Frontiers in Business, Economics and Management ISSN: 2766-824X | Vol. 11, No. 3, 2023 77 The Exploration of Commercial Paths of Urban Cultural Heritage Hanteng Zhang1, * 1Shanghai Shangde Experimental School, Shanghai, 201315, China * Corresponding author: zhanghanson@126.com Abstract: Due to the development of cities in modern China, improper protection of urban heritage has caused a lot of damage. Although the protection of urban heritage has been strengthened after the introduction of new regulations, in many cases due to improper operation or insufficient strength due to various reasons, the process of urban heritage protection is very difficult. Urban cultural heritage is also a unique feature of a certain area, which often attracts many foreign tourists. Therefore, the major merchants decided to develop their products based on the city's cultural heritage in order to attract more customers. From the standpoint of ordinary people, the citizen's perspective examines the purpose, process and results of urban heritage protection, respects the important position of citizens in urban heritage protection, fully considers the needs and feelings of the public, and tastes the public participation in the relevant links of heritage protection. Urban heritage protection from the perspective of citizens aims to integrate urban heritage into daily life, place emotional memories, maintain urban characteristics, and improve the quality of citizens. This article will discuss the protection of urban heritage by analyzing the public, to propose a commercial path for urban cultural heritage. Keywords: Urban heritage preservation, Commerce, Marketing, Heritage education. 1. Background 1.1. The Commercial Development of Cultural Heritage has a Long History Cultural heritage is a valuable cultural resource, urban cultural heritage is the embodiment of urban characteristics and styles, is the symbol and emotional value carrier of the city, whether it is tangible cultural heritage or intangible cultural heritage, has rich value mining space, culture is usually attached to cultural heritage, cultural heritage can bring cultural resonance, can provide fertile spiritual soil for commercial exploration, the commercial development of cultural heritage has a long history, but at different stages presents different commercial development characteristics [1]. In the 1.0 stage of the cultural heritage commercialization, consumers can usually come into contact with the most original and untouched cultural heritage, such as visiting famous mountains and rivers, scenic spots, which is a gift of nature and history, and the mode of business participation at this stage is simple and simple. In the 2.0 stage of cultural heritage commercialization, the involvement of capital and commerce is very obvious, "ancient town tourism" has become a classic product of this era, a number of "educated" ancient towns and ancient cities have emerged, such as Jiangnan Water Town Wuzhen, Dali Ancient City, etc., homestays, commercial special snack streets, cultural souvenir shops accompany this, driving the development of local economy and tourism, but excessive commercialization and homogenization have also become a much-criticized problem [2]. Now it has entered the 3.0 stage of cultural heritage commercialization exploration, and the commercialization path of cultural heritage in this stage is more abundant, such as Wuzhen Drama Festival, "Impression" series of live performances, Wuzhen Drama Festival, Henan Satellite TV's "Tanggongshengyan" performance, etc., the integration of culture and commerce has a more compatible way and can explore the essence of culture. In summary, it can be seen that the commercialization, development and exploration of cultural heritage has a long history and has never stopped. 1.2. There are Many Problems in the Commercial Development of Cultural Heritage The commercial exploitation of cultural heritage faces many serious problems, which can be divided into two aspects, one is excessive commercial exploitation and the other is the failure to fully tap commercial value. Cultural heritage, as a limited and scarce cultural resource, has always been watched by capital, and cultural heritage resources also need to be commercialized to maintain sustainable development, but in this process, commercialization often has the phenomenon of quick success, rude commercial development in a way that lacks scientific concepts and humanistic care, excessive commercialization constantly squeezes and encroaches on the original cultural form and atmosphere, and even makes the decision to demolish and build for profit, ignoring the original cultural value of cultural heritage [3], For example, the highly commercialized ancient city of Lijiang is losing its cultural essence under the flood of gold diggers and speculators. On the other hand, the inability to effectively tap the commercial value of cultural heritage is also another major challenge facing the development of cultural heritage today, mainly refers to the relatively single commercial value development model, the inability to effectively find a commercial development model suitable for the characteristics of cultural heritage, the simple and mechanical sale of souvenirs and tickets, without innovation in business models and strategies, and the inability to fully use the profound heritage of cultural heritage to display the charm of culture. Excessive commercialization and insufficient exploitation of commercial value go hand in hand, which brings great challenges to the protection and development of cultural 78 heritage. There seems to be a natural contradiction between the protection of cultural heritage and the development and utilization of cultural heritage, and commercialization is often regarded as a flood beast in the cultural field, but cultural heritage can only achieve true sustainable development if it comes alive, enters the public, accumulates historical heritage, and follows the commercial logic. This paper attempts to explore the "activation" path of urban cultural heritage, that is, how to coordinate the balance between urban cultural heritage protection and commercial value, provide suggestions for the rational development of urban cultural heritage and the exploration of commercial paths, and provide a basis for relevant management departments to systematically understand the commercial development status of urban cultural heritage, formulate reasonable tourism exhibition planning and commercial development strategies, and implement effective commercial management norms. 2. Urban Cultural Heritage In December 2005, the State Council promulgated the Notice on Strengthening the Protection of Cultural Heritage, which for the first time replaced the concepts of "cultural relics" and "monuments" commonly used in the past with the art of "cultural heritage", and divided them into two categories: tangible cultural heritage and intangible cultural heritage. The concept of urban cultural heritage has two categories: narrow and broad, the narrow view is that urban cultural heritage refers to heritage objects, representative scholar Shen Haihong pointed out that urban heritage refers to all historical buildings, historical districts and historical cities with emotion and place spirit within the city, or buildings that can display urban styles. The broad view expands the scope of urban cultural heritage to include the intangible relics contained in the city that can reflect the characteristic urban style and folk characteristics, including urban culture and spiritual style [4]. A broad definition of urban cultural heritage was adopted in this study. 3. Research on the Commercialization of Urban Cultural Heritage 3.1. Commercialization Paths for Urban Cultural Heritage The commercialization path can be understood as a business model, the simplest understanding of the business model is the logic of making money, and the concept of business model is becoming more and more perfect and rich in the continuous evolution, and its meaning can be understood as how to allocate resources and other core plans to meet market demand, and the scope it covers has become more complex, including products, services, markets, supply chains, marketing and other concepts. Mathieson first introduced the concept of cultural commercialization in 1982, pointing out that selling culturally specific handicrafts can increase local people's sales revenue, but may undermine the authenticity of traditional culture. Greenwood noted that the financial return of locals bringing traditional ceremonial performances to visitors was a sign of the beginning of commercialization. Xu Honggang believes that in the absence of government intervention, the commercialization of cultural heritage will inevitably occur, and the development of cultural tourism will inevitably attract continuous investment of capital, which will also lead to the loss of cultural capital. Yin Hongwei introduced stakeholder theory, the process of commercializing cultural heritage is essentially a game between stakeholders such as the government, tourism operators, tourists, and related merchants. In the research on the commercialization control of urban cultural heritage, Lin Minhui pointed out that the impact of cultural heritage commercialization on local culture and society should be minimized, and the government should take the initiative to control the quality and quantity of commercialization. Although the commercialization of cultural heritage may make the packaged cultural products lose their original meaning to a certain extent, many scholars have shown that commercialization is conducive to the activation of traditional culture. In the research on the commercialization path of urban cultural heritage, most scholars believe that the current domestic urban cultural heritage commercialization path is relatively single, such as building cultural tourism business circles, developing cultural and creative industry chains, setting cultural heritage attractions, etc., and there are many development difficulties, such as serious quality, insufficient excavation of cultural heritage value, and weak imaginable space [5]. However, the development of technology has also brought more possibilities for the protection of urban cultural heritage, such as digital collections have become an important carrier to activate traditional culture and make cultural relics alive, in the field of cultural heritage, cloud exhibitions, cloud tours emerge endlessly, online scenes are derived in large numbers, technology reshapes the relationship between people and cultural heritage, and also provides more monetization possibilities for the commercial monetization of urban cultural heritage [6]. 3.2. Theory of Humanism The idea of humanistic theory can be traced back to the ancient Greek period, and its representative Protagoras' proposal that "man is the measure of all things" is considered to be the earliest expression of human-centered thinking. Nowadays, humanistic thinking can be interpreted as affirming the dominant position of people in social development, actively mobilizing and giving play to people's subjective initiative, promoting people's true liberation and development, and realizing harmonious coexistence between man and natural man and society. In the field of cultural heritage, many scholars support the protection and development of cultural heritage based on humanistic theory. People-oriented urban heritage protection emphasizes the true connection between urban heritage protection and public life so that urban heritage can serve the society and benefit people's livelihood, and fully consider the demands of residents and tourists, such as paying attention to everyone's common emotional memory, group identity, spiritual outlook, etc. [7]. 3.3. Theory of Sustainable Development The concept of sustainable development was first proposed by the "Our Common Future" adopted in 1987, the meaning of sustainable development is "to meet the needs of the present generation, but not to endanger the ability of future generations to meet their needs", first applied to the environmental and economic fields, and then this concept continues to expand to more fields, in the field of cultural heritage protection, the concept of sustainable development is considered to fully consider cultural, social, economic, 79 ecological and other aspects in the process of cultural heritage protection. In addition to economic benefits, it is also necessary to pay attention to its social significance, emotional value, ecological value, etc. [8]. In recent years, there has been growing support for the sustainable development of the development of the cultural heritage sector. 4. Conclusion To sum up, the concept of urban cultural heritage in this paper includes not only physical heritage but also living intangible heritage. The commercialization of urban cultural heritage is relatively single, but with the development of science and technology, new commercial possibilities have emerged, but in essence, it still mainly relies on traditional cultural tourism business districts and cultural and creative products to achieve commercial monetization, and the way is relatively single. Only by paying attention to people-oriented needs and sustainable development in the field of cultural heritage protection can we increase the marketing path of urban cultural heritage commercialization. References [1] Gao Jie. (2021) A Comparative Study on Chinese and Western Cultural Heritage Management Based on Cultural Perspective. Thesis of Shandong University. [2] He Xin. (2020) Research on the homogenization of ancient towns in China. 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