Sino-Singapore Jingwei Client, October 1st (Zhang Yanzheng) The eight-day holiday is finally here!
According to Dr. Wang Yumin, a member of the International Astronomical Union and Beijing Guguanxingtai, “National Day and Mid-Autumn Festival fall on the same day. There are four times in this century, which occurred in 2001, 2020, 2031 and 2077.” In other words, the next National Day and Mid-Autumn Festival overlap will have to wait until 11 years later.
As a rare double-festival holiday, domestic travel agencies launched various tourist routes as early as early August to attract tourists; as the overseas epidemic situation is still severe, for international travel agencies, a full blood resurrection is still far away.
The Ministry of Culture and Tourism recently disclosed data showing that in the third quarter of this year, the overall number of visitors to A-level tourist attractions across the country reached about 70% of the same period last year.
According to China Tourism Research Institute, the number of domestic tourists received during the 8-day Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holiday will reach 550 million.
Are you going to go out to see "Everyone Everyone"?
New longitude and latitude in travel data map, photo by Zhang Yanzheng
Qunar store manager: "This year's National Day revenue is expected to be half of last year's"
"Two days before the National Day holiday, there are more tourists departing from Beijing. I am busy checking the information of air tickets, hotels and other tourism products, and also checking travel plans. These calls are one by one." Yang Yang, the manager of the Yuanxi Street store, said that on the eve of the National Day holiday, the store has received holiday travel orders from more than 100 customers, and the advance payment is about two to three million yuan.
"Last year's National Day holiday, our turnover was about five to six hundred thousand yuan. According to this year's National Day orders, the revenue is expected to be half of last year."
Epidemic prevention supplies prepared by travel agencies for tourists
Looking back on the business situation in the first half of this year, Yang Yang, who has been in the tourism industry for 5 years, said frankly, "It's too difficult, but fortunately it has survived."
As the store manager, Yang Yang said, “In February and March, employees were processing refund orders from tourists; in April and May, according to the group’s self-rescue strategy, we launched a living hall and started selling travel suitcases, U-shaped pillows, thermos cups and other pan-tourism Products began to have some cash flow into the account; in June and July, after the national epidemic was relatively stable, we began to prepare for the resumption of domestic tourism, such as adjusting the tourism route products, dividing large groups into small groups, and making specific epidemics Emergency plans, etc."
After the days of "selling goods" and "preparing plans" lasted for a while, the tourism industry finally ushered in the dawn of resumption of work.
On July 20, the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism announced the resumption of inter-provincial travel. Yang Yang excitedly posted in the circle of friends, "We are back to work! Go! Take you to Sahuan."
However, in the early days of resumption of work, people were still cautious about tourism.
"When the inter-provincial tour resumed this year, I couldn't see a customer in the store a day. Later, customers came to the store for consultation. A week before National Day, an average of six or seven customers came to the store every day to consult tourist routes and place orders. "Yang Yang said.
Yang Yang pointed out that in previous years, tourists from Beijing preferred to travel abroad. Since outbound travel has not resumed this year, customers now prefer to go to tourist destinations such as Gansu and Sichuan.
“According to our store’s travel orders, everyone chooses to go to Crescent Spring and Populus euphratica in Gansu, Jiuzhaigou in Sichuan, Shapotou in Ningxia and other places. Perhaps considering the epidemic factor, most of the attractions that everyone went to this year were relatively wide and the number of tourists. Relatively few places."
In Yang Yang's view, the number of tourist buses in the scenic parking lot is a sign of the degree of tourism recovery.
"Our store is near the Summer Palace scenic spot. In previous years, during holidays, the nearby roads were all parked by out-of-town tourist buses, but this year there are obviously fewer buses. Tourists visiting the scenic spot need to make an appointment in advance, so there is no tourist gathering. The phenomenon of getting together."
In fact, at present, the group tours offered by travel agencies are mainly middle-aged and elderly people, supplemented by young people, and parent-child tours are still out of gear.
"In order to attract tourists this year, domestic scenic spots not only have great ticket discounts, but also relatively cheap air tickets. It is very cost-effective to travel at this time. However, because there is no language barrier, young people prefer adventure-style self-driving tours, and middle-aged and elderly tourists pay more attention. Appreciate the history and culture, so the professional tour guides provided by travel agencies, and one-stop services for food, accommodation and transportation are more popular. In addition, schools have different restrictions on the travel of primary and middle school students. This part of the consumer market for parent-child travel is temporarily missing "Yang Yang said.
Talking about how the domestic tourism market will develop after the "11th", Yang Yang said, "According to this development momentum, the domestic tourism market has great potential to be developed. Nowadays, scenic spots have generally implemented the appointment system for real-name, and in the epidemic prevention and control link The travel is also more professional and in-depth. As the domestic epidemic gradually improves, people’s willingness to travel will also be released."
Chinese businessmen in the tourism industry: "Europe's tourism business will be restored in no time"
"The international tourism market is still in a state of paralysis. Recently, there has been a second wave of new crown pneumonia in Europe. The Spanish government announced a few days ago that it will send 7,500 soldiers to support Madrid to fight the epidemic, and strengthen personnel control in the region to control the spread of the epidemic. From this point of view, it is even more distant for our tourism business to recover.” said Zhou Changhao, chairman of the Spanish Lily International Tourism Company.
According to real-time data released by Hopkins University, as of 9:00 on September 29, local time, the cumulative number of infections worldwide reached 33.27 million, and the cumulative deaths exceeded 1 million. The epicenter of the epidemic is still Europe, America and South Asia.
Among them, France, the United Kingdom, and Spain have a large number of newly diagnosed people, and other European countries are also urgently deploying prevention and control measures.
At the end of the last century, many people went to Europe to search for gold.
In 1999, Zhou Changhao's parents came to Spain from Wenzhou, Zhejiang to work in the clothing industry. Three years later, Zhou Changhao, who was 15 years old at the time, was brought to him, so he learned Spanish there.
With the frequent personnel exchanges between China and Spain, many friends from China proposed to visit Spain and neighboring countries. Zhou Changhao noticed this potential tourism business opportunity.
Data map of outbound travel image provided by interviewee
In 2012, Zhou Changhao and his partners founded Lily International Tourism Company, which mainly receives tourists from China.
Business operations include ticket sales, visa processing, outbound travel, etc.
Tourism products include a seven-day tour of the classic European route and an in-depth 15-day tour of Western Portugal, involving Germany, France, Portugal, Hungary, Italy and other countries.
"We have six core business personnel, and the others are outsourced partners, such as cooperating with local tour guides, who are responsible for leading tourists to visit the scenic spots, and bus drivers are added or removed according to demand." Zhou Changhao said.
Since the beginning, it has been able to bring two to three thousand Chinese tourists to Spain every year. In 2019, the travel agency founded by Zhou Changhao has been able to receive more than 20,000 Chinese tourists.
"Last year's "November" holiday, Chinese tourists accounted for about 80%, the company's total revenue was about 50,000 to 60,000 euros, or about four to five million yuan, but this year, no Chinese tourists came to Spain. At present, we have stopped. Of all the tourism projects, the only one that is still operating is the air ticket sales agency."
However, with the spread of the epidemic, the international air ticket sales agency business is not easy to do.
“Most international flights have been suspended this year. For example, flights from Barcelona to China have not been resumed. Many expats who are willing to return to China can only take a train or bus to Madrid, the capital of Spain, and then fly from Madrid to China. , Not everyone can grab a ticket." Zhou Changhao said.
As the epidemic worsens, more and more expats are consulting Zhou Changhao about flights back to China, and he is also considering charter flights.
"In the past few days, we have been contacting the charter business, maintaining communication with the Chinese Embassy in Spain, and always paying attention to China's requirements for returning personnel. For example, the Chinese side recognizes which local nucleic acid testing agencies in Spain have issued the result reports. Passengers going to China must Which health status declarations to fill in, etc."
Talking about the prospects of the European tourism industry this year, Zhou Changhao sighed and said, “There is no other way, everyone can only'suffer.' The longer the epidemic continues, the tourism industry will only lose money. The technical conditions and various resource barriers here, None of them can support the tourism industry to carry out self-rescue methods such as live broadcast of goods or advance sales."
Travel expert: "Take your parents around in the surrounding cities"
As the company's management, the 47-year-old Zhang Haiyang is an out-and-out "flying trapeze" and a travel enthusiast.
"In 2015, I moved from a government department to an Internet company. Due to the needs of business development, I often need to travel at home and abroad. Generally speaking, when I travel in a hurry and most of them are too late to visit local attractions, I will use the'May Day' or ' "October's holidays like this and then go to the local area." Said Zhang Haiyang, who is the executive deputy general manager of an Internet company in Beijing.
The Cologne Cathedral in Germany, the Arc de Triomphe in France, the Water City of Venice in Italy... In the first two years after he quit, Zhang Haiyang took dozens of European countries around.
"Before, due to work reasons, I could only travel in China. After changing my job, I can finally see the world. In the past few years, I have visited many countries. I went to Japan during the "November" holiday the year before last year. Korea."
According to Zhang Haiyang’s plan at the beginning of the year, he planned to visit Southeast Asian countries during the National Day holiday this year.
"Up to now, outbound travel has not resumed. In addition, there is a serious epidemic abroad. After returning to China, I still need to be isolated for 14 days. The cost of going abroad is too high, so outbound travel is no longer considered."
Speaking of plans for this year’s "October" holiday, Zhang Haiyang said that he had bought a ticket to his hometown, Dalian, and planned to drive his parents around the surrounding scenic spots during the holiday.
"The elderly are old and reluctant to fly, nor can they buy high-speed rail tickets. It is better to spend the Mid-Autumn Festival with your family in your hometown to report a tour group."
Zhang Haiyang added, “You also need to fill in various information for travel, which is easy for young people, but for the elderly, it’s really not easy to go out. After the epidemic is over, everyone wants to go wherever they want. , The prevention and control of the epidemic still cannot be taken lightly.” (Zhongxin Jingwei APP)
(At the request of the interviewer, Zhang Haiyang is a pseudonym)
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