Reporter Xu Jie and intern Li Xueyan
It has been a full moon since the restart of the national travel agencies and online travel companies operating Chinese citizens to 20 countries for outbound travel group travel and “air ticket + hotel” business since February 6.
“Integrating the situation of tourist attractions, hotels, and travel agencies in the past month, although the core links of the tourism industry chain have shown a sudden recovery. However, the quality of tourism services, the reception capacity of tourism facilities, and the operation capacity of smart tourism still need to be further restored.” Henan. Chen Yuying, an associate professor at the University’s School of Culture and Tourism, told the “Securities Daily” reporter.
Chen Yuying said, “The continuous and stable recovery of the tourism industry chain requires the joint efforts of enterprises and the government. Tourism enterprises need to diversify their business operations to strengthen deep integration with other industries, enhance the tourism industry’s ability to drive linkages, and restore the vitality of the tourism industry chain. At the same time, the government should provide corresponding policy support to provide tourism enterprises with the Internet high-tech development environment required for project innovation, as well as financial support, and focus on improving the tourism prosperity index.”
Tourist confidence restored
In the past month, how popular is the outbound travel market? Data gives the answer!
On March 6, the “Securities Daily” reporter obtained the latest data from the OTA platform Ctrip, showing that from the resumption of outbound travel on February 6 to March 3, Ctrip has launched a total of 7,205 outbound groups and “air ticket + hotel” package products. , covering 19 countries and Hong Kong and Macau regions of China.
Especially after the Spring Festival this year, the resumption of a large number of international flights has also provided convenience for outbound travel, and the bookings for outbound travel products have also increased accordingly. According to data from Ctrip, in the week after the Spring Festival, the bookings for outbound group tours and “air ticket + hotel” package products increased by more than three times compared with the week of the Spring Festival holiday. In February, the number of outbound travel bookings in the mainland increased by 47% compared with January.
An insider from Tongcheng Travel told the Securities Daily reporter that in the past month, the number of visa consultations on the platform has increased by 87%, and various outbound vacation products have also been fully launched. In the past month, the countries with the highest orders for Tongcheng Travel and group tours are Thailand, Egypt, UAE, Laos, Maldives, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Fiji, Singapore and Switzerland.
The recovery of tourist confidence is also reflected in the gradual pick-up in demand for overseas long-distance travel. An insider from Tuniu told the “Securities Daily” reporter that in the past month, more than 60 outbound long-distance group tours have been launched, of which New Zealand’s 8-day group tour product is the most popular. On March 18, Ctrip’s first New Zealand outbound tour group departing from Shanghai with an average price of 27,999 yuan was sold out immediately after it went on sale.
According to the analysis of Tongcheng Research Institute, with the continuous recovery of international flights and the increase of pilot destinations for outbound travel in the future, the outbound travel market will usher in further growth in spring. The same journey travel data shows that the search volume of outbound travel products during the “May 1” holiday in the past week has increased by 73% month-on-month. It is expected that there will be a wave of passenger flow peaks in the outbound travel market around the “May 1” holiday.
The vitality of tourism consumption still needs to be released
It can be seen that despite the restart of outbound travel, the vitality of tourism consumption still needs to be released. According to data disclosed by the Civil Aviation Administration of China, as of mid-February, the volume of international passenger flights has only recovered to 9% of the pre-epidemic level.
In this regard, Yang Yanfeng, a researcher at the China Tourism Academy, told the “Securities Daily” reporter: “The recovery of the tourism industry is subject to multiple factors: First, the bilateral epidemic prevention policies and control regulations for outbound travel are still in the process of adjustment and adjustment. It can be seen that the recovery of outbound tourism is facing certain obstacles; second, it will take a process to solve issues such as passport renewal; third, the tourism supply chain was severely damaged during the epidemic, and it is conservatively estimated that it will still take a year to recover and rebuild; fourth , Traffic restrictions, including the resumption of outbound routes, airport reception capacity, and negotiation between the two parties all need a process.”
Zhou Mingqi, the founder of Jingjian Think Tank, an industrial economic consulting organization, told the “Securities Daily” reporter that the restoration of the tourism industry chain must stimulate C-end consumption on the one hand, and promote supply-side reform on the other hand, increasing investment and supply of high-quality cultural tourism products . From the perspective of consumption, policies should introduce more stimulus measures to encourage long-distance travel, reduce travel costs, promote more vacation consumption, and drive the development of remote areas in the west. For the development or investment side, it is recommended to increase policy support for tourism development, including subsidies, land prices, taxation, etc., so that tourism development can get rid of the dependence on real estate and achieve healthy and sustainable development.
In addition, the rapid recovery of the tourism market requires the simultaneous regulation of relevant policies. Yang Yanfeng emphasized that due to the relatively strong consumer demand at present, there are new manufacturers in the damaged supply chain or some unqualified manufacturers to undertake part of the tourism business, which may cause short-term chaos in the tourism market or the occurrence of incidents of bullying and killing customers. Competent departments and local tourism departments have issued policies to protect the travel rights of tourist consumers.
Policies are favorable for industrial restoration
However, Yang Yanfeng said: “The current policy environment is favorable for the recovery of the supply chain, especially for listed companies such as Caesars and Zhongxin whose performance was damaged during the epidemic. At present, the demand on the consumer side is relatively full. Once the supply chain is restored, the demand for outbound travel The recovery will be more optimistic.”
“The business growth of tourism companies requires strong policy support from relevant departments and stable consumption expectations of users. We look forward to the joint efforts of all parties to continue to provide stable financial support to the industry, and to stimulate the recovery of cultural tourism consumption through consumption vouchers and other forms; in the inbound and outbound tourism business Above all, it is necessary to continue to promote the recovery of international transportation capacity and orderly expand the scope of pilot countries for outbound group travel, so that travel companies can further improve their internationalization level.” Fang Zeqian, an industry analyst at Ctrip Research Institute, told the “Securities Daily” reporter.
In terms of specific measures, Chen Liteng, a digital life analyst at the E-Commerce Research Center of NetEase, told the “Securities Daily” reporter: “The government can formulate policies to encourage the development of tourism, such as encouraging investment and reducing taxes to improve the competitiveness of tourism. and attractiveness; to expand promotion and marketing, local units can combine local characteristics to expand tourism marketing, strengthen the promotion and marketing of the tourism market, and create new tourism formats and products with local characteristics to further increase the popularity and influence of tourism. Strengthen government-enterprise cooperation. Online travel platforms are an important window to showcase local tourism and an important channel for users to reach scenic spots around the world, so we can further strengthen cooperation with online travel platforms such as Tongcheng Travel, Ctrip, and Mafengwo.”
In addition, in addition to continuously improving supply-side tourism products, it is also necessary to continuously strengthen consumption incentives and guidance from the demand side. “Through policy measures, we can increase the willingness to spend on tourism, stimulate more consumers to travel, and form a virtuous circle of long-term sustainable transformation.” Chen Liteng said.
Chen Yuying also suggested that, on the one hand, encourage tourism consumption through specific forms, such as tourism consumption coupons, to stimulate the rapid recovery of tourism demand scale; power enhanced.
(Editor: Wen Jing)
