. The majority of visitors are young, and the rapid development of social media has led to the explosive growth of popular attractions in Chongqing, attracting many tourists born in the 1990s and 2000s. The night-time economy is particularly thriving, with attractions such as the Two Rivers Night View, Jiefangbi Pedestrian Street, and Hongyadong Night View becoming tourist highlights. However, tourism, cultural, and creative products also face the same challenges. Therefore, innovatively designing tourism and cultural creative products with distinct regional characteristics to meet the needs of tourism consumers has become an urgent task.
Chongqing, as the ancient home of the Ba nation (巴国), has fostered a unique "Bayu culture." Today, the "8D Magic City" has become a new symbol of Chongqing. This mountainous city, with its light rail meandering through its buildings and its beautiful nightscape, is renowned for its influencer effect. This study, focusing on Chongqing's major cities and drawing on the regional cultural elements of Chongqing—a cultural, historical, and economic city—with its cultural background and economic advantages, aims to conduct an in-depth study of the cultural element design of Chongqing tourism and cultural products, utilizing product art design concepts and related theories from a regional cultural perspective. This study aims to propose sound design concepts and principles. To this end, the study analyzes the development of Chongqing's local culture and cultural creative industries. From a comprehensive perspective, the study explores Chongqing's historical evolution, local culture, and the current state of the local cultural industry development. The study analyzes Chongqing's cultural characteristics from various perspectives, encompassing a comprehensive analysis of its historical development, regional culture, and the current state of the local cultural industry development. In terms of related theoretical aspects, we utilized emotion theory, emotional cognition theory, and color psychology theory. Emotion theory theoretically analyzes the entirety of cultural creative products from a cultural and framework perspective, systematizing emotional cognition theory. We also theoretically analyzed the design of cultural creative products from a color and form perspective. Color psychology theory proposes theoretical design elements for cultural creative products from the perspectives of emotion and content.
First, we conducted an introductory analysis of tourism cultural creative products. We explained the concepts of tourism products, tourism souvenirs, cultural creative products, and tourism cultural products and explored their relationships. Furthermore, we analyzed key fundamental characteristics of creative tourism cultural products, including culturalness, artistry, regionality, commemoration, aesthetics, contemporary quality, and portability. Case studies were conducted from three perspectives: design positioning, design principles, and design ideas.
Second, we explored Chongqing tourism cultural creative products based on research on Chongqing's local culture and distinctive tourism resources. We emphasized that the development and design of Chongqing's distinctive tourism cultural creative products must center on themes of local culture. We concluded that Chongqing's local culture should be studied from three perspectives: historical, practical, and cultural.
Third, using the major cities of Chongqing as examples, we conducted in-depth theoretical research on how to develop and design tourism and cultural products with distinct regional cultural characteristics, and proposed appropriate development strategies. Based on this research, we proposed that innovative design for tourism and cultural creative products should prioritize originality and integrate design concepts that combine traditional elements with modern technology, emotional design, practical design, and fashion design. When guiding specific designs, we aimed to design products that align with the theoretical regional cultural history by adhering to three design principles: the harmonious unity of "form" and "intention," the harmonious unity of "form" and "use," and portability.
This study derived a theoretical approach by examining design from a practical perspective. By applying theoretical methods through design practice, we achieved our intended goals and strived to provide a reference for innovative design with regional characteristics in Chongqing. By releasing completed design products to the market and providing feedback on sales, we strive to establish a basis for further design improvement of cultural and creative products. We also expect that this will lead to comprehensive and in-depth research on unique and representative tourism and cultural products in the Chongqing region, contributing to the promotion of Chongqing's culture and the comprehensive development of the Chongqing tourism industry.