Focus on the recovery of the tourism industry (Part 1) Outbound tourism can expect spring
According to the optimization and adjustment of the epidemic prevention and control policy, the editor presses the “restart button” for outbound travel. On February 6, the first group of outbound tours from all over the country set off one after another. After a long period of stagnation, how is the recovery of my country’s outbound group tours, and how effective is it in stimulating consumption? How is the confidence of consumers and even the industry in the tourism market restored? What role will outbound tourism play in the recovery of the global tourism market? “China Consumer News” has launched a series of reports on “Focus on Outbound Travel” since this issue. The reporter interviewed relevant experts in depth to find out the road to recovery of the tourism market for you.
■Our reporter Wu Xiaoli
“God sent me a message, so I sent plum blossoms to bloom.” Spring comes with good news.
At 9:00 p.m. on February 5, nearly 50 passengers gathered at Gate 48 of Terminal T2 of Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport, preparing to take flight EK363, which took off in the early morning of February 6, for a 6-day trip to Dubai, Abu Dhabi, or Egypt. The 10-day tour starts the first group tour of outbound travel.
At 6:30 am on February 6th, in the departure hall of Terminal T3 of Beijing Capital International Airport, passengers who participated in the first outbound tour group organized by China Travel Service gathered, and took a flight to Singapore at 9:30 am.
February 6th was the first day of the pilot program of resuming the operation of national travel agencies and online travel companies to operate outbound group tours for Chinese citizens to relevant countries. Another order peak after the tour. Experts pointed out that the outbound group tour is a landmark event, which will inject vitality into the tourism industry and further boost consumer confidence.
The surge in the number of entry-exit permits
“My visa has expired, and I will re-apply today.” Ms. Xu told reporters at the immigration reception hall near the West Third Ring Road in Beijing.
The reporter learned that after the Spring Festival, with the resumption of the pilot program of outbound group tours and the resumption of the acceptance of Hong Kong endorsements by the smart endorsement equipment at the entry-exit window, the enthusiasm for outbound group tours that have been “suspended” for three years has risen, and long queues have formed in the immigration reception halls of various places. .
On January 26, 2020, the General Office of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism issued the “Urgent Notice on Suspending the Business Activities of Tourism Enterprises with All-out Efforts to Prevent and Control the Pneumonia Epidemic Infected by the Novel Coronavirus“, requiring travel agencies and online travel companies across the country to suspend the operation of group tours And “air ticket + hotel” tourism products.
Three years later, on January 20, 2023, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism issued the “Notice of the General Office of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism on Pilot Resumption of Travel Agencies to Operate Chinese Citizens’ Outbound Group Tours to Relevant Countries”, announcing that starting from February 6, China Pilot outbound group tours and “air ticket + hotel” services will be resumed in 20 overseas destination countries, while Hong Kong and Macao entry and exit and group tours will be opened.
According to data from the National Immigration Administration, on February 6, the number of entry and exit personnel across the country reached 676,000. Since the orderly resumption of entry-exit certificate processing, the enthusiasm of the public for obtaining certificates has been high, and the volume of entry-exit certificate processing has shown a blowout growth. Taking Shanghai as an example, from January 9 to February 8, 2023, the Shanghai Exit-Entry Administration Department accepted a total of more than 380,000 entry-exit certificates for Chinese citizens, a record high.
Confidence in tourism industry soars
“For consumers, the first outbound tour group is of great significance.” Zhao Dadi, assistant general manager of China Travel Travel North China Regional Company, said in an interview with the media, “The opening of the pilot program is a new clarion call for tourists. We I hope that through the form of the first group tour, it will send a positive signal to the entire industry—look! The outbound group tour is really about to start.”
Tourists’ confidence has recovered, and the outbound group tour products of major online travel platforms have been enthusiastically sought after.
“The first outbound group tour of Tongcheng Travel departed from Shanghai to Thailand, and traveled in Bangkok, Pattaya, Phuket and other places for 6 nights and 7 days. The itinerary was sold out a week before departure.” Responsible person of Tongcheng Travel People told reporters, “From the announcement of the resumption of outbound group tours on January 20 to February 5, the number of consultations on outbound group tours on the same journey increased by 358% month-on-month, and the number of visa inquiries increased by 172% month-on-month. At the same time, more and more of tourists began to plan outbound trips in spring, and at present, the Qingming and May Day holidays have the highest number of consultations.”
The resumption of a large number of international flights after the Spring Festival has further provided convenience for outbound group travel, and the number of bookings for related products has increased accordingly. According to data from Ctrip, in the week after the Spring Festival, the bookings for outbound group tours and “air tickets + hotels” packaged products increased by more than three times compared with the week of the Spring Festival holiday. “This data reflects the recovery of tourists’ confidence in outbound group tours. At the same time, travel agencies have more products on the shelves, providing people with more diverse choices for going abroad.” Jiang Wen, CEO of Ctrip Group Tours, told reporters.
The recovery of tourist confidence is also reflected in the gradual pick-up in demand for overseas long-distance travel. Ctrip’s first outbound trip to New Zealand departing from Shanghai on March 18 with an average price of 27,999 yuan was sold out immediately after it went on sale.
At the regular press conference of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on February 7, the spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Mao Ning said that the first batch of Chinese outbound group tours were warmly welcomed by the pilot countries. “Winter is over, and spring can be expected.” After 3 years, the Chinese outbound tour group pressed the “restart button”, injecting impetus into the revitalization of the global tourism market.
According to relevant persons from GZL, when the staff of the Emirates Airline office heard about the handling of Chinese outbound group tours in early February, they were very excited and expressed that they had been looking forward to Chinese tourists for a long time, and actively contacted all parties for their cooperation.
“For this day, the whole industry has been looking forward to it for three years.” Sun Guizhen, secretary-general of the China Travel Agency Association, said that this pilot is a milestone event in the recovery and revitalization of the tourism industry. Inject a strong impetus to further accelerate the pace of tourism market recovery.
Looking forward to more system optimization
According to the United Nations World Tourism Organization, the resumption of China’s outbound tourism will promote the recovery of tourism in the Asia-Pacific region and even the world, and will be conducive to the recovery of tourism in Asian destinations in the short term.
The optimization and adjustment of China’s entry-exit policy has been welcomed by overseas tourist destinations, and the tourism departments of many countries believe that this will inject strong impetus into the domestic tourism industry. At the beginning of January this year, Thailand not only organized an event called “CHINA IS BACK (China is back)”, when the outbound flight to Thailand landed, the Deputy Prime Minister of Thailand and other officials also went to the airport to pick up the plane.
“In the past, my country’s annual outbound tourism consumption was about 100 billion US dollars, and there were 10 million Chinese tourists going to Thailand within a year. Chinese tourists have a great role in stimulating local tourism consumption, so they are very popular. Zeng Bowei, Secretary-General of the Leisure and Vacation Branch of the China Tourism Association, told the reporter of China Consumer News. He believes that outbound travel can promote consumption and enhance the domestic and international double cycle. Outbound travel will not only stimulate consumption in surrounding areas, but also promote closer relations with neighboring countries and share development results with tourist destination countries.
“From January 23rd to February 5th, the search volume related to ‘Qingming’ increased by 127% month-on-month, and the search volume related to ‘May Day’ increased by 187% month-on-month. It is expected that this year’s outbound travel will usher in explosive growth. The summer vacation is expected to return to the pre-epidemic level.” The relevant person in charge of Tongcheng Travel told reporters.
“In terms of domestic consumption, the recovery of outbound travel will definitely lead to some spillovers.” Zeng Bowei believes that in the past three years, the consumption power of outbound travel cannot be released, but can only be released in the country. Affected by the impact, it has developed rapidly. After the orderly recovery of outbound tourism, the competition with the domestic high-end tourist source market will become more intense.
In addition, how to speed up the double cycle and promote the consumption of inbound tourism while releasing the enthusiasm for outbound tourism is worth pondering. Zeng Bowei believes that, on the one hand, the government needs to provide more support in the development of the inbound tourism market to mobilize the enthusiasm of tourism practitioners; on the other hand, the government needs to provide some exclusive financial support in the inbound tourism market. The promotion of domestic tourist destinations may be too focused on the process, and there is not much follow-up attention. When promoting domestic tourist destinations in the future, we must not only effectively promote the image of China’s tourism, but also do a good job in transforming the motivation of foreigners to travel to China. “In order to do a good job of combining the two, some system-level optimization is needed,” he said.