Research on the Design Practice of Chinese Tourism Commodity Packaging under the Background of “Cultural Convergence”

Research on the Design Practice of Chinese Tourism Commodity Packaging under the Background of “Cultural Convergence”

Xiong Xuan¹, Gu Qing^2*

¹GuangXi MinZu University, NanNing China

²GuangXi Vocational & Technical College, NanNing China

^*Corresponding Author

DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.47772/IJRISS.2024.8120334

Received: 16 December 2024; Accepted: 20 December 2024; Published: 22 January 2025

ABSTRACT

This study explores the homogenization problem in the packaging design of Chinese tourism commodities, and proposes how to convey regional culture through packaging design to enhance the cultural attributes and market competitiveness of tourism commodities under the background of “cultural convergence”. It analyzes the evolution process of Chinese tourism commodity packaging, and summarizes the four major design themes of scenic spots, ethnic customs, history and culture, and materials and crafts and their problems. Through design practice, this paper proposes to use packaging forms with regional characteristics to give tourism commodities deep cultural connotations, so as to avoid “cultural convergence” in packaging forms. The study emphasizes that, in the context of globalization, how to balance the transmission of regional culture with the demands of aesthetics and practicality is the core issue of packaging design for Chinese tourist commodities.

Keywords: cultural convergence, tourism commodities, packaging design, difficulties and countermeasures

INTRODUCTION

Along with the rapid development of China’s society and economy and the growth of the middle class, the tourism consumption pattern is undergoing a comprehensive transformation from basic to quality and personalization. This transformation is not only reflected in the diversified choices of tourism products, but also in the complexity and high demands of tourists’ consumption behavior. When choosing destinations, modern tourism consumers pay more and more attention to experience and participation, and hope to continue their cultural experience and emotional memory by purchasing tourism commodities. With the improvement of living standards, the pursuit of the use value is no longer the mainstream of tourism commodity consumption, and consumers in the process of tourism produced by the pleasant mood, cultural identity gradually become an important reason to stimulate consumption.[[1]] Therefore, tourism commodities have been upgraded from traditional practical goods to an important medium for carrying regional culture and showing personalized aesthetics. As an important carrier of cultural communication, tourism commodity packaging not only has practical functions, but also bears the dual mission of cultural transmission and brand building.

The design of tourism commodity packaging carries the visual expression and dissemination of regional cultural symbols, which can construct regional cultural identity through art forms and provide consumers with a memory carrier of cultural symbols. For example, by extracting cultural elements such as natural landscapes, historical relics and national customs, packaging design can visualize the emotional connection between consumers and tourist places. This form of packaging can not only satisfy the consumers’ expectation of the characteristic culture of the tourist place, but also enhance the competitiveness of the tourist commodities in the market. However, with the continuous expansion of China’s tourism market, the packaging design of tourism commodities has gradually shown the phenomenon of “Cultural convergence”. “Cultural convergence” refers to the phenomenon in which different cultural groups, in the process of exchange and integration, gradually develop similar cultural characteristics, resulting in the reduction or disappearance of the original cultural differences. In the field of China’s tourism commodity packaging design, the phenomenon of “cultural convergence” is manifested in the lack of regional characteristics of commodity packaging around the world, the design style tends to be the same, weakening the cultural attractiveness of the product and market competitiveness. In fact, the significance of the packaging of tourism commodities goes far beyond the commodities themselves, which provide consumers with a comprehensive experience that is both functional and emotional through the integration of multiple attributes of material and culture. “Tourism commodity itself is a unique type of product, which is branded with the unique brand of the tourist place, often associated with the place name and environment of the place. And this presentation of local characteristics becomes its selling point.”[[2]] In conclusion, tourism commodity packaging design has become an important tool for image construction and cultural dissemination of tourist destinations, and its importance has become more and more prominent with the continuous development of tourism.

LITERATURE REVIEW

With China’s globalization and the intensification of the trend of cultural convergence, tourism commodities, as an important carrier of cultural dissemination, are facing the challenges of homogenization and insufficient cultural expression in their packaging design. In response to these problems, recent studies have focused on the integration of regional culture, narrative construction, and symbolic consumption of tourism commodity packaging design, and have proposed a series of innovative design strategies. The following review is based on the research results of scholars such as Ni Jing, Wu Xin and Lu Minghui, and provides theoretical support and application insights for exploring the practice of Chinese tourism commodity packaging design under the background of “cultural convergence”.

Table 1 List of relevant academic opinions

Comprehensive research in the above literature, the main problems of China’s tourism commodity packaging design are: first, insufficient excavation of cultural depth, many tourism commodity packaging design fails to deeply refine the regional culture, and only stays at the level of symbolic application, which lacks of cultural depth and aesthetic value; second, the design homogenization phenomenon is obvious, and the repetitive use of traditional elements leads to a lack of innovation and brand uniqueness, which weakens market competitiveness; third, the imbalance between practicality and aesthetics, some designs ignore the actual needs of consumers during the journey, such as portability and environmental protection. How to meet the market demand for tourism commodities while using packaging as a carrier to further highlight the cultural characteristics of tourist destinations remains a challenge for designers.

METHODOLOGY

This paper belongs to comprehensive research, related to brand packaging, regional culture, material technology and other disciplines, involving support theory, typical cases and design practice and other links, so in the research process incorporates a diversity of research methods, mainly including:

A. Literature research method

By analyzing and summarizing the relevant literature at home and abroad, this paper systematically summarizes the current status and key issues of the research on packaging design of tourism commodities. For example, Qin Xiaonan’s (2019) research on the integration of regional culture into packaging design and Ni Jing’s (2017) discussion of the strategy of cultural symbols refining from the perspective of symbolic consumption provide a reference basis for the theoretical framework of this paper.

B. Case study method

This paper discusses the design theme and strategy of tourism commodity packaging with practical cases. For example, packaging design cases such as “Huangyao Story” and “Zhuangfeng Mingyun” illustrate in detail the practical application of different design themes (e.g. scenic spots, local ethnic cultures, historical events and characters, and characteristic crafts and materials).

C. Comparative analysis method

When analyzing the packaging design of tourism commodities, this paper compares the differences in design techniques and styles of different brands under the same theme, for example, the differences between the “Dreamland Tea Garden” and “Huangyao Story” series of tea packaging, so as to put forward a solution to avoid homogenization of design.

D. Semiotic analysis method

From the perspective of semiotics, analyze the role and significance of cultural symbols in the packaging design of tourism commodities, and explore how to enhance the cultural communication power and market attraction of tourism commodities through symbolic visual language.

E. Application of theoretical models

This paper cites the “encoding-decoding model” of communication science and the related theories of psychology and consumer behavior to analyze the functions of tourism commodity packaging design in terms of information transmission, aesthetic interest and emotional value.

These research methods provide theoretical support and practical guidance for this paper, making it more scientific and practical in analyzing problems and proposing countermeasures.

ANALYSIS

A. The Evolution and Current Situation of China’s Tourism Commodity Packaging

“Tourism commodities usually refers to the physical commodities purchased or used during the journey, which are often used as gifts, collections or used on the way, that is to say, tourism commodities have to meet the needs of travelers in different use environments. As tourism commodities are affected by the unique use environment and mode, the packaging design is also affected by the use environment and the emotions of travelers.”[[4]] Chinese traditional tourism commodities are mostly processed and produced in the form of handicrafts, with strong local characteristics and humanistic flavor. For example, Zhuang brocade and copper drums in Guangxi, tie-dye and Pu’er tea in Yunnan, Tangka and handmade silver jewelry in Tibet. These handicrafts not only show the essence of local culture, but also carry a deep historical heritage. However, with the development of industrialization and marketization, the production of traditional handicrafts has been gradually replaced by industrialized production mode, and tourism commodities have also expanded from a single type of souvenir to cover a wide range of fields such as food, beverages, daily necessities, clothing, jewelry and so on. Taking Guangxi Province as an example, early tourism commodities mostly appeared in the form of souvenirs, such as embroidered balls and Zhuang brocade. Nowadays, food and daily necessities rich in regional characteristics have also gradually entered the tourists’ field of vision, such as Huangyao tempeh, Guilin chili sauce, and Huanjiang flower bamboo hats. In addition, the support of national policies also provides a strong guarantee for the prosperity of the tourism commodity market. Since China’s State Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ) approved the launch of the “One Hometown, One Product” industry promotion program, localities have relied on their own regional advantages to tap into the history, uniqueness, applicability and consumption of local products, and make local specialties more competitive in the market by means of branding, packaging and publicity and promotion. This not only meets the needs of tourists for local cultural experiences, but also effectively promotes the development of the local economy.

In the current environment of China’s tourism commodity market, packaging, as a cultural carrier and an important tool for marketing, needs to satisfy both functional and aesthetic needs. Tourism commodity packaging should not only meet the packaging for the protection of the product, but also have to show the regional culture visual enjoyment, but also easy to carry the sense of experience.[[5]] On the one hand, packaging must be convenient to carry, especially for small commodities such as travel souvenirs; on the other hand, packaging also needs to be able to reflect the distinctive regional cultural characteristics to attract consumers’ attention and stand out in the competition.

Specificity of tourism commodity packaging

Tourism commodities contain product characteristics, regional characteristics and packaging characteristics. Product characteristics are the consumer’s experience of using the product, with the uniqueness of the place of origin (e.g., Tianwait chili peppers, Huangyao tempeh, Gongcheng moon persimmons, Jingxi hydrangeas, Huanjiang flower bamboo hats, and other geographic indications products or non-heritage products); Regional characteristics include the natural landscape, ethnic customs, history and culture of the tourist places (e.g. Guilin landscape, Longsheng terraced rice fields, Cheng Yang wind and rain bridge, Baise Uprising, Jintian Uprising, etc.), which have objective existence and are the cultural core of the positioning of tourist commodities. The product characteristics and regional characteristics of tourism commodities in sales, and ultimately manifested in the packaging characteristics of commodities. The specificity of tourism commodity packaging lies in the fact that it not only carries emotional support, but also shoulders the mission of cultural inheritance, which makes it different from other commodity packaging. Therefore, tourism commodity packaging as a tourist place and the carrier of tourism commodity information, in addition to the basic functions of daily product packaging, should pay more attention to the implantation and performance of specific regional culture, through the distinctive regional characteristics of the packaging form to deepen the tourists’ understanding of the natural landscape of the tourist places, folklore and humanities, to meet the tourists in the process of purchasing the cultural episodes.

A. Objective attributes of tourism commodity packaging

1). Creative theme: the packaging design of tourism commodities needs to be centered on a clear theme. Semiotics theory emphasizes that the cultural significance of symbols can intuitively influence consumers’ purchasing decisions through visual transmission. “Symbolic consumption refers to the process of consumers in the choice and consumption of goods, the pursuit is not the use value of the physical sense of the commodity, but the commodity contains additional, can provide consumers with prestige and performance of their personality, characteristics, social status and power with a certain symbolic meaning of concepts, meaning”.[[6]] Incorporating various elements such as natural scenery, historical stories and ethnic customs of tourist places as cultural symbols into the design theme can closely integrate tourist commodities with the image of tourist places and satisfy tourists’ expectations of regional culture.

2). Packaging: Based on the viewpoint of consumer behavior, simple and functional packaging design can effectively enhance the attractiveness of commodities and consumer experience. According to the specific purchase and use of tourism commodities, lightweight and portable packaging is more adaptable to the needs of traveling, and easy to disassemble the packaging structure is more convenient for travelers to use directly.

3). Cost control: Most of the tourism commodities are affordable mass commodities, and their packaging needs to find a balance between aesthetics and cost, to achieve cost control of packaging through simple and practical design, and to satisfy tourists’ basic functional needs and cultural experience of tourism commodities; A few high-end tourism commodities, such as precious handicrafts or geographical indications products, are usually priced higher, which requires that the materials, craftsmanship and visual design of the packaging reflect a sense of luxury, uniqueness as well as collector’s value.

B. Subjective feeling of tourism commodity packaging

1). Aesthetic interest: Psychological research shows that visual design in line with consumers’ personal taste can effectively enhance the attractiveness of commodities, which is particularly significant in the field of tourism commodities. Tourism commodities are not only a kind of goods, but also the carrier of regional culture and the continuation of travel experience. Its packaging design should fully reflect the characteristics of the destination, not only to convey the uniqueness of regional culture, but also to integrate the diversified needs of modern aesthetics. For example, by extracting cultural elements such as traditional patterns, local landscape features or unique custom symbols, and combining them with modern design techniques, the packaging of tourism commodities can be made more recognizable and infectious.

2). Emotional value: Commodity packaging can trigger the positive emotions of buyers through visual and tactile sensations, and this emotional connection can significantly increase consumers’ desire to buy. Tourism commodity packaging can satisfy consumers’ expectations of memorability and emotional value through visual design. While highlighting the cultural characteristics, adding design elements full of life interest and humanistic concern makes the packaging more attractive in the display of scenic spots and becomes part of consumers’ emotional memory.

3). Emotional communication: Packaging is not only the external manifestation of tourism commodities, but also a bridge for the cultural communication of tourist places. Tourism commodity packaging through the transmission of regional culture and symbolism, become an important medium to establish emotional ties between consumers and commodities, this emotional connection can enhance brand loyalty and continue the buyer’s good memories of the tourist places.

Tourism commodities are the physical expression of local culture and an important medium for tourists to perceive and remember the culture of tourist places. Scenic spots, historical events, folk customs and special crafts of different places can all become design elements of tourism commodities, and the extraction and re-creation of these elements can give tourism commodities deeper cultural connotation and emotional experience. Injecting regional characteristics and cultural essence into the packaging design of tourism commodities not only enhances the cultural added value of the commodities, but also strengthens the sense of identity of tourists to the local brand of the tourist place.

C. Themes, Problems and Countermeasures of Packaging Design for Chinese Tourism Products

Under the background of globalization, China’s tourism commodity market is also facing the serious challenge of “cultural convergence”. Many commodities lack local characteristics in packaging design, resulting in serious homogenization of tourism commodities on the market, making it difficult to attract consumers’ attention. Therefore, how to retain the regional characteristics of commodities under the conditions of modern industrialized production, and how to organically combine local culture with modern design concepts are the key issues that need to be solved in the current packaging design of tourism commodities.

The pleasure of tourism lies in letting people leave the familiar living environment and feel the different landscapes and humanities of foreign regions through differentiated life experiences. Tourism commodities are the physical form of travelers’ experience and the material carrier of heterogeneous culture among different regions. The cultural nature of tourism commodities is generally greater than its functionality, and its most important role should be to satisfy the travelers’ need to experience the local regional culture. Such experience needs include the unique local culture, lifestyle, customs and habits.[[7]] How to effectively integrate regional characteristics in tourism product packaging and enhance the cultural added value of tourism products can generally be centered on the following four themes.

D. Featured Scenic Spots Theme

In tourism product packaging design, landscape is the most commonly used theme of expression, and the characteristic attractions are commonly used design materials. Take “Huangyao Story” series tea packaging as an example, Huangyao is one of the “Famous Historical and Cultural Towns of China”, which is a popular tourist place in Guangxi for its beautiful natural scenery, long history and culture, intact Ming and Qing Dynasty buildings and rich folk activities. Zhaoping County, Hezhou, where Huangyao Ancient Town is located, is also the hometown of Chinese famous tea. The packaging of “Dreamland Tea Garden” series Zhaoping tea is based on the scenic positioning of Huangyao as “Ancient Town of Peak Thickness, Home of Dream”, and the design strategy of “Famous Artist, Famous Scenery, Famous Brand” is formulated. Based on the positioning of Huangyao scenic spot, the design strategy of “famous artist, famous scenery” and “famous brand”, we invited Wang Xuefeng, a famous landscape painter in Guangxi, to create a series of Huangyao ink and wash paintings and white drawings as the main material of package design with the theme of “Dreamland Tea Garden”, and chose the representative spots of Huangyao scenic spot such as the ancient theater, the bridge with dragons, Sima’s place and the thousand-year-old banyan tree, etc., and reflected Huangyao’s unique scenery and the unique landscape of the town and its scenery. It reflects the unique landscape and humanistic meaning of Huangyao, and designs three different packaging forms according to the capacity and grade of the product:

The hard paper box adopts the form of traditional painting and calligraphy framing box, simulating the original painting by silk screen watermarking on rice paper, and then placed into the box as the inner page after framing, after the product is taken out, the inner page can become the wall decoration when it is mounted into the frame;

Figure 1 “Dreamland Tea Garden” Tea Packaging/Xiong Xuan’s work

Inside the cardboard package, the brand publicity card is designed as a whole set of Huangyao-themed postcards, and tourists can collect the publicity card as a postcard or send it to their friends and relatives after purchasing the tea products, which increases the additional use value of the package with very little production cost;

Figure 2 “Dreamland Tea Garden” tea packaging/Xiong Xuan’s work

The low-end bagged tea packaging is designed to be an envelope style, sealed with a fire lacquer seal, signifying a love letter from Huangyao’s landscape, stimulating tourists’ desire to buy through the packaging form with a sense of ceremony and humanistic feelings.

Figure 3 “Dreamland Tea Garden” Tea Packaging/Xiong Xuan’s work

The “Dreamland Tea Garden” series of tea products are positioned as small gifts for friends and relatives on the way of traveling, i.e. the function of hand-carried letter. Therefore, the packaging of “Dreamland Tea Garden” series not only highlights the local traditional humanistic flavor of Huangyao, but also makes it lightweight and portable through lightweight design, thus effectively controlling the cost of packaging and generating the function of secondary use, which is in line with the trend of the development of green packaging in the society nowadays.

Figure 4 “Huangyao Story” Tea Packaging/Xiong Xuan’s work

As the tourism commodity market continues to prosper, there are often many different brand products or enterprises of the same category in the same scenic spot. Take “Huangyao Story” series of tea products as an example, “Huangyao Story” tea origin is located in Huangyao Ancient Town, Zhaoping County, and the product is positioned as a tourism hand-me-down, and its product characteristics and market background are extremely similar to “Dreamland Tea Garden”. Its product characteristics, market background and “Dreamland Tea Garden” are extremely similar. If there are two sets of product packaging with the same theme and presentation method in the same scenic spot, it will mislead tourists in the shopping process and even create the bad impression of cottage products. Scenic spots are the original objective existence of the tourist places, different brands for the same performance theme, must be changed in the performance method and design style. “Dreamland Tea Garden” adopts the traditional landscape painting expression form of white drawing and ink, and the audience group is relatively older, while ‘Huangyao Story’ targets the middle-aged and young tourists, adopts the expression form of fashion picture book, and patterns the Huangyao landscape, focusing on the compositional sense and decorative nature of the picture, which is a good way to get a better image from the middle-aged and young tourists. It focuses on the sense of composition and decorativeness of the picture, and is closer to the aesthetic preferences of young and middle-aged groups in terms of landscape modeling and color matching.

By comparing the design cases of “Dreamland Tea Garden” and “Huangyao Story”, we can see that for different brand packaging designs of the same category in the same scenic spot, as long as the presentation method is changed and the packaging materials are re-created based on scenic spots as prototypes, it is possible to present completely different packaging forms and visual feelings.

E. Local Ethnic Cultural Themes

The main part of designing tourist commodities using cultural symbols is to find and establish representative visual and spiritual archetypes.[[8]] The inhabited ethnic groups in each region will form their own unique folk customs and cultural forms in the long-term historical process, and such cultural forms form a comprehensive regional humanities environment through language, legends, songs and dances, costumes, totems, buildings, activities and other cultural factors, and put a distinctive regional branding (e.g., Guangxi’s March 3, Hanging Footloose, Liu Sanjie, Inner Mongolia’s Naadamu, and Horse-head fiddle ……). However, the phenomenon of assimilation exists to different degrees in all ethnic regions of China. This integration of ethnic cultures is the development trend of the social era, but the lack of native ethnic cultural forms in daily life will cause great trouble for designers to collect inspiration and materials.

Figure 5 “Chao Er Meng Zhu” Grassland Ecological Rice Packaging/Xiong Xuan’s Work

The extraction of regional cultural symbols is to reset the cultural symbols in a new visual environment, rather than simply copying the existing materials and assigning them to new carriers. The researcher was faced with the problem of collecting regional cultural materials and innovative design in the pre-planning of the packaging of the grassland ecological rice of the series of “Cholmengzhu” and “Xing’anling”. When it was not possible to capture the necessary Mongolian national culture materials from the daily life of Xing’anmeng, the researcher collected a lot of original materials of traditional Mongolian national culture and life through the network material library to Zhalaid, Wulanhot local museums, libraries to check the folklore materials, from the Mongolian national song and dance performances and film and television works to find creative inspiration, and through the network library to collect a large number of traditional Mongolian national culture and life of the original material. Finally, the brand and product name fonts were designed based on Mongolian Bastba script, classic Mongolian cultural symbols such as wrestling, dancing, horse-riding, horse-head qin, Genghis Khan, etc., were selected and combined with rice cultivation elements, and color matching and ornamental patterns rich in Mongolian national characteristics were imported to fully satisfy tourists’ expectations and imaginations of Mongolian national culture.

Figure 6 “Xing’anling” Grassland Ecological Rice Packaging/Xiong Xuan’s Work

Material creation is the most time-consuming and labor-intensive part of the packaging design process, and the quality of the material largely determines the design quality of the packaging work. The use of network images as packaging materials often faces problems such as low image resolution, rough printing quality, or copyright disputes over high-resolution image materials (take the “Visual China” incident as an example). Designers can effectively avoid the hidden problems after the packaging is marketed and enhance the artistic and humanistic interests of the packaging works through the artistic reconstruction of the original material in the form of illustrations, patterns and other original forms.

F. Themes of historical events and people.

Historical events are the driving force of social change, and historical figures are the core of dominant events. Events and figures that have had a significant impact in various places from ancient times to the present day are the elements of history, and are also an important component of regional culture. “The so-called narrative design is more similar to the readability of the story of the design, which is a kind of design method that gives more connotation to the design …… With the help of narrative design, people are able to realize the combination of cultural connotation and design aesthetics of the commodity packaging”. [[9]]This kind of theme has strong communication power because of its popularity and image, and has become an important performance object in tourism promotion and commodity packaging.

Figure 7 “Baise Red” Tea Packaging/Xiong Xuan’s Work

As the main tea producing area of Guangxi, Baise is the birthplace of Zhuang nationality and the holy land of revolution in China, where Comrade Deng Xiaoping led the famous Baise Uprising in 1929, and “the blessed land of Zhuang nationality and the red city of Baise” has become the tourism image created by Baise government to the outside world. “Baise Red” series of tea packaging design, Baise red culture as the theme, layout of the red tourism market, ‘Zhuangxiang, red city’ as the core concept, the use of Zhuang ornamental modeling techniques to reproduce the scene of Baise Uprising, so that the packaging illustration set of narrative and decorative as a whole. The main logo is made up of the flag representing the revolution. The main logo consists of three elements: the flag representing the revolution, the horn symbolizing the victory and the tea leaves identifying the product. Through the brand text of “a cup of good tea full of red episodes”, which is closely related to the product and the history and culture, the overall image of the package presents the rich red revolutionary cultural atmosphere of Baise area. In the “Baise Red” travel set products, the tea canister packaging is designed as an old enamel cup style, with obvious signs of the times, when the product is removed from the tea canister can also be used as a tea brewer, thus realizing the secondary use of product packaging.

It should be noted that according to Article 9 of the 2015 Advertising Law of the People’s Republic of China, images of political figures shall not be used in commercial promotion activities. Therefore, the packaging of tourism commodities must avoid the image of great men in contemporary historical events, and if involved can be dealt with by silhouette abstraction or textual metaphors, so that it can skillfully become a visual symbol of regional culture.

G. Featured Crafts and Materials Theme

Different geographic environment factors create unique natural resources in each tourist place, and when these resources are widely used in social life, the materials and crafts representative of the region (e.g. Inner Mongolia leather goods, Guizhou batik, Lijiang Dongba paper) are formed in the long-term historical development. The sense of touch is another external form of consumers’ cognition of goods and packaging, and the choice of packaging materials also influences consumers’ purchasing behavior. “Traditional materials are characterized by the use of locally sourced materials and the use of materials according to their characteristics. China’s traditional packaging has a long history and cultural origins, with its own unique national style and aesthetic sense, and its form and the materials used are different from each other due to different historical periods, giving birth to a profound packaging culture.”[[10]] If the packaging design of tourism commodities can be based on local materials, so that the characteristics of the commodities correspond to the regional attributes, and the local materials and techniques can be applied to the packaging, it can effectively strengthen the personality and regional characteristics of tourism commodities and realize the dissemination of the characteristics of the culture of the tourist places.

Figure 8 “Zhuangfeng Mingyun” Tea Packaging/Xiong Xuan’s Work

The “Zhuang Feng Ming Yun” series of tea products are positioned exclusively in Guangxi’s local tea ceremony, and are tourism products with strong cultural characteristics of Luo Yue. In the commodity packaging, with the Zhuang tea culture as the spiritual kernel, using Guangxi’s unique nixing pottery and old ship wood as the main material. Qinzhou nixing pottery soil is rich in iron oxide, the firing process of “kiln change” will form different patterns such as red, bronze, tiger stripes, etc., the wall of the pottery is polished smooth and delicate, colorful, with high artistic value, is the national intangible cultural heritage; Beihai old ship wood by the perennial erosion of seawater and natural weathering and the texture of the dense, with a rich petrified texture effect, the material of the old ship wood, with a rich petrochemical texture effect, and the material of the old ship wood. rich petrochemical texture effect, the material is famous for “solitude, purity, thickness and content”. The “Zhuangfeng Mingyun” tea packaging combines the simple, thick and inherent material effects of nixing pottery and old ship wood, presenting the material aesthetics with distinctive regional characteristics of Guangxi.

CONCLUSION

Tourism commodity is an important carrier to carry tourism memory, which can transcend time and space and continue the spiritual experience of tourists to the tourist place, and the cultural origin of the commodity and the regional terroir, folklore and history is its charm. Tourism commodity packaging is not only a means of market promotion, but also a special regional cultural form. When implementing the principle of cultural design, we can start from two aspects: firstly, we can analyze and study the characteristics and connotations of tourism commodities by digging into the cultural history, cultural genes and cultural elements of tourism commodities; secondly, we can try to explore the appropriate and innovative ways of presenting the design, so as to make it fully show the cultural characteristics of tourism commodities.[[11]] With the prosperity of China’s tourism market, the form of tourism commodities is getting richer and richer, and the spiritual and cultural needs of tourists in the process of shopping are constantly upgrading, the packaging design of tourism commodities will certainly face more new problems, and the designers must insist on the in-depth interpretation of the regional cultures of the tourist places, ethnic customs, history and humanities, and give the tourism commodities deep cultural connotations through the packaging forms rich in regional characteristics, so as to avoid the phenomenon of “cultural convergence” on the form of tourism commodities effectively, and the distinctive brand image of tourism commodities can be formed eventually.

Looking ahead, the packaging design of tourism commodities should further explore and display local cultural characteristics while meeting market demands. Designers need to make all-round innovations in product positioning, material selection and functional design. For example, through digital technology (such as Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality) to achieve the interactivity of packaging, so that tourists can get a richer experience when purchasing goods; through big data analysis to deeply understand the preferences of tourists and accurately match the target market; or with the cooperation of non-hereditary bearers, combining traditional crafts with modern design concepts, to create a more competitive tourism commodities. In short, the packaging design of tourism commodities is both a business strategy and an important means of cultural dissemination. Under the background of diversified market demand and individualized consumer behavior, designers must give full play to creativity to convey local culture in a more attractive form, and then help the sustainable development of China’s tourism market.

REFERENCES

1. Zhao, Z.F. (2021). Research on the brand design of tourism accompanying gift in ethnic areas under the background of symbolic consumption. Design (13), 34-36.
2. Qin, X.N. (2019). Research on Packaging Design of Tourism Commodities Incorporating Regional Cultural Characteristics. Design (05), 136-138.
3. Lu, M.H. (2019). Research on brand packaging design of tourism commodities (Master’s thesis, Jiangsu Normal University). Master https://link.cnki.net/doi/10.27814/d.cnki.gxzsu.2019.000226doi:10.27814/d.cnki.gxzsu.2019.000226.
4. Yu L. (2008). The Way of Carrying Objects and Conveying Emotions–An Analysis of Packaging Design for Tourism Commodities. Decoration
5. Zhang, Z.Y. (2018). Design of portable packaging for tourism commodities (Master’s thesis, Hunan University of Technology). Master’s degree https://kns.cnki.net/kcms2/article/abstract?v=oGsGy-nFbJSlxhIqdeKHHtiu1a59FIuKW9Tsbo 6mA0IBtuWNCYZfpAcFLO2kqonIrJ9xzuk3ajl5UJ6Ihghr7z20NcDtaRKfuAB_hv5tIf6GVnV8TgS3-aEvZbJ65nces82J5mdJ0Qk3mjd_9n5nFHXsgSUnuuz4EJIc-oAaVOueQ52r2tsTp-QiOR426__Pw_OMdQfHfsc=&uniplatform=NZKPT&language=CHS
6. Ni J. (2017). Utilization and development of local culture of tourism commodities in the context of symbolic consumption–Taking Anqing Huangmei Opera as an example. Journal of Yulin College (01), 11-14. doi:10.16752/j.cnki.jylu.2017.01.003.
7. Mao B & Wang H. (2019). Research on culture-oriented innovation method of tourism commodities. Design (24), 109-111.
8. Jiang, B. G. (2012). Research on the Application of Regional Cultural Symbols in the Innovative Design of Tourism Souvenirs (Doctoral dissertation, Wuhan University of Technology). Ph.
9. Wu, X. & Liao, L.Y. (2021). Narrative construction of tourism commodity packaging design. Packaging Engineering (16), 226-230. doi:10.19554/j.cnki.1001-3563.2021.16.031.
10. Qiu, C.T. (2010). The application of traditional elements in the packaging design of Shaanxi specialty tourism products. Packaging Engineering (20), 74-77. doi:10.19554/j.cnki.1001-3563.2010.20.023.
11. Liu, J. F. (2021). Research on the application of design thinking in cultural tourism commodity packaging. Design (16), 70-72.