Since 2005, the tourism research center of the Chinese Academy of social sciences has organized forces to check the ten hot spots of China’s tourism development every year and published them in the “China tourism green book”. Considering the timeliness of communication, this year’s top ten hot comments are first tried to be released online, so as to share with you in time.
2021 is another extraordinary year. The blueprint of the 14th five year plan has been drawn, the new development pattern has initially appeared, the haze of the epidemic is still lingering, and the tourism industry is seeking change in the crisis. In order to systematically review and comprehensively analyze these changes, we selected ten hot issues of China’s tourism development in 2021 and reviewed them by researchers of the center. It should be noted that the ten hot spots focus on relevant events, but do not stick to a specific event, but consider the importance of the topic involved in the (Series) events, the attention of the public and the long-term impact in the future. Therefore, this report does not avoid possible cross cutting in content, nor does it require a strict system of topics.
The top ten hot spots of China’s tourism in 2021 are as follows: the 14th five year plan draws a new blueprint; The first batch of national parks were officially established; The two letters reflect the warmth and coldness of tourism; The epidemic situation promotes the transformation of tourism enterprises; Micro vacation leads to the trend of tourism consumption; Red tourism accelerates the integrated development; Henan tourism expands new expression of culture; Universal studios are the top streams. Research travel or become a market blue ocean; Cloud tourism opens up new space for development.
hotspot 1
the 14th five year plan draws a new blueprint
(I) event review
In March 2021, the 14th five year plan for national economic and social development of the people’s Republic of China and the outline of long-term objectives for 2035 (hereinafter referred to as the outline) were officially released. In June of the same year, the Ministry of culture and tourism issued the “14th five year plan” for cultural and tourism development, and then successively issued special plans such as the “14th five year plan” for cultural and tourism science and technology innovation and the “14th five year plan” for cultural and tourism market development. Shaanxi, Hunan, Liaoning, Jiangxi, Jiangsu, Jilin, Guangdong, Gansu and other provinces, as well as some cities and counties, have also issued the local “14th five year plan” for cultural and tourism development, and a few places such as Tianjin have issued the “14th five year plan” for the integrated development of culture and tourism. In addition, the “14th five year plan” for tourism development will be released in the near future. At the same time, some localities have launched or will soon launch the “14th five year plan” specifically for tourism development.
(II) event comments
The “14th five year plan” is the first five years of a new journey to build a powerful socialist country in an all-round way. It is also a decisive five years to continue the struggle against the epidemic and achieve greater recovery and revitalization of the tourism industry. The relevant planning of the 14th five year plan defines the basic direction and key tasks of tourism development in the future, which should be paid great attention by both theoretical and industrial circles.
First, during the 14th Five Year Plan period, the status of tourism in national economic and social development continued to rise. There are 28 direct references to the word “tourism” in the outline, which covers a wider range than the outline of the 13th five year plan and is more closely related to the overall economic and social development.
Second, promoting the integrated development of culture and tourism is the top priority. A separate section of the outline elaborates on promoting the integrated development of culture and tourism. The 14th five year plan for cultural and tourism development has set up a special chapter on promoting the integrated development of culture and tourism. Some provinces and cities have also issued special plans for the integrated development of culture and tourism.
Third, take high-quality development as the theme. The top-level design of tourism in the 14th five year plan runs through the central idea of high-quality development. Whether it is to build a number of world-class scenic spots and resorts with rich cultural heritage, create a number of national tourism and leisure cities and blocks with distinctive cultural characteristics, or promote the digitization of tourism and leisure scenes and strengthen the supervision of tourism market, its ultimate purpose is to improve the cultural connotation of tourism development and the comprehensive benefits of tourism, Improve the people’s satisfaction and sense of acquisition of tourism development.
(III) important enlightenment
Looking ahead, the following aspects deserve special attention.
First, strengthen the confidence in developing tourism. The 14th five year plan shows that the national level attaches great importance to the development of tourism and has higher expectations and requirements for it. All localities and all sectors, especially the industry, should continue to strengthen their confidence in the development of tourism, and should also make strategic plans for the recovery and great development of tourism in the future.
Second, effectively combine short-term epidemic response with medium – and long-term transformation and development. At present, the epidemic of covid-19 pneumonia is still spreading, but people’s yearning and demand for a better life have not changed, and the fundamentals of tourism development have not changed. The development of tourism in the 14th five year plan should not only pay attention to epidemic prevention and control, but also focus on medium and long-term development, so as to promote the quality development of tourism and the improvement of comprehensive benefits.
Third, promote high-quality development based on cultural creativity and scientific and technological innovation. Promoting the integrated development of culture and tourism and promoting the scientific and technological innovation of tourism are not only the key work of the relevant planning and deployment of the 14th five year plan, but also the internal needs of the transformation and development of tourism itself. Manpower is at its best, and the power of culture and science and technology is infinite.
hotspot 2
the first batch of national parks were officially established
(I) event review
On October 12, 2021, Xi Jinping president announced at the 15th Conference of the parties to the United Nations Convention on biological diversity (CBD COP15): China officially established the first batch of national parks such as Sanjiangyuan, giant panda, Amur tiger and leopard, Hainan tropical rain forest and Wuyi Mountain. The formal establishment of the first batch of national parks is undoubtedly of epoch-making significance. This event shows that the pilot objectives and tasks of China’s national park system have been basically completed, which has laid a solid foundation for comprehensively promoting the construction of national parks in the future.
(II) event comments
We have made continuous efforts for many years and accumulated preliminary experience in exploring the establishment of a national park system with Chinese characteristics and a nature reserve system with national parks as the main body. The key lies in the following three points.,
First, top-level design and system innovation. Since the Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee put forward the task of establishing the national park system reform, following the institutional framework of “four beams and eight pillars” of ecological civilization, the CPC Central Committee and the State Council have successively issued a series of supporting policy documents and completed the top-level design of building a nature reserve system with the National Park as the main body. The establishment of the national park system is a major decision made by the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core from the strategic height of realizing the sustainable development of the Chinese nation. It is also an overall, leading and landmark major institutional innovation in the construction of ecological civilization and beautiful China.
Second, multi-party cooperation and joint participation. Since 2015, 10 national park system pilot projects have been carried out in China. During this period, relevant departments such as the central reform office, the central editorial office, the national development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of finance, the Ministry of natural resources, the Ministry of housing and urban rural development, the Ministry of ecological environment, the State Forestry and grassland Administration (National Park Administration) and other pilot provinces such as Qinghai, Sichuan and Jilin worked together with the participation of the whole society, Focusing on the national park system pilot and the integration and optimization of nature reserves, we have done a lot of fruitful work in unifying management institutions, improving the protection of the rule of law, improving the financial mechanism, promoting co construction and sharing, improving capacity-building, promoting cooperation and exchange, etc.
Third, the goal is clear and the route is clear. Focusing on the construction of national park system, a series of major measures have been launched before, with strong goal orientation and clear route, that is, according to the concept that mountains, rivers, forests, fields, lakes, grass and sand are a community of life, establish a natural reserve system with national parks as the main body, nature reserves as the basis and various natural parks as supplements, so as to ensure important natural ecosystems, natural relics Natural landscape and biodiversity are systematically protected.
(III) important enlightenment
From the perspective of national park system construction and its relationship with tourism development, there are the following two important enlightenment.
First, the construction of China’s national park system has distinct Chinese characteristics. Firstly, its greatest feature is carried out within the framework of the reform of ecological civilization system; Secondly, it emphasizes the construction of nature reserve system with national parks as the main body, and highlights the coordination between nature protection and community development.
Second, the birth of national parks provides important opportunities for ecotourism. Under the principle of “ecological protection first”, provide higher quality tourism services with minimum resource consumption, which can bring the public a unique experience of being close to nature and contacting nature, and enjoy the country’s most beautiful and high-quality ecological products; At the same time, paying attention to public ecological environment education can improve the public’s self-awareness ability and enhance the public’s sense of national pride and ecological acquisition.
hotspot 3
two letters reflect the warmth and coldness of tourism
(I) event review
In July 2021, the tourism industry plagued by the epidemic for one and a half years ushered in the traditional peak season – summer. Considering that the travel demand has been restrained by the epidemic for a long time, many people predict that the tourism market will rebound significantly or even “retaliatory rebound”. On July 28, Zhang Jia Jie Tourism Group Co.Ltd(000430) announced that according to the evaluation of the intersection of time and space trajectories of multiple confirmed cases, all the audience of the first “charming Xiangxi” on the evening of July 22 were high-risk people and needed to be isolated immediately. At that time Zhang Jia Jie Tourism Group Co.Ltd(000430) there were hundreds of tour groups and more than 10000 tourists. On July 30, Zhang Jia Jie Tourism Group Co.Ltd(000430) issued a letter to friends of tourists staying in Zhang Jia Jie Tourism Group Co.Ltd(000430) . This communication article is commensurate with “you”, moved with emotion, explained with reason, put yourself in a position, thoughtful and detailed, with guidance, measures, strength and temperature. It has attracted numerous praise for a time, and many people sigh that “it is worthy of being an international Zhang”.
In October 2021, the tourism boom formed during the National Day holiday is still warm, and the photos of tourists in the media make people vaguely see the hot scene before the epidemic. Many tourist destinations and enterprises are also immersed in the joy and busyness brought by the short travel peak. On October 16, two tourists from other provinces were found to be nucleic acid positive in Xi’an. According to the traceability of several cases since then, Ejina Banner, a small town in the northwest, has become the focus. On October 21, Ejina Banner issued a letter to the friends of tourists stranded in Ejina, promising nearly 10000 tourists that hotels should not increase prices maliciously; Provide free distribution services such as meals, drugs and epidemic prevention materials; Give tickets to the core scenic spot of Ejina Banner for free within three years. This letter is also sincere and full of warmth. It not only has timely guidance, but also promises for the future. Some stranded tourists sighed, “this should be the most unexpected trip since my trip, but it makes me fall in love with this small city with temperature”.
(II) event comments
The two traditional peak tourist seasons came to an abrupt end due to the epidemic; The two waves originated from the epidemic imported from abroad and attracted much attention because of China’s tourism; Two unrelated cities, one south and one north, are popular on the Internet because of similar open letters to tourists. Like a mirror, the story of China’s tourism in 2021 reflects the difficulties and embarrassment faced by the industry under the epidemic, as well as the warmth and responsibility of tourists.
First, the recovery of the tourism market is difficult. This year, from Delta and ram to Omicron, covid-19 virus “changed vest” and even “upgraded equipment” again and again. Although China has taken scientific and accurate prevention and control measures, and the overall production and living order has remained normal, the pressure of “external prevention input and internal prevention rebound” has always existed, and local outbreaks related to imported cases have occurred in many places. Wave after wave of epidemic situation, like a cold wind after wave, has brought cold again and again to the slightly warmer tourism market, and sometimes even led to the immediate “quick freezing” of tourism in some cases.
Second, the epidemic tested the ability of urban governance. Cities are tourist destinations, distribution centers and tourist sources. They are also the basic units of administrative management and epidemic prevention and control. The outbreak is a concentrated test of the ability of urban governance. For tourist cities, especially those with small resident population, how to deal with nucleic acid detection, decentralized isolation, case treatment, material coordination and other problems in a short time, how to properly arrange a large number of stranded tourists, and how to reflect humanistic concerns in crisis response have become issues that must be faced directly. In this regard, Zhang Jia Jie Tourism Group Co.Ltd(000430) and Ejina are commendable.
Third, sincerity is the magic weapon of crisis communication. For destinations and enterprises, timely and effective crisis communication in the face of emergencies is very important. The objects of crisis communication include not only those directly affected, but also other stakeholders related to the crisis, such as the mass media and the public. In crisis communication, frank attitude, proper expression, effective measures and careful arrangements can not only resolve the crisis in time, but also win wide praise and potential customers.
(III) important enlightenment
It has been two years since the outbreak of covid-19, and it is unknown when it will end. As one of the industries most affected by the epidemic, the future trend of tourism has attracted much attention.
First, the epidemic situation has become a key variable to determine the trend of the tourism market. For a long time, tourism development has followed the law of supply and demand, and the market trend depends on the matching degree of supply and demand; At present, the epidemic has become a more decisive key variable, even the largest variable, besides supply and demand. The recovery time, recovery degree, recovery mode and market hot spots of the tourism market depend on the epidemic situation to a great extent. Compared with the time and budget on the demand side of tourism, the products and services on the supply side of tourism, or the climate and season, the epidemic situation shows a greater decisive role and uncertainty. Once an epidemic occurs, the implementation of control becomes inevitable. As a result, travel, especially leisure tourism, can only be carried out in a timely manner. This is a challenge for tourists, destinations and enterprises.
Second, tourism under the normalization of epidemic situation needs a rational and responsible attitude. The epidemic has been effectively controlled in China, but the risk of overseas import has always existed, and the virus attack has the characteristics of long incubation period, which makes people dare not relax at all. In theory, as long as people move, there is a risk of communication – whether it is daily commuting, dining out, business trip, travel and play, self driving or team travel. The epidemic is a big test, which not only tests the governance ability of the government and the viability of enterprises, but also tests the responsibility of each citizen. From a personal point of view, it is necessary to always maintain the awareness of prevention and control and fulfill the responsibility of prevention and control, whether commuting or traveling; For the tourism industry, it is necessary to normalize the practices of “limit, appointment, peak staggering”, wearing masks, temperature detection and health code inspection, one meter line interval, and configuring public spoons and chopsticks.
Third, the comprehensive recovery of the tourism market still needs many efforts. The World Health Organization recently pointed out that “the covid-19 pneumonia pandemic must be stopped in 2022”. We earnestly hope that this epidemic will come to an end as soon as possible. However, before and even after that, the comprehensive recovery of the tourism market still needs more accurate policies of the government, more effective guidance of associations, more feasible innovations of enterprises and more firm confidence of tourists.
hot four
epidemic situation promotes the transformation of tourism enterprises
(I) event review
Covid-19 outbreak has been two years. Tourism is undoubtedly one of the most affected industries. Travel agencies, hotels, accommodation, aviation, scenic spots and other travel related enterprises suffered heavy losses: soon after the epidemic began, Baicheng travel network started bankruptcy liquidation; Many travel agencies, such as Guangdong Heping International Travel Service, have successively declared bankruptcy or have not declared substantive bankruptcy; The operator of 5A Yesanpo scenic spot was applied for bankruptcy and reorganization, and many other scenic spots also suffered substantial losses; Listed and unlisted hotels such as Huatian Hotel Group Co.Ltd(000428) are facing losses and difficulties; The daily losses of the three major state-owned airlines exceeded 100 million yuan. In the face of repeated epidemics, both upstream and downstream of the tourism industry chain are deeply affected. However, under the epidemic situation, there are also many enterprises that make continuous or phased profits, including large and medium-sized enterprises such as Tongcheng Yilong, Huazhu group, Songcheng Performance Development Co.Ltd(300144) , Hubei Three Gorges Tourism Group Co.Ltd(002627) , China Tourism Group Duty Free Corporation Limited(601888) and some small and medium-sized enterprises.
(II) event comments
Under the epidemic situation, the survival and development of tourism enterprises are generally tested. Especially in the following aspects, it is particularly obvious.
First, the cash flow of tourism enterprises is greatly affected. The epidemic has brought inbound and outbound tourism to a standstill, and it is unclear when it will restart. Due to the continuous recurrence of the epidemic, Chinese tourism can not be carried out continuously and normally, while peripheral tourism can not fully support the income of tourism enterprises. As a result, the triangular debts between enterprises before the epidemic could not be cashed normally, resulting in the rupture of cash flow of many enterprises, the obstruction of normal operation, and even bankruptcy.
Second, the confidence of tourism practitioners is greatly affected. Talent is an important indicator to observe the prosperity and development potential of the industry. More than ten years before the epidemic, it was a period of rapid development in the number of tourism practitioners in China and the fastest inflow of talents. In the face of the continuous and significant impact of the epidemic, many tourism enterprises have to lay off workers or only pay basic salaries and keep employees waiting for posts. The talent team painstakingly accumulated by the enterprise for many years is forced to lose a lot, and when to return is still far from expected.
Third, the tourism supply chain system is greatly damaged. Affected by the epidemic, the single products and packaged products polished in previous decades, as well as the established supply chains such as underwriting, wholesale, Wuxi Online Offline Communication Information Technology Co.Ltd(300959) retail and international China grounding can not be maintained normally, resulting in the fracture of the tourism industry chain. After the end of the epidemic, profound changes will also take place in consumption patterns, technology patterns and industrial ecology, and the previous industrial chain and supply chain will usher in major changes.
(III) important enlightenment
The epidemic has not only brought unprecedented challenges to the tourism industry, especially the tourism enterprises as the main body of the market, but also accelerated its transformation. The following points need special attention in the future.
First, we should conduct intensive management and scientific management. Before the epidemic, most cultural and tourism enterprises mainly pursued scale. Because they were in the incremental market, high-speed growth dissolved or obscured a series of problems such as cash flow. After 2018, the economic downward pressure was transmitted to the culture and tourism industry, and the epidemic was further accelerated and catalyzed in 2020, which brought unprecedented challenges to enterprises. Epidemic situation is not only a big test, but also a big lesson. It is a vivid intensive development lesson. Through this epidemic, operators are bound to have a deeper understanding of the relationship between scale and efficiency. In the future, high-quality development, high-efficiency operation, refined stock transformation, refined operation and refined service are the way of development.
Second, we should pay attention to consumer research and product research and development. Before the epidemic, most of the upstream and downstream of the tourism industry chain, including resources and service providers, focused on sales and distribution. With the upgrading and grading of consumption, the post-95 and Post-00 have become the main consumers. They may no longer be willing to pay for the previous product form, and product upgrading will also become an urgent task for the industry. The creation of cultural tourism products in the future requires a large number of practitioners with craftsmanship spirit to create products and content with high experience and comfort through the integration of wisdom, creativity, technology, manufacturing and service. Only in this way can we regain the favor of tourists, especially the younger generation.
Third, we should pay attention to the revitalization of rural cultural tourism. The previous thirty or forty years were the fastest stage of China’s urbanization process. Cultural and tourism practitioners in big cities also enjoyed the dividends of the times brought by the rapid growth of urban tourists. In recent years, the process of urbanization has entered a new stage. With the implementation of the National Rural Revitalization Strategy and the clarion call for common prosperity, the countryside will usher in great development opportunities in the future: most scenic spots are located in the countryside, more villages begin to make rural tourism, and a large number of urban people are eager to experience the countryside. In this context, cultural and tourism practitioners can empower villages through the advantages of capital, capital, technology and intelligence accumulated in big cities, with great potential and unlimited opportunities.
hot five
micro vacation leads the new trend of consumption
(I) event review
In 2021, China’s epidemic prevention and control entered the normalization stage. In this context, long-distance tourism and vacation are limited, followed by an increasingly popular micro vacation boom. Micro vacation, mainly in the form of exquisite camping, parent-child amusement and outdoor sports, is forming a wave after wave of consumption boom, rapidly turning the cold spots in the city and its surrounding areas into hot spots and hot spots into high-frequency areas. At the same time, it has brought about the common prosperity of the upstream and downstream supply chain.
Different from the traditional tourism and vacation mode, micro vacation is a new vacation mode with local, suburban and surrounding areas as the main tour area, weekends as the main tour time, the network as the main fermentation platform, and interest and fashion as the main aggregation factors. It generally has the characteristics of short stay, high frequency, high attention and many playing methods. In 2021, the popularity of micro vacation will not decrease and will continue to evolve. It has not only formed a new wave of vacation, but also evolved into a new fashion lifestyle.
(II) event comments
The current micro vacation boom has the following characteristics.
First, the rapid popularity and popularity show sufficient market vitality under the background of internal circulation. Under the background of the normalization of the epidemic, the beauty and joy of the city and its surroundings have been rediscovered. Relying on the rapid fermentation of emerging network platforms, the corresponding micro vacation mode has been rapidly popularized and formed a trend. Taking exquisite camping as an example, it has not been able to form a ring breaking effect before the epidemic, but it has become popular in the epidemic. Buying equipment, talking about camping and drying camping have become high-frequency topics in the circle of friends. During the National Day in 2021, the search volume related to camping in Xiaohong Book exceeded 10 times, forming three Jinglu camping towns in Beijing and its surrounding areas, East China and South China. According to the travel data report on the Mid Autumn Festival holiday in 2021 released by Ctrip, the order volume of camping products increased by nearly 50% compared with the Dragon Boat Festival holiday, and Gmv increased by more than 60%. These phenomena fully show the sufficient market vitality under the background of internal circulation.
Second, it will bring effective forces for the transformation and upgrading of the industry. Micro vacation has formed a rapid pull and iteration on the traditional tourism and vacation industry. First, the tourist source group has greatly expanded. A large number of urban white-collar families without much vacation time have been introduced into the new trend of life, which has changed the market base and demand structure of the traditional vacation industry. Secondly, the introduction of outdoor content forms a strong traction to the resort industry. Picnic, Frisbee, outdoor sports, outdoor recreation, all kinds of fresh outdoor content are introduced into the traditional vacation supply system, which fits in with the needs of the new generation of consumers and promotes each other’s evolution. Finally, introduce more investment and operation entities of xiaokuailing. Micro vacation reduces the scale threshold of investment and operation and improves the threshold of trend leading ability – micro vacation does not require high capital investment, but needs strong trend leading and control ability, and needs to be good at using and controlling new media. According to statistics, there are 21000 campsite related enterprises in China, of which more than 70% were established in the past year. A large number of new small and medium-sized investment and operation entities have entered the tourism and vacation industry, which has brought new investment and operation methods to the industry and will become an effective force to promote the transformation and upgrading of the industry.
Third, give tourism new connotation and vitality. Micro vacation has changed the operation mode of traditional tourism. It is embodied in the following three aspects. First, higher frequency consumption patterns. The consumption frequency of micro vacation is much higher than that of traditional tourism vacation. If it is higher, it is bound to pay more attention to the organization of urban resources, pay more attention to changeable marketing and operation, and pay more attention to the family market. It is bound to precipitate more valuable data resources and generate more operation and investment value. Second, new and closer interaction between upper and lower industrial chains. For example, exquisite camping has brought a huge driving role in the industrial chain. The production capacity of relevant equipment outside China has been tightened, and the original traditional tent and camping equipment manufacturers have rapidly transformed to this field. According to Sam cloud’s data, the sales volume of camping goods increased by more than 100% month on month. According to Suning.Com Co.Ltd(002024) data, the sales volume of camping equipment increased by 76% year-on-year in the three days before the national day, and the revenue of the head enterprise of outdoor equipment Comefly Outdoor Co.Ltd(603908) reached 123 million in the first half of 2021, an increase of 86.53%. Under the upsurge of micro vacation, the upstream and downstream of the industry are more closely coupled, thus giving birth to a new ecological relationship of the industry. Third, it has a closer connection with the fashion trends outside China. Micro vacation is the product of the internal cycle of consumption, which is quite different from the traditional tourism and vacation industry. It is constantly absorbing the fashion trends outside China and has a closer connection with it.
(III) important enlightenment
The rise of micro vacation brings the following enlightenment.
First, the danger of the epidemic also brings opportunities for internal circulation. On the one hand, the epidemic situation has a great restrictive effect on the large-scale flow of tourism, affecting and interfering with the operation order of the tourism industry; On the other hand, the inte
