Chapter 81. Become Bigger and Stronger

     Things have their priorities.

     Some things seem to be urged by many parties, but in fact they can be discussed in the long run. For example, increasing flights and further relaxing the number of people entering the island are not something that can be solved in a short time, so they can be put aside for now.

     There is also the issue of the source of 30,000 overseas tourists. When she formulates the development plan for Xingzhou Island this year, she can set it as one of the goals to be completed within this year, and then let the employees find ways to achieve it.

     Therefore, in addition to the detailed work arrangements of the emergency team, the only thing to be solved in these meetings is the Spring Festival activities.

     Last year’s National Day and this year’s New Year’s Day both held scenic spot check-in lottery activities. Although this activity is nothing new, some managers still proposed that it should be kept as a major festival activity and continue.

     “Check-in activities can allow tourists to actively help us promote and increase our visibility. The lowest cost is just a postcard of a few cents. I think it is very worthwhile.” Manager Gao of the Operations Department said.

     “But this activity is really nothing new. There are only a few scenic spots that can be checked in. Tourists can find them with their eyes closed. What’s the fun in it?” Manager Jiang from the Marketing Department retorted.

     “Do you have any good ideas?” Manager Gao asked him.

     “I propose to hold a Spring Festival treasure hunt. We hide a prize in each scenic spot, and then remind tourists through text, let tourists analyze the location of the text prompt, go to the scenic spot by themselves and scan the QR code to confirm the success of the treasure hunt. Finally, tourists who find all the treasures can participate in the lottery on the spot. The first prize is an annual ticket, and the second prize is a postcard signed and stamped by the island owner…”

     Li Yaolin’s eyes lit up when she heard about this activity. She felt that it was really novel, but it required more manpower.

     Manager Gao was a little speechless. The other party was talking, but it was the program and website development team of their operation department who were working hard.

     “Are there enough people? Do you want to recruit a few more people to help?” Li Yaolin asked Manager Gao. The latter knew that Li Yaolin had adopted Manager Jiang’s opinion and decided to launch this treasure hunt. She thought for a moment and said, “There are enough people.”

     “Then you can come up with two plans.”

     Manager Gao was a little confused: “Two?”

     “The other one is a check-in activity. After all, it’s the Spring Festival, how can there be fewer activities? In addition to these two activities, are there any other creative ideas?” Li Yaolin looked around, hoping that everyone could give more suggestions.

     “Hold a photography competition on Xingzhou Island? With Xingzhou Island as the theme, invite bigwigs in the photography industry to be judges, select the first, second and third place, give cash rewards or other rewards, and then collect the photographic works for a temporary exhibition.”

     “I suggest showing open-air movies in the camping area.”

     “You can invite some bands to perform in the Mermaid Square!”

…

     The employees’ suggestions and ideas are many and rich. Although Li Yaolin did not adopt all of them, she also praised and encouraged these employees.

     After assigning the tasks, the little mermaid also made new progress – the procedures for the more than 10,000 hectares of sea area have been completed!

     Since more than 4,000 hectares of sea area were originally open aquaculture areas, the use of the sea area must be prioritized to ensure the needs of the protected area, and then to ensure the needs of recreational use and aquaculture, so Li Yaolin designated 3,000 hectares of sea area as a “green proliferation area”.

     The so-called “green proliferation” refers to the use of cage aquaculture to increase fishery resources under the premise of protecting marine biodiversity and reducing marine pollution.

 

   【Green proliferation area】

     Affinity coefficient: 18

     Pollution index: 35 (level 4 pollution)

     Operation cost: 5,000 yuan/day

 

     Faced with such high operating costs, Li Yaolin can face it calmly and calmly, because the cost is high, but as a proliferation area, its fishery resources are very rich, and Li Yaolin can use cage aquaculture here.

     A 2,000-cubic-meter deep-water cage can produce nearly 100,000 kilograms of fish, and more than 3,000 hectares of sea area can be deployed with 300,000 cages… Of course, it is actually impossible to deploy so many cages, because then the sea will be full of cages and fish, not to mention protecting marine biodiversity, these fish are also prone to suffocation and death due to lack of oxygen.

     So in Li Yaolin’s idea, deploying ten deep-water cages is enough to make a profit. If you want to make a profit, you can deploy about 100. In this way, these farmed seafood can not only meet the needs of seafood buffet restaurants, but also be sold to fishmongers, killing two birds with one stone.

     The use of the remaining sea areas will be slowly studied and planned!

 

… 

 

     Another significant benefit of the increase in sea areas is that there are more and farther fishing spots available for use.

     Since the fishing village’s boat boss Zhang Yaode and five other boat bosses started cooperating with the Xingzhou Sea Fishing Club, the boat fishing project on Xingzhou Island has become more and more popular.

     Originally, Xingzhou Island rented only two fishing boats from the shipping company. According to the frequency of three hours of sea voyage, excluding lunch time, a fishing boat can only go out to sea twice a day and can only carry ten tourists at a time, so the maximum number of places for Xingzhou Island’s boat fishing project per day is only 40.

     After cooperating with Zhang Yaode and his team, two boats were ensured to be on duty every day, and the number of places for the boat fishing project doubled at once. Not only did the popularity of the boat fishing project increase, but Zhang Yaode and other boat bosses also made extra money.

     Seeing this, the other fishermen also came to Zhang Yaode to ask, asking him to help bridge the gap and see if Xingzhou Island still needs to rent a boat.

     Zhang Yaode’s popularity in the village was already good, and his status has risen even more. It happened that the term of office of the village chief of their village had expired, and a new election meeting would begin in March this year. Several boat captains who followed him persuaded him to participate in the election.

     In the eyes of many villagers, this village chief was timid and basically did not care about things, and could not restrain the villagers. The village chief did not come forward to deal with the issue of fishermen cooperating with the fishing club to cheat tourists.

     Many fishing villages have established fishery cooperatives, while going out to sea to fish, renting offshore waters for breeding, and using the advantages of fisheries to develop “ecological fishing tourism”. Only their village is still silent. Every time they convened a meeting, they could not reach a consensus, so the village chief did not care.

     Over time, Zhang Yaode became dissatisfied.

     His relatives and friends felt that he had prestige, the ability and courage to do big things, and a long-term vision. If he could become the village chief, he would definitely lead everyone out of poverty and become rich.

     If Zhang Yaode can convince Xingzhou Island to cooperate with the fishermen this time, increase their income, and make them realize that they can have a good life by following him, many people will definitely vote for him in the next election.

     Zhang Yaode was a little tempted, so he found Lao Li and tried to find out whether the island owner’s attitude towards the fishing village was positive or negative.

     Lao Li had worked with him for nearly two months and had dealt with him many times. He had a basic understanding of his character and thought that if he could become the village chief, it would be a good thing for Xingzhou Island. So after learning that the sea area of Xingzhou Island had increased, he mentioned this to Li Yaolin:

     “Since the fishing competition, the number of tourists from the Beibu Gulf urban agglomeration area who come to visit us has increased significantly. Moreover, in a season like this that is not suitable for diving, more and more tourists have turned their attention to experiencing boat fishing projects. Even if we have four or five fishing boats, it is still insufficient. Why don’t we rent a few more boats? Or we can start a deep-sea fishing project…”

     Li Yaolin did not object: “The conditions for launching the deep-sea fishing project are not yet sufficient, but the number of boat fishing spots can indeed increase. This sea area is a ‘green proliferation zone’. , the fishery resources are rich and suitable for fishing, just rent a few more boats as you said!”

     Lao Li hesitated and asked again: “Is it okay to rent a boat from the fishing village?”

     “Has the club cooperated well with Zhang Yaode recently? Is there any problem?”

     “No problem, Zhang Yaode and others cooperated with us very well in our work.”

     “That’s it, it’s a good thing that we can resolve the conflicts with the fishing village. Since the other party is actively seeking cooperation, we can also provide opportunities. As for whether the other party’s character and integrity are worthy of our trust, you need to consider it.”

     “I know.”

 

…

 

     After deploying the Spring Festival service work on the island, Li Yaolin had time to go to Qianlai Tourism to discuss whether to increase the number of flights.

     Now the flights to Xingzhou Island have been adjusted to every 20 minutes, the first ship will arrive at 7 o’clock in advance, and the last ship will be extended to 6 o’clock in the evening. On weekends and holidays, it will even be adjusted to every 15 minutes.

     If the routes are too frequent, the probability of accidents will be greatly increased, and the cost will also increase.

     Li Yaolin said: “If we add more flights, we can only open night flights or overnight flights. But there are probably not many tourists who will take the boat to the island at night. Isn’t this a pure waste of resources?”

     Professional manager Peng Shaoyi pondered for a moment and said: “In fact, we can replace the current ship with a double-decker ferry that can carry more tourists, with a maximum capacity of 300 people.”

     “But the speed will decrease, right?”

     Peng Shaoyi nodded: “Well, it will take about ten to fifteen minutes longer. But I think this is more cost-effective than adding more flights.”

     It is cost-effective, but the time for the boat ride has doubled. How can tourists be happy?

     At this time, the leader of the cultural and tourism department brought Li Yaolin a message: the tourist special line that was still being promoted before finally made new progress. The Municipal Transportation Investment Group has determined that several bus routes and tourist special lines will be opened this year, and one of the starting stations of two of the special lines is the Biwan High-speed Railway Station.

     Li Yaolin was also invited to attend several meetings to discuss related routes. Only then did she know that some opinions (mainly from real estate developers) were to set the terminus of one of the routes as Liantou Port.

     Liantou Port is a newly built port, and its inner side is Liantou Bay, which is opposite to Baoren Bay.

     Liantou Bay looks like a fishhook on the map, and many real estate projects are located along the coast of this port.

     And in terms of distance, Liantou Port is closer to Xingzhou Island, which is only 3.5 nautical miles. The previous island owner did not choose Liantou Port when developing Xingzhou Island because Biwan Station had not yet been opened, and the entire area was far from the city and backward overall.

     Now that Biwan Station has been opened and Xingzhou Island has become more well-known, the source of tourists is no longer limited to the city. Therefore, if the terminus of the tourist line is set at Liantou Port, Xingzhou Island can add a route here.

     The driving time from Biwan Station to Liantou Port is 40 minutes, which is 10 minutes slower than that to Baoren Port, but it is closer to Xingzhou Island. Even if it is the double-decker ferry with a full load of 300 people as Peng Shaoyi said, it only takes 20 minutes.

     Li Yaolin met Fang Xinhua when she came back from the meeting. He said: “I also think that the number of flights at Baoren Port cannot be increased. It should be adjusted and relaxed appropriately. Twenty flights a day and 40 round trips are reasonable. But we can add a route at Liantou Port, ten flights a day and 20 round trips. What do you think, Mr. Li?”

     Li Yaolin: “… Mr. Fang should have contributed to the promotion of the tourism special line, right?”

     Otherwise, it is difficult to explain why it is so coincidental. The shareholders of Qianlai Tourism here want to increase flights and improve the company’s Profits, the Jiaotong Group wants to set the terminal of the tourist line at Liantou Port…

     Fang Xinhua said: “Mr. Li thinks too highly of me. How can I do this? But after all, the company’s performance is good, and I am not the only one who is happy! I hope that the company can go further and have closer and long-term cooperation with Xingzhou Island is the common wish of all our shareholders!”

     Li Yaolin understood it after a little thought. After all, Qianlai Tourism still has a part of its shares held by the state-owned enterprises controlled by the government. Seeing that companies can still make money, who wouldn’t be happy just sitting around and doing nothing to make money?

     She said: “I set a threshold for the number of people entering the island at the beginning, no more than 4,000 people per day.”

     She has not changed her mind about this decision until now.

     Fang Xinhua did not care: “Gulangyu is smaller than Xingzhou Island, but it still receives 20,000 to 30,000 tourists every day. During holidays, especially long holidays, it can receive 50,000 people a day.”

    “Gulangyu is an inhabited island, while Xingzhou Island is an uninhabited island and the development and utilization area shall not exceed 30% of the total land area of the island. It cannot be the same as Gulangyu.”

     Fang Xinhua thought about it and felt that it made sense, but he gave another example: “What about Guqizhou Island in Qionghai? It has an area of only 1.5 square kilometers. During the Spring Festival last year, the total number of tourists received in seven days was nearly 100,000, with an average of 14,000 per day. Even during non-holidays, the average daily number of tourists received was nearly 10,000.”

     Guqizhou Island is a “private island” like Xingzhou Island, but its development history is longer than that of Xingzhou Island, which has been 30 years so far and has been in operation for 21 years.

     Li Yaolin said: “I don’t plan to compare with other islands. After the hotel is built, assuming the occupancy rate is 90%, plus tourists in holiday cabins and camping, there will be thousands of tourists staying on the island. If another 4,000 people enter the island every day, there will be 5,000 people. Too many tourists will affect their travel experience, so I think this number of people on the island is very reasonable.” 

     Fang Xinhua: “…” 

     He has never seen an entrepreneur who is more people-oriented than Li Yaolin, who pays attention to the experience of tourists and the quality of scenic spots, and can sacrifice interests for this. Fortunately, he has known Li Yaolin for more than half a year, and he is used to her style of doing things and does not find it difficult to accept. But he knows that even if Li Yaolin has always insisted on receiving no more than 4,000 people per day, there will always be external factors that will make her change her mind. 

     For example, Jiaotong Group. If a tourist attraction has only a few thousand tourists every day, the income of the tourist line will inevitably be very low if some passengers are divided by the travel agency’s through bus, online car-hailing and taxi. If they fail to achieve the expected benefits, they will withdraw this special line, so in order to achieve the goal, they will definitely put pressure on Li Yaolin.

     At present, Xingzhou Island has just been developed, and the issue of the bus route is still under discussion. Therefore, whether Xingzhou Island restricts the number of people landing on the island is not so important to the stakeholders involved. However, in the process of this discussion, real estate developers, rural scenic spots, etc. will be tied to the interests of the Jiaotong Group. If Li Yaolin disagrees to relax the restrictions, there will be many people who have opinions.

     Li Yaolin has a deep background and is not afraid of offending people. Those who follow the pie are afraid!

     Fang Xinhua asked her tactfully: “I wonder if Mr. Li is interested in developing other attractions besides developing Xingzhou Island?”

     Li Yaolin didn’t understand, so her words became much more straightforward: “There are so many undeveloped beaches in Baoren Port and Liantou Port. I think if Mr. Li can invest in the development of this area, she won’t have to worry about whether to restrict the number of people landing on the island.”

     At the same time, the Jiaotong Group and other stakeholders can also profit from it and will no longer put pressure on Li Yaolin.

    Li Yaolin blinked: “I wasn’t worried about this!”

     Fang Xinhua: “…”

     Suddenly, Li Yaolin laughed and said, “I understand what Mr. Fang means, but if I develop a coastal tourist attraction, tourists can go there without taking a boat, then is there any need to add routes and flights? So Mr. Fang is not giving me advice as a shareholder of Qianlai Tourism, but from an investment standpoint, hoping that I can start a new business with you, right?”

     Fang Xinhua’s true intentions were revealed by her and smiled awkwardly: “I think it’s a pity to develop only one island with Mr. Li’s ability. If the investment and development scope can be expanded, I believe that the coastal tourism status of Youshi will surpass Qionghai one day.

     “Like Wenhua Group, it develops real estate while developing tourism industry. Now Biwan Island, Biwan Scenic Tourist Area, Mangrove Special Protection Area in Biwan Port, and the film and television base being invested and constructed on the southwest side of Yuhai Park… are all developed by it. Even the reason why Yuhai Park has been developed so beautifully in recent years is inseparable from its support.

     “To be honest, I think Mr. Li is fully capable of competing with Wenhua Group.”

     Li Yaolin twitched her lips.

    There is no conflict of interest between her and Wenhua Group, so why should she compete with it?