The recovery of inter-provincial tourism coincides with the summer vacation, and the demand for customized tourism is showing a trend of rapid recovery. The picture shows Guangdong Dinglong Bay Ocean Resort. Photo courtesy of the respondent
"Twenty travel customization consultants, each person designed 10 to 15 plans per day during the summer last year, and now at least 20 plans are produced a day, and some consultants have nearly doubled their workload." Meng Haixin is the person in charge of Fliggy Hainan Bestton International Travel Service Store , After the restart of the inter-provincial tour, the original small-group customized tour was extremely popular, which made him somewhat unexpected.
A reporter from Nanfang Daily learned that due to the impact of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, traditional individual groups have become "non-mainstream", and more refined private groups or customized groups have gradually increased in popularity. A report from Ctrip shows that orders for customized tours have doubled after the resumption of cross-provincial tours. In particular, the demand for high-end customized services has doubled last year, becoming the most surprising "dark horse" in the current tourism industry's resumption of work and production. Domestic customized tourism companies have also entered the stage of full resumption of work and production, and the confidence of employees has greatly increased.
●Nanfang Daily reporter Cai Huafeng
Orders for customized tours doubled month-on-month in July
In mid-July, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism issued the "Notice on Promoting the Expansion and Resumption of Work and Resumption of Tourism Enterprises", suspending the resumption of cross-provincial team tours for nearly half a year, and then major travel agencies such as Ctrip, Fliggy, and Guangzho have been listed. A large number of cross-provincial tourism products. A reporter from the Nanfang Daily learned that, compared to the bulky and insecure traditional large group, the small group has taken the lead in the sale of tourism products after the epidemic. According to Meng Haixin, the business volume of Hainan Best International Travel Service in July has recovered to about 60% of the same period in the previous year. Small groups have contributed a lot. "The customers who come now basically choose small groups or private groups. The same route, the price of large and small groups can be The difference is twice as long, but customers still like to choose high-quality products."
The Ctrip report shows that the resumption of inter-provincial travel coincides with the summer vacation, and the demand for customized travel is showing a trend of rapid recovery. In July, the demand orders submitted by domestic tourists through the customized tour portal of the Ctrip APP increased by 126% from the previous month. The users of the three types of customized services have increased significantly. Among them, personal customization demand increased by 156%, high-end customization increased by 103%, and company customization increased by 80%.
In Guangdong, how has the sales and growth of customized tours and package tours changed? In an interview with a reporter from Nanfang Daily, the relevant person in charge of Guangzhou Travel said that in terms of intra-provincial travel, affected by the new crown pneumonia epidemic, it is still cautious to package group outings for enterprises; customized tours are mainly customized for family groups, and such demand is obvious compared with the same period last year. Growth, an increase of more than 30%; family group customization is a relatively new way of tourism consumption, currently accounting for nearly 10% of the individual travel business. In terms of inter-provincial tourism, since the official restart of mid-inter-provincial tourism in July, Guangzhou Travel has organized nearly 100 customized groups, showing signs of recovery.
The Ctrip report predicts that according to current trends, the demand for customization in August will increase substantially. The overall demand for customization submitted by domestic tourists is expected to return to the level of the same period last year. Custom travel companies that have been hit hard by the epidemic will welcome more users and Order.
Customized products are mainly natural scenery destinations
According to the “Top 10 Popular Destinations for Customized Summer Vacation in 2020” released by Ctrip's customization platform, the top five provinces of the top ten are Yunnan, Hainan, Sichuan, Zhejiang, and Guangdong. Yunnan ranks first with obvious advantages and becomes the most popular summer vacation. Of customized travel destinations. The top ten most popular destination cities for customized travel this summer are Sanya, Chengdu, Lijiang, Xi'an, Shanghai, Chongqing, Hangzhou, Qingdao, Xiamen, and Zhoushan, each with a month-on-month increase of more than 100%. Sanya has become the biggest dark horse this year. A large number of domestic parents and children, couples and young people born in the 90s have customized online to enjoy leisure vacations in Sanya, Hainan, special car guidance, gourmet entertainment, tax-free shopping, and niche games.
Popular customized routes include Dali, Lijiang, Shangri-La on the 5th, Yangshuo Banyan Tree 3 days and 2 nights, and Mandarin Oriental Sanya 3 days and 2 nights. Sea view rooms, snorkeling, sailing out to sea, and romantic afternoon tea are the most popular ways to play. Unique tourism resources or theme play, niche destinations, exclusive services, etc. are all reasons why tourists pay for customization.
In Guangdong, statistics from Guangzhou Travel show that in terms of inter-provincial travel, routes that are close to nature are more popular with tourists. The country includes Yunnan, Guizhou, Hunan, Guangxi, and Sanya, Hainan. Among them, Yunnan has the highest number of inquiries, almost accounting for One-fifth of the total. In the province, under the background of the epidemic situation, the number of corporate package tours has decreased, and the non-organization of various gathering activities is the main reason for the sudden decrease in corporate package tours. Customized tours are more inclined to short-distance vacations for several families, and have more personalized needs for multi-point transfers, small interactions, and family special banquets.
"Although the recovery speed of customized tour is gratifying, but from the current situation, customized tour has not been able to break out of the'circle'. It still belongs to a relatively single emphasis on natural scenery and high-end enjoyment. The core of the word'custom' has not It can be well reflected that for the development of customized travel, there is still a long way to go if you want to further expand the market share in the future." According to analysis by industry insiders, the current period of opportunity for development is actually affected by the new crown pneumonia epidemic. As a result of the impact, customized tours show a greater safety advantage than general group tours, but as the epidemic environment continues to improve, this advantage will slowly disappear.
High prices are the main reason why customized tours are difficult to develop
Price has always been a bump on the road to the development of customized tours. 2 Adults and 1 child, 6 days and 5 nights customized tour in Lijiang, Yunnan, cost 25,000 yuan; 38 people company group construction, 3 days and 2 nights in Zhejiang Anji, cost 80,000 yuan; 4-person family high-end chartered tour of Lhasa for 10 days, cost 5 Ten thousand yuan...More and more customization needs appear on the travel platform and are completed under the design and arrangement of the customizer. Ctrip said that especially the demand for high-end customization has become a dark horse, and it was the first to surpass the same period last year. Since the resumption of cross-provincial travel on July 14, the demand for high-end customization on the Ctrip platform has increased by 125% year-on-year. Although the price is relatively higher, domestic tourists prefer high-end customized services with one-to-one exclusive account managers and high-standard itinerary configuration.
A reporter from Nanfang Daily learned that in terms of price, because exclusive services are provided based on user needs, tourists are willing to pay for unique experiences and services when customizing. The per capita price of summer domestic tour customization is more than 2,000 yuan, while the per capita price of high-end customization is more than 6,000. Yuan, the highest can reach more than 50,000 yuan. Recently, Ctrip's high-end customization and Honghu Yiyou have launched the first domestic product "tour around China" and "customized private jet tour groups". They traveled in 5 provinces in 11 days, priced at RMB 268,000 and limited to 16 seats. A new record in the high-end custom market.
“It’s difficult for customized tours to have the so-called low prices. After all, the product composition behind them is different from general group tours. If the general group tours are standardized products on the assembly line, then customized tours are purely handmade and personalized products. The core competitiveness is different.” This actually means that customized tour products will basically only take the high-priced route, and cheap customized tours will exist, but they will not appear in large numbers on the market.
Customized tours will still take niche destinations and high-end routes
Up to now, domestic customized tourism companies have fully resumed work and production. According to statistics, more than 70% of the more than 1,000 suppliers engaged in domestic travel customization on the Ctrip customization platform have resumed work and went online, which is a significant increase compared to before the resumption of inter-provincial travel. Among them, suppliers engaged in personal customization accounted for 60% of the total resumption of work suppliers, followed by company customized suppliers, accounting for about 30%, and high-end customized suppliers accounting for about 10%. Yang Yuan, general manager of Yunnan Severnkale International Travel Service Co., Ltd., said that with the normalization of epidemic prevention and control, high-end customization will be a huge market in the next six months to one year.
Gao Kang, general manager of Hangzhou Vision International Travel Service Co., Ltd., said that more and more customers like niche destinations and are unwilling to go to conventional attractions. After the resumption of cross-provincial travel, most of the guests’ needs are released, and custom agencies need to seize the guests To develop more niche destinations, tourism resources in epidemic-free areas, and resources on the island line before the opening of the country.
"Family mass customization is a business segment with rapid growth in demand and has great potential for development; but compared with the scale of mass group tours, there is still a big gap in the size of its customer base." The relevant person in charge of Guangzhi said that the travel agency has completed the module in advance. Customized and themed travel plans, such as parent-child, aerial photography, starry sky photography, RV self-driving, etc. At the same time, the actual travel needs of the family and the public are customized. Travel agencies will also provide consultation and personalized service guarantee during travel to save tourists While the time cost and energy cost of product selection and consumption decision-making, it further enhances the travel experience customized by the family.