Analysis on the New Development Directions of Dalian Forest Zoo Based on Animation IP Plus Tourism

: At present, the deep integration and rapid development of cultural and tourism industries are bound to pose certain requirements for world-renown tourist cities, such as Dalian. While zoos have become important scenic spots in a city, these two industries have to take the lead in the city’s development. By analyzing the problems and deficiencies in the development course of Dalian Forest Zoo, this paper found out the countermeasures that integrated animation IP into cultural tourism to solve the existing problems and realized the value of the tourist attraction in the hope of providing new ideas and references for the development of related scenic spots.


Animation IP Plus Tourism
In recent years, with the rapid development of network communication, the term IP has gradually found its way into the public eyesight. IP stands for "Intellectual Property". As a diversified spiritual product with strong identification and the ability to spread widely, IP is now being extended and has become a cultural concept that can be developed in multiple dimensions. With strong potential for derivatives, IP has achieved "organic grafting" with multiple platforms and fields like education, culture, tourism and services. Among them, the combination of "IP plus tourism" serves as the manifestation of combining cultural creativity and the tourism industry. It is known to all that a large proportion of the visitors to a zoo are parents with their children, for a zoo itself is a place that children always yearn for. Inside a zoo, children can see their beloved animals. So we can say it is a natural attribute of a zoo to attract children. Besides, the "Guiding Opinions of the General Office of the State Council on Promoting the Development of All-for-one Tourism" issued in March 2018, encouraged the integration of the animation and tourism industry and tied them even closer. Therefore, it is an appropriate action to exhibit the tourism IP image of Dalian Forest Zoo by animation, which shall be favorable to tourist attraction and travel motivation. It can inject more fun into the journey and at the same time, elevate the likability and popularity of the brand. Take Disneyland as an example. At the dawn of its construction, Disneyland had already been the owner of many popular cartoon characters, based on which the company built a series of amusement facilities that have successfully attracted a large number of followers till today. Drawing from the lessons of Disneyland, this paper aims to integrate animation IP into the building of Dalian Forest Zoo. It will study the ways to make full use of the zoo's resources, integrate the regional tourism industry, improve the cultural experiences of the tourists, and enhance the marketing appeal of the scenic spot.

The status quo and existing problems of Dalian Forest Zoo
The city of Dalian in Liaoning Province is among the first batch of tourism cities in China. The tourism industry has become an important pillar in the development of Dalian's regional economy. Dalian Forest Zoo inside the region plays a key role in the city's tourism industry. Located in the Baiyun Mountain Scenic Area, Dalian city, the zoo covers an area of 7.2 square kilometers (about 1,779 acres). It is divided into a Stable Breeding Area and a Safari Area. With vast natural and ecological space, the zoo serves as a destination for urban citizens to fully relax themselves. Environmental protection experts from the United Nations call it a high-grade zoo that "allows humans to live in a pollution-free urban environment and animals to live in a natural environment without human interference." However, as the saying goes, "Nothing is perfect", certain problems still exist in the zoo. First, the visual designs inside the zoo are old, vulgar and limited, for which overall planning and creative elements are still needed. Second, basic consumption takes up a large majority of the zoo facilities, which is only enough to meet the basic needs of the tourists. Generally speaking, additional derivative facilities are scarce inside the scenic spot, and at the same time, only a few products exist with the zoo's characteristics. Both of them only draw a few attentions from the tourists, and even if they are noticed by the tourists, the small number and bad locations make it hard to stimulate tourist consumption. Therefore, the zoo has an unsystematic profit-generating model. Third, the zoo has limited passenger flow, with low visitor flows in winter especially. Even though indoor exhibition halls exist in the zoo, the visitors are less likely to linger in those halls. On the one hand, the exhibiting environment tends to be dirty, dark and crowded. On the other hand, the contents exhibited are not interesting enough for the visitors to linger.
How can we rectify the zoo based on the above problems? In the following chapter, the author will propose solutions in five aspects, as shown in Table 1.

Problems and Solutions Problem Solution
Visual design is old, vulgar and limited Carry out transformation with Animation IP Mainly basic consumption Develop and design cultural and creative products to increase business benefits、Operation subject hotel and so on Limited passenger flow Online and offline joint publicity and multi-party cooperation 2 Development Directions of "Animation Plus Tourism" in the Zoo

Combining ecological dependency with animation themes
With its own fan base and refreshing images, animation can provide diversified new elements for the zoo. While adhering to the principle of constructing ecological resources and drawing on the geographical and animal advantages of the zoo, animation IP can be cleverly integrated into the scenic spot to create offline immersive scenes to enhance their ability to attract visitors. For instance, representative elements can be uniformly distributed across various scenic spots tailored to their natural features to form contents similar to those in theme parks with their own characteristics, such as landscape, architectural forms, spatial structures, opusculum, sculpture, etc. Stories can be complied to help the contents better interact with the visitors. Delicate design will be made to attract more attention. In this way, visitors will be able to grasp the details of all aspects and at the same time, they will have a deeper impression of the scenic spots and a better visiting experience. Hence, visitors can get rid of the simple, low-level animal exhibition and stumble into a place that can refresh their minds and provide ecological education.

Combining product needs with animation concepts
With the rapid development of the tourism industry, the commercial value of animation IP starts to exhibit itself. Animation IP is not only a stunt to draw more visitors during zoo construction, but also a direct manifestation of the differences between itself and other competitive brands and a powerful guarantee for building a brand with its own characteristics. Therefore, animation IP has the potential to empower the tourism industry and become a field with the highest transformative capacity in the cultural tourism industry. Hence, we can easily draw the conclusion that the managers in the zoo should consider at both the macro level and micro level (including the construction, development, design and operation of the micro-objects) at the same time. Based on the market demand, they should focus on the building of their own characteristics and the refinement of cultural connotation, transform the original concepts into cultural and creative products, and integrate commemoration, artistry and utility into the products. In this way, they can promote the inheritance and innovation of the zoo brand, expand its IP influences and characteristics, as well as raise its IP commercial values, intellectual property rights and popularity, with the ultimate goal to promote the grand integration and development of "animation plus cultural tourism" and in turn contribute to the construction of Dalian Forest Zoo.

Combining functional associations with creative forms
As the animation IP inside the zoo gradually matures, a variety of functional business forms can be added except the above-mentioned development directions. A supporting system can be built as guided by visual consumption, based on aesthetic activities and integrated experiences such as a system of scenario shows, cultural festivals, museums and even theme hotels. The zoo should make full use of its own advantages to design activities with different themes and continue to express positive emotions, so as to attract tourists and in the long run, cultivate their love for wildlife and interests in natural sciences.

Combining brand promotion with marketing activities
In order to develop tourism IP, more efforts shall be exerted into publicity besides maximizing the appeals of cultural industries with its own characteristics. However, as time progresses, the internet has become a major channel for consumers to get travel information.
Geographical restrictions no longer serve as a hindrance to information dissemination. Therefore, the promotion of travel IP should be carried out by combining both online and offline channels, especially on online platforms such as Weibo, WeChat, and Xiaohongshu to stir up discussions and attract netizen's attention. The Palace Museum, for example, often launches co-branded derivatives in cooperation with other brands; it interprets history through Emoji, cultural and creative exhibitions, among others, to transform the museum's stereotypical and distant impressions on the general public; or it makes good use of the celebrities' charm by using their appearance in related cultural variety shows, documentaries, official or private photos, etc. to bring the development of tourism culture IP to a new level and complete maturity. However, it is worth noting that we should not simply imitate the successful path of other cases at the expanse of losing our own uniqueness, for this unique charm serves as the key to tourism success.

Combining multi-party collaboration and peripheral development
At present, the development of tourism culture relies on both the publicity of one party and the collaboration of several parties. On the one hand, Dalian Forest Zoo locates in the proximity of Laohutan Scenic Park. They can cooperate with each other to form a brotherly industry chain. For instance, each of them can help with the publicity of the other's by posing advertising banners inside the park; talents can be mobilized to jointly cultivate popular IP products; experience can be shared with each other to avoid similar mistakes. In this way, they can maximize the use of tourism resources and contribute to the fusion of different industries. On the other hand, the local government should play a leading role in publicity by formulating and implementing incentive policies and guiding principles to accelerate related affairs' progress.

Conclusion
As time passes, tourists are no longer satisfied with the only sightseeing. Instead, they pose new demands on the spiritual level. Thus, how to reform zoos to successfully attract visitors, satisfy their needs and generate more economic benefits has become the primary issue in the current research field. Therefore, based on the trend of tourism diversification, this paper integrated animation IP into tourism, and proposed a new path that can help the scenic spot adapt to the times by analyzing the problems and difficulties faced by Dalian Forest Zoo, so as to innovate the integrated model combining culture, tourism and animation in the zoos, providing references for future related research.