China News Service, Beijing, December 29th, title: Three major changes in China's tourism industry in 2021

　　China News Agency reporter Wang Qingkai

　　In 2020, the sudden new crown pneumonia epidemic has brought social mobility to a halt, and the tourism industry has encountered a moment of "freezing".

In the second half of the year, with the effective control of the epidemic, China's tourism industry gradually recovered, but inbound and outbound tourism is still in a cold winter.

　　Where will China's tourism industry go in 2021?

Under the normal situation of epidemic prevention and control, how will the tourism industry develop?

Data map: Tourists wearing masks visit the Lantern Market in Nanjing Confucius Temple.

Photo by China News Agency reporter Yang Bo

Strike a "V"

　　Throughout the world, tourism is one of the industries most affected by the epidemic.

Since the outbreak of the epidemic, China's domestic and outbound travel has declined sharply.

Statistics show that in the first half of 2020, there were about 1.2 billion domestic tourists in China, down 62% year-on-year; while outbound tourists were only 500,000, down 78% year-on-year.

　　Take Ctrip, a large Chinese online travel service company, as an example. After the outbreak of the new crown pneumonia in early 2020, Ctrip has unsubscribed tens of millions of orders, involving more than 31 billion yuan (RMB, the same below).

　　In order to "save" Ctrip, Liang Jianzhang, the chairman of Ctrip's board of directors and professor of Guanghua School of Management of Peking University, who has always been rational and decisive, gave up his suits and shoes, and personally cosplayed into various roles and carried the goods live.

This made netizens once lamented "Liang Jianzhang is tragic and strong, and the tourism industry is difficult."

　　As large-scale tourism service platforms such as Ctrip and Qunar are struggling to survive, many small and medium-sized tourism companies have fallen into the "winter" of the industry, and a large number of tourism workers are in a state of waiting for employment.

　　Fortunately, China achieved a phased victory in epidemic prevention and control in a very short time.

Entering May, the long-lost fireworks return, and more people choose to go out and feel the warmth of spring.

On October 7, passengers walked through the Beijing Railway Station Square.

Photo by China News Agency reporter Jiang Qiming

　　At present, China's domestic tourism has basically returned to the level before the outbreak.

However, due to the continuous spread of foreign epidemics and the needs of domestic epidemic prevention and control, it will take time for China's inbound and outbound tourism to recover.

　　As of October, the number of passengers on China's domestic routes reached 48 million in 2020, accounting for 98% of passenger traffic in the same period in 2019.

China Tourism Research Institute predicts that tourism revenue will reach 2.12 trillion yuan in the second half of 2020, an increase of 231% from the first half.

China's tourism industry will move out of a "V" shape in 2020.

　　Liang Jianzhang told a reporter from China News Agency that although outbound business has been greatly affected, the vacancies that have been affected by the epidemic in one or two years represent a very good opportunity for the development of domestic tourism.

Ctrip will dig deeper into the country and have an international mind.

"We will be ready to appear on the international travel industry stage with a stronger posture in the future."

The new situation is beginning to emerge

　　Market research firm Accenture has set four development scenarios for the global travel market: "strong recovery," "coexistence of epidemic and market conditions," "market downturn," and "dark moment".

　　Taking into account the recovery of China's domestic tourism market, Accenture predicts that there will be no "dark moment" in China's tourism industry.

As far as the domestic tourism industry is concerned, the future is more likely to show a "strong recovery" or "coexistence of epidemics and cities."

However, since the epidemic has not yet been controlled globally, fluctuations in the international tourism market will continue.

On November 19, the Jinshanling Great Wall Scenic Spot in Chengde, Hebei ushered in the first snowfall in 2020.

After the first snow, the mountains and plains were covered in white with snow, and the quiet Jinshanling was like an ink painting.

Image source: ICphoto

　　"Originally, high-frequency outbound tourists would look for alternatives to foreign destinations. Of course, this is a mid-to-high-end holiday destination with distinctive features." Liang Jianzhang analyzed to a reporter from China News Agency. At present, domestic travel will be brighter than in previous years. eye.

Many of the outbound travel air tickets saved by tourists can be spent on hotels or on higher-end travel services.

Therefore, tourism companies should intensively cultivate products, small and beautiful content, supply chains and services.

　　In the post-epidemic era, the new trend of China's tourism industry has begun to appear, and this change will have a profound impact on the tourism market and tourism companies.

　　Domestic tourism will become the main engine of the tourism industry.

At present, the consumer confidence of the Chinese people has rebounded.

China proposes to build a "new development pattern in which the domestic and international double cycles promote each other", and strive to stimulate domestic consumption to promote future economic growth.

Given that the foreign epidemic is still spreading, domestic travel will occupy a significant share of Chinese consumer spending in the future.

　　"Impromptu tour" turned into "planned tour".

Due to the need for epidemic prevention and control, many domestic tourist attractions currently need to control the number of tourists and implement appointment tours, which means that "walking trips" are becoming less and less.

Tourists must now plan and book in advance, and they must do it through digital channels.

This has already appeared during the National Day holiday this year.

　　"Self-service tour" and "Contact-free tour" will be popular.

In the post-epidemic era, Chinese consumers pay more attention to health and hygiene.

According to a survey, nearly half of Chinese tourists consider COVID-19 prevention and control measures as the most important factor when planning their travel.

Self-guided tours, small group tours, and customized tours with little contact with strangers will be welcome.

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