Outbound travel restarts “full moon”:
The peak price of the first outbound travel booking is 200,000, and the cruise products departing next year are sold out
On March 5, the direct flight from Chengdu to Koh Samui was officially resumed, and 140 passengers took the maiden voyage, starting an 8-day, 7-night free travel in Koh Samui. “From the official ticket sale on February 27 to March 3, 140 tickets were sold out quickly.” Jing Zhihong, general manager of Chengdu Zizai Journey International Travel Agency Co., Ltd., intuitively felt the enthusiasm of tourists.
In fact, since China resumed its pilot outbound and group tours on February 6, people’s enthusiasm for traveling has continued to be “online”. The entry-exit business halls in many cities are full of people, and the number of visa consultations has increased by 87%; the orders of major travel platforms have surged, and the number of international air ticket bookings has doubled from the previous month; many outbound tour groups are starting one after another; there are platforms with a departure price of nearly 200,000 yuan next year MSC Cruises are all sold out…
It is not difficult to see the strong consumption potential of outbound travel, and some new messages are conveyed behind it-tourists pay more attention to the in-depth experience of the itinerary and new consumption demands such as small and sophisticated teams are prominent, and the travel modes are diversified.
So, will the upcoming “May 1st” holiday become a small peak for outbound travel? With the outbreak of the outbound tourism market, what “hurdles” still need to be overcome?
How prosperous is overseas consumption?
Visa consultation volume up 87%, Thailand is the most popular destination
In the past month, how enthusiastic are people to travel abroad?
Recently, the news that “Shanghai people are queuing to go abroad” rushed into the hot search, and the visa centers of embassies and consulates in Beijing and other places were “popular”, and even waited in line for hours.
Big data on major OTA platforms is more intuitive. According to the same journey travel data, 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. On the Qunar platform, in the past February, the number of international air ticket bookings doubled from last year, and the number of visa searches increased by 6 times.
“Busy” is also the common aspiration of offline travel agencies recently. “Since the past month, Sichuan Youth Travel Service has sent nearly 1,000 outbound tourists, most of whom are destinations in Southeast Asian countries such as Thailand and Vietnam.” Huang Qin, deputy general manager of Sichuan China Youth Travel Service, told reporters.
An obvious market phenomenon is that no matter online or offline, Southeast Asia, especially Thailand, is currently the most popular destination for outbound travel, while the United Arab Emirates and Maldives have become the first choice for people to upgrade their tourism consumption.
Statistics show that in the past month, the countries with the highest orders for same-journey travel and group tours (including plane + wine products) were Thailand, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Laos, Maldives, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Fiji, Singapore and Switzerland. The attention of long-term outbound travel destinations such as Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Maldives, and New Zealand has also increased significantly. Among them, the Egypt-Dubai “desert + watching the sea” route and the Dubai-Abu Dhabi route are the most popular. For example, on February 17, the day when the mutual visa exemption between China and the Maldives came into effect, the search interest for Maldives tourism increased by 63%. The Maldives hotel packages worth more than 6,000 yuan and the “flight + wine” products worth more than 20,000 yuan on the same journey travel platform all attention of tourists.
What’s new?
Outbound travel starts the “new” mode, in-depth travel, quality travel has become a new trend
The demand for outbound travel is fully released, but judging from the travel products chosen by tourists, there are many new changes, and even some new travel models have emerged.
“After the resumption of the pilot program of outbound and group tours, in addition to reducing the team size from the previous 20 to 30 people to a small group of more than a dozen people, some customers’ individual needs have been changed to customization, and the gameplay has become more in-depth and more focused on play. Experience trend.” Huang Qin said, judging from the first trips to Phuket Island in Thailand and Singapore, although these destinations have always been the first choice for Chengdu people to travel abroad, after the restart of outbound and group tours, tourists will be more likely to consult. There are more and more mentions of high-quality tours with high-quality routes and private customized outbound tours. They do not travel blindly and pay attention to quality. They have requirements for details such as hotels, itinerary arrangements, and meals. And these changes will also play a better role in supervising the optimization and adjustment of travel agency products, especially in terms of itinerary arrangement, refined service upgrades, and travel safety guarantees. Compared with the past, there have been deeper improvements and highlights.
Ms. Liu, who just came back from Phuket, Thailand, was even more touched when she revisited her old place. “The scenery is still the same beautiful. In addition to the usual choices of visiting the night market and eating seafood, there are more sailing items in the experience that I didn’t have before. But Ms. Liu also mentioned that compared with the previous trips, the cost of this trip to Phuket has increased a lot. The price of the 6-day and 5-night trip is about 3,200 yuan, which is about 30% higher than before.
The price and quality of old-brand outbound travel destinations have risen, and more new itineraries have been launched one after another. According to news from Fliggy, the sales volume of the platform’s outbound travel promotion and “Global Wonderful Travel Festival” exceeded 130,000 in the first week. Tourists from Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, and Chengdu are the main booking groups.
A phenomenon worthy of attention is that in the past month, the search volume for Antarctic tourism has nearly tripled year-on-year, surpassing the same period in 2019. This popular Antarctic tourism product sold hundreds of items in just one day after its launch. In addition, the reporter learned that the “Around the World 121 Days” Mediterranean cruise product launched by Zhongxin Tourism with a departure price of nearly 200,000 yuan in 2024 has also been sold out.
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How far is it?
Outbound wandering really “hot”
On the one hand, the consumption vitality of outbound travel is strong, and on the other hand, new itinerary products are constantly being launched to meet market demand. Will outbound travel quickly usher in retaliatory growth? The heads of several travel agencies said that there is still a gradual climbing process in the market recovery, and the outbreak has not yet been reached.
“The recovery of the entire tourism industry is obvious, but it will take at least a year for outbound tourism to return to the level of the same period in 2019.” Gao Lei, general manager of Chengdu CYTS, predicts that this year’s outbound tourism will recover to 50% to 60% of 2019. The travel agency plans to launch more than 30 outbound travel products, involving more than 10 countries and regions such as Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Russia, and Maldives. The main products are also independent and semi-independent travel products.
Huang Qin said frankly that the current market is very hot, but the number of teams has not ushered in a large increase. “The first is the reason for international routes, especially the long-term capacity of international routes has not fully recovered.” Huang Qin said that the recovery of supply chains such as ground connections and overseas hotels will also directly affect the development of outbound group travel. At present, only the supply chains of the agency in the direction of Maldives and Thailand have recovered relatively well, but at the same time there is a phenomenon of lack of ground resources, such as hotels, restaurants, tourist vehicles, etc., especially the shortage of local guides and drivers who speak small languages. “We are still improving and refining the destination resource side, and we are also in the process of further contacting many new resources and new travel experiences.”
The “May Day” holiday is the peak of the outbound travel market predicted by the industry in the near future. 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 “May 1”. Data from the Ctrip platform also shows that the first peak of outbound travel bookings this year has arrived. The current domestic outbound air ticket orders have increased by 30% from the previous week. 51%.
In the face of the travel market demand with full potential, Yang Jinsong, director of the International Research Institute of the China Tourism Academy, analyzed in an interview: “How to provide differentiated services that better meet the future consumer groups on the basis of paying attention to tourism products and meet the needs of current consumers?” The accumulated high expectations and high demands of tourists, seizing the window period to improve service quality will play a vital role in future competitiveness and word-of-mouth, which is what tourism companies must do in the face of new changes in outbound travel One of the countermeasures.”
Chengdu Commercial Daily-Red Star News reporter Li Yanqin
