After entering the third natural year affected by the covid-19 epidemic, the tourism industry can “calmly face” the hot schedule, the market heat is less than expected, make corresponding adjustments according to the changes of market demand, and wait for recovery in the dormancy.
In the past New Year’s Day holiday, according to the Ministry of transport, the overall passenger traffic volume of railways, highways and civil aviation was “stable”. However, according to the data released by China Railway Group, 5.683 million passengers and 7.3 million passengers were sent on January 2 and 3, a year-on-year decrease of 15.2% and 19.2% respectively. The number of passengers sent by civil aviation during the three-day small and long holiday is expected to be 2.46 million, a year-on-year decrease of 26.8% in 2021.
However, this does not mean that the demand for tourism travel has not been released. Although long-term travel has been restrained by the epidemic control policies in many places, more demand has begun to turn into short-term tourism, especially around the city.
short term travel heat continues
According to the travel data report on New Year’s Day holiday in 2022 released by Ctrip, China’s largest online travel service platform, under the normalization of epidemic prevention and control in China, short distance peripheral travel is still the mainstream choice for users to travel, with nearly 60% of travel orders in the province, compared with nearly 50% during New Year’s day in 2020.
Shen Jiani, senior researcher of the strategic research center of Ctrip Research Institute, said that under the epidemic situation, the active epidemic prevention consciousness of “don’t go far, play around” makes many tourists choose to spend their holidays around. The report shows that on the first day of the new year’s Day holiday, the booking volume of peripheral tour tickets has exceeded 264% of that on the first day of the holiday in 2020. Among the travel orders for peripheral tours on New Year’s day, the number of ticket orders increased by 238% compared with new year’s day in 2020; Among the travel orders in the province, the hotel orders increased by more than 70% compared with 2020.
According to the data released by Tujia, an apartment B & B reservation platform, all kinds of high-quality rural independent courtyard B & B in the suburbs of Beijing are favored by consumers during New Year’s day. The average room night price of B & B in Beijing increased by about 70% year-on-year on New Year’s day in 2021, reaching 1345 yuan / night. Some high-end B & B in the suburbs of Beijing are still hard to find a room.
The travel consumption data report on 2022 New Year’s Day holiday released by Tongcheng travel also shows that peripheral travel and intra provincial travel in low-risk areas have become the mainstream of new year’s Day travel, and local hotel orders account for nearly 50% during the holiday. At the same time, the popular lines of train tickets during the new year’s Day holiday are mainly provincial lines and high-speed rail circles within 2 hours.
In contrast, although the upcoming Spring Festival holiday in the peak season of traditional travel still advocates “local Chinese New Year” as in the same period last year, the heat of market demand has begun to show a recovery momentum.
According to qunar.com, an online travel service platform, the 2022 Spring Festival transportation will start on January 17 and end on February 25. January 3 is the opening day of Spring Festival train tickets, but on the qunar platform, the reservation of Spring Festival transportation has begun.
Qunar disclosed that as of December 30, the number of hotel reservations from the first day to the sixth day of 2022 had exceeded the same period in 2019. The number of train tickets and air tickets issued this week increased by about 20% month on month compared with the average of last week.
With the shutdown of factories and projects, major colleges and universities have winter holidays one after another, and migrant workers and students are still the main crowd for long-distance train travel. In terms of the number of reserved Spring Festival train tickets, the popular routes are mainly from north, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen to southwest and central cities.
In terms of air tickets, qunar data show that the popular destinations during this year’s Spring Festival transportation are mainly southeast cities. Judging from the increase in ticket volume of qunar during the Spring Festival in 2022 compared with that in 2020, the fastest rising destinations are minority destinations, such as Libo and Kaili in Guizhou, which are popular this year, with ticket volume increasing by 3.8 times and 2.4 times respectively; After the resumption of the reception of tourists, the popularity of Jiuzhaigou continued, and the number of tickets increased by 1.1 times; Ulanqab and Wuhai in Inner Mongolia are also on the list. In addition, while outbound travel is still limited, Macao is also popular during the Spring Festival this year, and the number of tickets issued during the Spring Festival transportation increased by nearly 30%.
In terms of ticket prices, the reporter noted that some popular destinations for travel during the Spring Festival still have low-cost tickets for sale. Qunar platform shows that the bare price of direct air tickets between Beijing and Shenzhen on January 31 next year is the lowest 488 yuan, and that between Beijing and Chengdu is the lowest 448 yuan; 431 yuan for Shanghai Chongqing and 365 yuan for Shanghai Guangzhou; The minimum is 368 yuan for Chengdu Hangzhou and 522 yuan for Chengdu Xiamen. Qunar introduced that it has launched a “ticket night market” covering 39 special routes, with a discount of 30%. The most expensive Xi’an Zhanjiang naked price is 510 yuan, and the cheapest Tianjin Datong is only 220 yuan.
According to the analysis of qunar big data research institute, since the holiday begins on New Year’s Eve this year, January 30, that is, the 28th of the twelfth lunar month, may become the travel peak before the festival. It is reported that during the Spring Festival, train tickets are still sold 15 days in advance. You can buy train tickets on January 30 on January 16.
changing tourism market
The continuous impact of the epidemic not only leads to the suspension of outbound tourism, but also makes domestic tourism show more and more new trends and changes. Therefore, tourism enterprises and destinations must adapt to this change to meet the demand.
Ctrip report said that in the new year, many young users who emphasize the sense of welcome ceremony choose to start a new life journey in the journey. Ctrip report shows that among the people who travel on New Year’s day this year, Post-00 and post-95 users account for more than half, an increase of more than 10 percentage points over the same period last year. The expansion of the scale of young users also has an impact on China’s popular travel destinations. Many “online Red” new first tier cities with vitality labels show strong attraction, and nearly 30% of travel users choose to visit the new first tier cities. Ctrip report shows that among the top ten surrounding popular destinations in China on New Year’s day, new first tier cities such as Nanjing, Chengdu, Hangzhou, Zhengzhou and Changsha occupy half of the seats.
Even “at home” has new ways to play. According to the travel trend report on New Year’s day and Spring Festival in 2022 released by qunar, on New Year’s day this year, more people began to explore the “net red” punch in place at home, surfing, skiing, watching glaciers and soaking in hot springs have become the most mainstream way of play. Hotel bookings in Beijing and Chengdu on New Year’s day in 2022 increased by two times compared with that in 2021, and the demand for short distance travel around increased by more than three times than usual.
According to the big data of horse beehive tourism, local tourism is still the first choice for most tourists to travel on New Year’s day, and 30% of tourists choose to “just leave”, that is, book a hotel the day before travel. It is worth noting that luxury resort hotels are the first choice for young people in the new year. “Staying in the hotel until you wake up naturally” has become the “ceremony” for young people to welcome the new year. The star hotels around Haitang Bay, Yalong Bay and Sanya Bay in Hainan are among the top in their attention list.
With the trend of younger tourists, the factors triggering travel have begun to become more diversified. Ctrip said that now there are more and more factors that can attract a person to travel to the destination, such as a scenery, a delicious food, a photo, or even a set of scripts and a favorite KOL’s grass planting.
Taking script killing as an example, during the new year’s day this year, the search heat of “live script killing” on Ctrip platform increased by 50% year-on-year. Many scenic spots develop related products. In the interactive real scene “script kill” produced by Leshan Giant Buddha tourism investment group, tourists can immersively visit Leshan Giant Buddha Scenic spot while doing tasks in ancient clothes; In Hengdian Entertainment Co.Ltd(603103) City, there is also the real scene “script killing” of the Qing palace. There are cultural competition, fighting, singing and dancing exercises. Tourists will visit the “imperial palace” in the interactive Biao drama with people in the same camp and NPC, so as to achieve the purpose of “Tourism + social networking”.
The form of “tourism + performance” is also favored by young users. In Ctrip community, the exposure of relevant content during New Year’s day increased by 45% year-on-year. It is understood that next, Ctrip platform will launch the combined product of “sightseeing hall tickets on the 88th floor of Jinmao Building + cloud talk show tickets” in the whole network. Tourists can harvest the joy brought by talk show while climbing the magic capital landmark.
In addition, ice and snow themed tourism has also become a popular theme because of the proximity of the season and the Winter Olympic Games. According to the big data of the same trip, hotels and scenic spots related to ice and snow tourism increased significantly during the new year’s day. Among them, the hotel reservation volume around the ski resort increased by 140% month on month, the ticket reservation volume of the ski resort increased by 110% month on month, and the ticket reservation volume of ice and snow world scenic spots increased by 220% month on month. Ice and snow world and skiing have entered the top 5 of the popular travel themes in the scenic spot during the new year’s Day holiday.
Theme tours such as surfing, skiing, watching glaciers and soaking in hot springs drive the tourism heat of minority destinations. The surfing destination is concentrated in Hainan, and fans also expand their eyes from Sanya to the surrounding coast. Qunar data show that during the new year’s day this year, the accommodation bookings in Wanning and Danzhou increased by 2.5 times year-on-year in 2021. It is reported that Wanning will also hold a strawberry Music Festival on New Year’s day, which has also attracted a lot of popularity.
There is a heat wave beach in the South and ice and snow in the north. The Winter Olympic Games are approaching, and the people’s enthusiasm for ice and snow sports is high. Qunar data show that during the new year’s Day holiday in 2022, the heat of hotel reservation in Jilin has more than doubled; The booking volume of holiday B & B hotels near snow fields such as Beida lake and Songhua Lake has also more than doubled.
(Huaxia times)
