This Spring Festival, the tourism industry is facing a severe situation affected by the epidemic. Many provinces have suspended inter provincial team tours, and many travel agencies and shops in scenic spots have closed in advance for the festival. However, many tourists still choose to travel against the trend, reflecting the “tenacious” market demand of the tourism industry.
(photographed by song Tenghu, a travel agency in Shenzhen that has an early holiday)
group tour deserted , travel agencies have holidays in advance
Over the past two years, the tourism industry has been seriously affected by the epidemic. According to the statistical results of China’s tourism sample survey, in 2021, the total number of Chinese tourists was 3.246 billion, an increase of 367 million or 12.8% over the same period last year. (back to 54.0% in 2019.) Among them, there were 2.342 billion urban residents, an increase of 13.4%; There were 904 million rural residents, an increase of 11.1%.
In January, Guangdong, Shanghai, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Yunnan and other provinces issued documents to suspend inter provincial team tourism and “air ticket + Hotel” business. In some popular scenic spots such as the ancient city of dukezong in Shangri La and Lijiang in Yunnan, many merchants are under great pressure. “There were more people here in previous years, but there have been fewer in the past two years.” The staff of many local merchants expressed such feelings to the reporter of the securities times. The reporter saw in Shuhe ancient town and dukezong ancient city that a large number of shops have been closed to go home for the new year, and there are few tourists on the street.
(night view of dukezong ancient city, photographed by Wang Minghong)
Ms. Zhang, a staff member of a Ctrip Travel Network in Shenzhen, said that the tourism market is still relatively depressed recently, and the business of the network is quite cold. “Some old people will report to the provincial government to visit the province because their children are not in front of the Spring Festival, but this is also a rare situation. Even if young people choose to travel by car during the Spring Festival, they often book hotels online alone, not through us.” Ms. Zhang said awkwardly.
The reporter found that some travel agencies suspended business and entered the “festival mode” half a month in advance. Some travel agency stores have also started express pick-up business.
Under the background of repeated epidemics, some tourism project investments have also suffered setbacks. In June last year, Ms. Li’s company in Shenzhen began to plan and study new fields. In the second half of the year, the company cooperated to promote a tourism project in a prefecture level city in Guangdong, and the company invested millions of yuan in the early stage. In terms of publicity, the team and party a spent a lot of effort, and the project finally gained a certain popularity. However, affected by the general environment, the final income of the project is still limited. Before the Spring Festival, Miss Li also began to think about a new way out.
Xiao Peng, who has been engaged in team travel in Shenzhen for nearly three years, is also considering changing careers after the Spring Festival. For about half a year, the tour guide Xiao Peng has only worked intermittently for two months. “Because of the repeated epidemic, we basically rely on the money earned in two months to make a living in the past six months.” Xiao Peng told reporters. However, he also admitted that if the tourism market improves this year, he still has the intention to re-enter the industry.
leisure vacation heat in some areas “heating up”
During the Spring Festival this year, although the tourism industry is still in a “cold winter”, some popular areas have ushered in a slight “warming”. Mr. Qi from Henan, who works in Beijing, went to Sanya, Hainan with his wife during the Spring Festival. Before the holiday, Mr. Qi had received a suggestion from Puyang’s hometown community not to return home, so the couple decided to travel to Hainan. “I feel that the overall passenger flow is less than normal, but some hotels are full.” Mr. Qi said that because the flight cost from Beijing to Haikou was more cost-effective, he finally chose to take the plane to Haikou first, and then take the high-speed railway to Sanya.
According to the statistics released by Hainan Provincial Department of tourism, culture, radio, television and sports, on January 30, the average room occupancy rate of hotels in the province was 60.27%, a year-on-year increase of 22.3 percentage points; Class a scenic spots received more than 129000 tourists, a year-on-year increase of 81.3%. According to the “2021 annual statistical report of China’s civil aviation – Airport ranking” released by Cadas (civil aviation data analysis system under civil aviation resources network), the passenger throughput level of Sanya airport has recovered to 82.5% of the level in the same period in 2019, ranking first among China’s 29 ten million Airports (Note: except Beijing Daxing airport, the data are not comparable).
Compared with the unique climate advantages of Hainan, the tourism industry in other regions is facing greater pressure, but the market demand still exists.
(a restaurant in Lingshui, Hainan, photographed by Zhao Zihan)
According to the data of Sichuan Provincial Department of culture and tourism, as of 15:00 on February 1, 695 class a scenic spots included in the statistics in the province had received 4.6122 million tourists in two days, realizing a ticket revenue of 27.0969 million yuan. Compared with the same caliber of 654 key scenic spots included in the statistics in 2021, the cumulative number of visitors in two days increased by 18.71% and the cumulative ticket revenue increased by 19.9%.
According to reports, on the first day of the lunar new year, Sichuan folk tourism shows the “flavor of the new year”, the rain and snow weather still does not reduce the enthusiasm of tourists, and the folk atmosphere of leaving the old and welcoming the new is very strong. Mount Emei Scenic Spot ushered in the peak passenger flow. On New Year’s Eve, thousands of people went to Baoguo temple, Wannian temple and other key temples to burn incense and pray for the new year. There is a strong demand for leisure outings. The number of tourists traveling in the form of family visit tour, self driving tour, parent-child tour and rural tour has increased significantly. Leisure vacation, rural hiking (cycling), picking experience and family gatherings have become the main activities. There is a strong demand for rural consumption such as fruit picking and farmhouse dishes.
Xiao Jiang, who works for an Internet company in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, chose Tibet Tourism Co.Ltd(600749) instead of returning to his hometown in Yancheng for the holiday. “Affected by the epidemic, many of my colleagues stay in Hangzhou. We are still more cautious. It takes courage to go so far like me.” Xiao Jiang, 29, said that this holiday is long and more than 10 days of relaxation time is valuable. Car rental and accommodation prices have risen, but he can still accept it.
Tibet in winter gives many people the illusion of “high cold” in terms of climate. In fact, from November to the end of February, the climate in Tibet is not different from that in other regions. Tibet is located in the south, and due to the altitude advantage of the Qinghai Tibet Plateau, the sunshine time here is relatively long. Tibet Tourism Co.Ltd(600749) an earlier document pointed out that in recent years, the “winter tour to Tibet” activity has continued. The average price of flights to Tibet across the country is only a few hundred yuan, and the lowest fare in Xi’an, Xining and other cities is only more than 200 yuan.
There are not a few young people like Xiao Jiang who travel during the Spring Festival. Xiao Liu from Changsha, Hunan Province chose to travel by car during the Spring Festival, and also tried to camp every day. “One person and one car, it doesn’t matter whether you go home or not during the new year, that is, aimless self driving.” Xiao Liu said that the weather in Guangxi is not cold, so he doesn’t need to worry too much about cold prevention. Because my father is engaged in water and electricity work outside, the family has been used to the situation that the Spring Festival can not be reunited, “my parents didn’t give me too much pressure this time”.
(a beach in Lingshui, Hainan, photographed by Zhao Zihan)
Brokerage: China’s tourism is expected to usher in more positive changes
Anxin securities reported that in the second half of 2021, the willingness to travel was obviously under pressure due to repeated epidemics in many places.
In 2022, China’s tourism policy is expected to usher in more positive changes. First, the epidemic prevention policy is expected to usher in new changes and promote precise prevention and control policies, so as to reduce the impact on normal economic activities, reduce residents’ panic and stabilize consumption willingness. At the same time, considering the steady progress of covid-19 specific drugs and vaccines outside China, the report is positive and optimistic about the national epidemic prevention and control in 2022. Second, tourism support policies are expected to continue to be implemented, with a significant effect of enriching the people. The development of tourism has an obvious multiplier effect on the boost of local GDP. Boosting tourism is expected to become an important starting point for local governments to boost the economy in 2022 and 2023. If the epidemic can be effectively controlled, local governments are expected to stimulate tourism consumption by distributing coupons and promoting ticket discounts.
On January 20, the State Council issued the notice on the tourism development plan in the 14th five year plan. Under the premise that covid-19 is effectively controlled, the plan proposes to promote inbound tourism step by step, steadily develop outbound tourism, continuously promote tourism exchanges and cooperation, and promote the coordinated development of outbound tourism with the three major markets of Chinese tourism and inbound tourism. By 2025, the development level of tourism will continue to improve, the effective supply, high-quality supply and flexible supply of tourism will be richer, and the consumption demand of mass tourism will be better met.
During the Spring Festival this year, the cultural and tourism administrative departments at all levels will, on the premise of strictly implementing the epidemic prevention and control measures, enrich the supply of products and services, meet the diversified spiritual life, and improve the people’s sense of cultural acquisition and tourism experience. On January 29, Yu Changguo, deputy director of the market management department of the Ministry of culture and tourism, said that it is expected that during the Spring Festival this year, more than 70% of the country’s class a scenic spots will be opened normally, except for the temporary closure of scenic spots in some areas due to epidemic prevention and control or seasonal reasons.
According to the report of Anxin securities, even if the epidemic is still repeated on a small scale, the epidemic prevention and control policies are also expected to be accurate and reduce the panic caused by the repeated epidemic on Residents’ consumption and travel. Local governments may be expected to stimulate the recovery of tourism consumption by distributing coupons and promoting ticket discounts. The high-end demand for high-frequency peripheral short distance tours and return outbound tours will drive the rapid repair of China’s tourism market. We are optimistic about the recovery of the follow-up tourism sector. We suggest that we continue to pay attention to the development of the epidemic and the changes of tourism policies and markets outside China.
