In recent years, with the deep integration of culture and tourism, there has been an increasing number of cultural and tourism projects centered around drama and art. According to statistics from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism for the year 2023, the size of China's cultural and tourism performing arts market has exceeded 26 billion yuan, an increase of 73% compared to 2019, with live action projects accounting for 58%. Traditional theatrical art breaks through the physical limitations of frame style stages and reacts chemically with tourist attractions, historical districts, and natural landscapes, giving rise to the concept of "cultural tourism drama". The unique presence and interactivity of the theater itself, from being attached to scenic spots to becoming an independent scenic theater, have made it the most active element in tourism culture since ancient times. The famous historical site of Pujiu Temple, which is famous for its opera "The Story of the Western Chamber", and new tourist attractions such as Wuzhen, Daliangshan, and Anaya, which have gained even more charm due to their theatrical performances, are all popular destinations for young people to check in. With the deepening of the concept of cultural tourism integration, there have also emerged independent drama performance settlements such as "See Pingyao Again" and "Only Henan" as tourist attractions. These new tourist landscapes, built according to the script and designed according to the plot, subvert the traditional theatrical viewing relationship, making tourists feel like they are in a play: people are in the midst of the scenery, and the audience is the tourists. The original cultural tourism drama, as a subsidiary of the scenic area, aimed to attract and engage tourists, and was free of charge to the audience. The management of the scenic area has invested in inviting folk performance groups to create a lively and vibrant cultural atmosphere. For example, the local dramas that are still being performed in Mount Wutai Scenic Area are the primary stage of cultural tourism dramas. The performance at this stage has little to do with the cultural aspects of the scenic area. In 1998, Zhang Yimou was inspired by foreign performances of "environmental drama" and adapted and directed Italian composer Puccini's opera "Turandot". It was selected to be performed at the Forbidden City Temple in Beijing and was called a "large-scale landscape opera live performance" by critics at the time. Afterwards, Zhang Yimou collaborated with others to produce the landscape performance "Impression: Liu Sanjie", which opened the curtain of cultural tourism drama. Afterwards, more than ten large-scale cultural and tourism projects such as the "Impression Series," "Re seeing Series," and "Drama Fantasy City Series" emerged one after another. In order to break free from seasonal and climatic restrictions, outdoor live performances also began to create their own theaters and perform cultural and tourism dramas indoors. At present, this type of cultural and tourism drama, which brings immersive experiences to the audience through environmental reproduction and is full of fantasy and romantic features, is being produced and performed in various well-known scenic spots, and has become an indispensable part of tourists' journey. In recent years, there have been drama festivals that have attracted considerable attention in the field of drama, and have been invited by scenic spots to perform, among which the most famous is the Wuzhen Drama Festival. It was founded in 2013 and is held annually in mid to late October in Wuzhen, Jiaxing, Zhejiang. Its goal is to "invite global theater enthusiasts and life dreamers to experience the carnival of the soul in the beautiful Wuzhen, and thus achieve the Renaissance of Jiangnan small towns". The Wuzhen Drama Festival has freed itself economically from its dependence on scenic spots and switched to selling tickets separately. Due to the excellent quality of the invited drama programs, it is often difficult to obtain tickets, and the economic income from their performances even exceeds the city tours of these drama works. The emerging "Daliangshan Drama Festival" and the "Anaya Drama Festival" in Beidaihe New Area of Qinhuangdao have become a paradise for young artists to practice their artistic ideals. Their emergence has realized the ideal state of tourism and culture in the concept of cultural tourism integration, where one plus one is greater than two. In the rapid development of cultural and tourism drama, the mature stage experience of using lighting as a pen and landscape as a curtain, which has been repeatedly tested in small theaters, finally has a broad space for full expression. Drama, an ancient yet youthful art that has been heavily impacted by film and television, has regained infinite vitality with the presence of real people. Unlike typical dramas, cultural and tourism dramas do not rely on plot, but on performance forms to attract the audience's attention and focus with grand, rich, and stunning aesthetics; Also, because many scenic spots have traditional characteristics, they often create a nostalgic resonance emotionally. For example, in "Seeing Pingyao Again", there is a plot segment where the entire city wall is used as a stage and hundreds of actors perform with their bodies suspended, which has astonishing stage performance; There are also performances that use the entire street as a stage to recreate the daily activities of the three religions and nine streams in Pingyao City during the old era. In Pingyao Ancient City, these performances are everywhere, allowing tourists to see them at any time, achieving spiritual exchange and interpretation with the ancient Pingyao City, providing unprecedented creativity and imagination for the integration of culture and tourism. There is also a type of cultural tourism and drama park that directly separates from its attachment to scenic spots and becomes an independent scenic area. Only Henan · Drama Fantasy City "is positioned as a panoramic immersive drama theme park. The project is built in Zhongmou County, Zhengzhou City, covering an area of more than 600 acres. It is a square castle made of rammed earth, with large fields outside the castle and 21 theaters and 56 performance spaces inside. The performance inside and outside the castle lasts for 700 minutes every day, and it takes 3 days to fully watch it. Due to the lack of famous scenic spots in Zhongmou County, this drama themed park has become the main reason for tourists to come to Zhongmou County for tourism after its completion. In these theatrical projects, various stage elements have been liberated one after another. For example, lighting, as an important means of cultural tourism and drama, is ubiquitous. Light and shadow even directly participate in the development of the plot and character shaping, creating an environmental atmosphere, isolating the stage zones, and playing a role in opening and closing. On the walls of the "Henan Drama Fantasy City", a light show can showcase high-definition "A Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains" and "Along the River during Qingming Festival". The audience sits on the outdoor stands, their vision crossing over large mature wheat fields and sorghum, the cool night breeze blowing, and the singing of "Our Fields" ringing in their ears, as if entering the scene of the work. In addition, there is a dedicated theater in the drama theme park called "Light and Shadow" for performing light shows. As for the wheat grains covering the theater, snowflakes flying in the sky, golden wheat ears, resilient dough, and elderly people falling from the sky, they all benefit from new materials and technologies that have not appeared on traditional stages. The expressive techniques of these cultural tourism dramas create unprecedented artistic illusions. Performing themed stories related to regional culture on stage has successfully attracted numerous audiences or tourists, reshaping the form of tourism culture and activating the vitality of theatrical art. Culture should be the primary aesthetic dimension. Cultural tourism and drama have opened up space for theatrical performances, enlivened the tourism market, increased the income of practitioners, expanded the audience of drama, and played a positive role in the development of theater while also enriching the connotation of scenic spots. Scenic spots across the country have followed suit, and cultural tourism and drama have flourished. However, cultural tourism drama is ultimately a product of multiple factors, and when its functions exceed its own artistic attributes, its shortcomings will become apparent. Some cultural and tourism dramas blindly pursue economic benefits, with profit as the ultimate goal, which affects the intrinsic characteristics of drama as an art form. On the one hand, cultural tourism drama greatly stimulated artists' ability to innovate in form in its early stages of development; On the other hand, as it flourished and developed in various regions, more and more borrowing and copying also led to similarity in content. Some cultural and tourism dramas still remain at the level of amusement park style square performances, although played by real people, they lack content and distinctive features. The cultural landscape created by it, with songs and dances everywhere, performances everywhere, crowds of tourists everywhere, and prosperity everywhere, still follows the old path. Its greatest function is to accelerate the upgrading and transformation of tourism, and it is difficult to achieve artistic improvement. The increasingly expensive theater tickets are also unable to attract more tourists, and may even lead to complaints and dissatisfaction. At the same time, the expansion of traditional theater by cultural tourism drama has brought greater challenges to professional actors. The theater gives tourists too much freedom, and the misalignment between the performance area and the audience seats, as well as the excessive participation of the audience, may lead to unpredictable performance events. A certain immersive theater once experienced awkward situations where performances were forced to be interrupted due to audience interference. Facing non ideal audiences, actors lack a sense of security in the performance environment, and the ambiguity of the viewing relationship is also detrimental to actors. Moreover, many actors in cultural tourism dramas have a low status and find it difficult to have the opportunity to become famous. Industry surveys show that 83% of cultural and tourism drama practitioners are part-time actors, with an average career cycle of only 2.7 years. Although some cultural and tourism drama projects have established professional actor teams, the promotion channels for actors in the art profession are still limited, and there is insufficient room for talent growth. The theater built according to the script also limits the possibility of drama development, making it difficult to update the plays. If they cannot be toured outside, these plays will gradually lose their innovation. To achieve long-term positive development in cultural tourism and drama, it is necessary to abandon the creative thinking that only focuses on economic benefits and invite drama artists to participate deeply. By conducting surveys, visits, and experiencing life, we aim to uncover the essence of the scenic area and present it to tourists in the form of art. Just as Lushan Waterfall is famous for Li Bai's poems, and Mount Huangshan Wonderland is famous for Xu Xiake's travel notes, let the culture of the scenic spot be performed by real people in the form of stories, and let culture become the primary aesthetic dimension of cultural tourism drama. Only in this way can drama and scenic spots be interconnected, integrated, and developed in a coordinated manner, achieving a sustainable balance between social and economic benefits. Cultural tourism drama can not only maintain the aesthetic character of drama poetry, but also undertake the cultural mission of cultural tourism in the "distant" places. When the sound of oars from the water houses in Wuzhen resonates with the sound of theater bells, and when the tidal rhythm of Anaya is on the same frequency as the heartbeat of drama, we hope that more cultural tourism dramas can surpass shallow integration and compose contemporary "poetry and distant places" in the symphony of cultural inheritance and industrial innovation. (New Society)