"There are fewer students applying for the tourism major this year, and many graduates of the tourism major have gone to other industries." Recently, a teacher of the tourism department of a university in Shanghai talked to reporters about this phenomenon, and some worried: "Can tourism continue?"
The answer is not difficult to give. As long as people's pursuit of a better life remains unchanged, tourism will always exist. However, under the influence of the epidemic that has lasted for nearly three years, there are also some changes in the tourism industry that deserve attention.
Tourists no longer rely on travel agencies
In the peak summer travel season of 2019, when people walked into some tourist attractions in the northwest and southwest, tourist buses came one after another, and guides held flags to greet tourists loudly from time to time, which almost became the "standard" scene of scenic spots. However, in this summer, tour groups marked by guide flags are not common at the foot of Yulong Snow Mountain in Yunnan, which is full of tourists, or the hot sky grassland scenic spot in Nalati, Xinjiang. More are family tourists in small groups, and small self organized groups of 7 to 15 relatives and friends.
Outbreaks still occur in many parts of the country. Cross provincial tours in some areas have been cut off. Travel agencies are limited by different epidemic risks in the communities where tourists live when they receive tourists. Many travel plans have been temporarily cancelled. In this case, if tourists still want to pursue "poetry and distance", they can only "do it by themselves, and have plenty of food and clothing".
From relying on the services of travel agencies to planning routes and booking hotels, the changes in tourism consumption under the influence of the epidemic have attracted the attention of tourism practitioners. Fang Hao, who once ran a travel agency store near the People's Square, said that the original store was dominated by customers aged 55 to 70, and the store was closed for a long time during the epidemic. Over the past two years, many of these guests have begun to design their own routes from short trips to East China and gradually turned to domestic long-distance destinations, reducing their dependence on travel agencies.
Giant expands upstream industry chain
Some tourism institutions with scale effect have been extending to the upstream of the tourism industry chain, trying to expand another world.
This summer, Hu Yi'an, the head of Jinshan Camp, the "exquisite dew" of spring and autumn tourism, spent most of his time in the suburbs. The two camping projects she is responsible for are located in Jinshan Langxia Ecological Park and Fengjing Chinese Peasant Painting Village. Since the launch of the trial operation in July this year, many tourists have gone to taste the fresh food, including family parent-child guests with children and pets, and young people coming together. The construction of campsites in the suburbs to adapt to the new trend of travel under the epidemic has become one of the ways for tourism institutions to intervene in the upstream industrial chain.
Ctrip also announced recently that the order volume of its nine vacation farms in Anhui, Henan, Xinjiang and other places has more than doubled month on month. In fact, the scale of each resort farm is only more than 10, and its overall turnover is only "a drop in the bucket" for Ctrip, but the greater significance of the farm landing is to serve as a demonstration sample to prove that this product model is feasible. After the resort has realized the scale effect, Ctrip will give full play to its platform advantages to expand its influence and bring new economic development impetus to the destination. At the same time, the tourism platform also takes this opportunity to strengthen the control of the upstream resources of the destination.
Without the platform advantage of industry giants, some small tourism institutions give full play to the flexibility of "small boats are good for turning around". Since this year, minority travel of cultural relics and natural education is in the ascendant, and related fields have higher requirements for the quality of travel content. Creating small and beautiful featured products and differentiated services is the way for small tourism institutions to survive. For tourism organizations of all sizes in the market, the key to survival is to have a steady stream of revenue.
Car rental passenger flow in hotel attractions rebounded
Compared with intermediary tourism institutions that do not have a lot of resources, hotel, scenic spot and car rental service providers still have a share in this summer travel boom.
This summer, Daqi, which provides charter services in Inner Mongolia, received several groups of tourists from the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta. Most of the tourists in the Qi Dynasty were recommended by previous tourists. He is responsible for planning routes, driving and providing explanations along the way according to the needs of tourists, and can also book accommodation along the way.
Due to the popularity of self-service travel, both the personal car rental service provider and the car rental platform received good orders, and the hotel occupancy rate also rebounded. According to the data from the Huazhu platform, since July 15, many Huazhu stores in Xinjiang have been full, and stores in popular areas need to be booked at least 5 days in advance. Since the summer vacation, hotel bookings in Shanghai have also seen a new growth. Qunar big data shows that since July, Shanghai has recovered to the tenth place among the most popular hotel reservation cities in China. Among them, hotel bookings in Shanghai from July 1 to 25 increased by 90% month on month. Shanghai Disneyland, Shanghai Haichang Ocean Park, Shanghai Happy Valley, Jinshan City Beach and other popular attractions.
Whether they are hotels, scenic spots or car rental service providers, the common point is that they have actual resources in their hands, rather than just "intermediary" service providers. Under the epidemic situation, it is travel agencies and related institutions that appear mostly as intermediaries that have suffered the most. After experiencing the test of the epidemic, it is still unknown how much "lost ground" these intermediary service providers can recover.
