The tourism industry is still waiting for the dawn to usher in a confused start in 2022
Our reporter Li Qiaoyu, trainee reporter He Wangjuan
If one word is used to describe the tourism industry in 2021, "missing" may be a key word that many people will think of.
During the long holidays and summer holidays of November this year, emergency reminders or notices were issued in many places, suggesting that travel out of the province should be postponed.
The New Year’s Day holiday and the Spring Festival holiday followed one after another, and the epidemic prevention policies in various places were upgraded again...
Looking at the market throughout the year, from the longest travel peak to the longest holiday in the year, the tourism industry has almost missed all important time nodes.
Where is the future?
Where will the tourism industry go in 2022?
Can the core goal of "live" be achieved?
As 2022 is approaching, the tourism industry is still moving forward in confusion.
Fragmented performance
Industry swings in uncertainty
"A roller coaster year." Talking about how this year feels, a practitioner who did not want to be named told the Securities Daily reporter that in the first half of this year, especially in March and April, everyone was busy preparing for the next summer vacation. And travel on eleven.
"At that time, everyone was still full of hope."
The financial report data also proves the views of the above-mentioned practitioners.
According to the semi-annual report data disclosed by listed tourism companies, many listed tourism companies such as China Youth Travel Service, Emeishan A, Lijiang Co., Ltd., and Sante Ropeway announced that they benefited from the overall recovery of the domestic tourism market. Achieved a half-year performance turnaround.
This trend even continued into the third quarter earnings report.
According to "Securities Daily" reporters according to Flush ifind data, 21 A-share listed companies in the second-tier tourism and scenic area of Shenwan achieved a total revenue of 16.5 billion yuan in the first three quarters of 2021, an increase of 25% year-on-year, and a total net profit attributable to the parent -463 million yuan, a 68.23% reduction year-on-year.
Specifically, 6 listed companies including CYTS, Emeishan A, and *ST Western Regions turned losses into profits year-on-year; 9 listed companies including Zhongxin Tourism, Guilin Tourism, and Yunnan Tourism reduced losses year-on-year; Songcheng Performing Arts, Jiuhua Tourism, and Tianmu Lake 3 The net profit of the listed companies was positive and achieved year-on-year growth.
But such performance may be difficult to maintain throughout the year.
"This year's situation is very special. The industry is basically at a stage of swinging between certainty and uncertainty." Xu Xiaolei, chief brand officer of CYTS and secretary-general of CYTS Alliance, told the "Securities Daily" reporter. The big problem, the uncertainty lies in the external environment.
Xu Xiaolei said that in the second and third quarters of this year, the overall market recovery was improving, which promoted the overall performance of the company.
However, in the second half of the third quarter, the repeated epidemics caused the tourism industry to miss the two important travel nodes of the summer vacation and the October Golden Week. At present, it is hard to be optimistic about the annual performance.
Some companies have changed their performance in a single quarter.
From a single quarterly perspective, in the third quarter of 2021, the net profit of 14 listed companies attributable to their parents decreased year-on-year compared to the same period in 2020. Among them, the listed company with the most serious year-on-year decline was Zhangjiajie. Due to the local epidemic in Zhangjiajie, all scenic spots were closed. From July to September of 2021, the net profit of Zhangjiajie's parent company fell by 1871.73% year-on-year. In addition, a number of listed companies such as Sante Cableway and Guilin Tourism also suffered heavy losses in the third quarter.
"Live" as the core goal
Mergers and acquisitions are becoming more active
The tourism industry is unwilling to sit still. For the listed tourism companies, capital operation can improve the status of the company to a certain extent.
Holding groups for warmth and divesting assets to reduce the burden has become an increasingly common approach for listed travel companies.
In December of this year, UTS Travel and Caesars Travel also announced the termination of the merger. Prior to this, the two parties had announced the merger in a high-profile manner to determine the post-epidemic market.
At that time, the "Securities Daily" reporter had learned in many ways that if the two parties can merge as they wish, it will help both parties to reduce pressure and improve their performance.
Although the merger of Zhongxin Travel and Caesars Travel was announced to be terminated, new ideas have been formed.
Previously, Tibet Tourism had intended to issue shares to ENN Holdings Investment Co., Ltd. and pay cash to purchase 100% of Beihai Xinyi Cruise Co., Ltd., but it was terminated due to factors such as the capital market environment and the actual situation of the company.
On October 28th, Lingnan Holdings received a letter of notification from its controlling shareholder that it plans to implement a joint reorganization. In order to effectively integrate the resources of Guangzhou’s business and tourism industry, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of Guangzhou City plans to implement a joint reorganization of Guangzhou Commercial Investment Holding Group Co., Ltd. and Lingnan Group. Reorganized and established Guangzhou Lingnan Business Travel Investment Group Co., Ltd.
The divestiture of assets has become another important measure to improve operating conditions.
On December 25, Zhongxin Travel announced the divestiture of its three subsidiaries in order to return 180 million yuan in funds.
Prior to this, Zhongxin Travel also disclosed in December that the actual controller transferred the company's shares and the company borrowed from the actual controller.
In addition to Zhongxin Travel, Yunnan Travel also announced that it intends to transfer a wholly-owned subsidiary to Kunming World Expo New Area Development and Construction Co., Ltd. through a non-disclosure agreement at a transaction price of 364 million yuan.
Xi'an Tourism also publicly transferred the shares of two companies under the company, but as of the expiry of the listing announcement on December 24, there was no intention to register with the transferee, and Xi'an Tourism had to terminate the transfer.
For a single enterprise or group, internal business adjustments and subsidiary integration events are also occurring.
During this period, some companies are experiencing relatively large turnover of personnel.
"From the high salary cuts, now I have only one person left on the team." An industry insider who was involved in the layoffs of the tourism industry at the end of the year told the "Securities Daily" reporter recently that he initially joined the company. At that time, the number of employees was several thousand, and even more during the peak period.
But before he left, there were only a few hundred people left in the company's employee base.
"That's the situation before our group of people left, and now the number of employees is even smaller."
"The mergers and acquisitions in the tourism industry may be more active in the future." Shen Meng, executive director of Chanson Capital, told a reporter from the Securities Daily.
It is worth mentioning that during the period of asset consolidation in the tourism industry, giants are emerging.
On December 8th, Zhongxin Travel announced that Feng Bin, the company's controlling shareholder and actual controller, and Guo Hongbin, a shareholder holding more than 5% of the shares, planned to transfer 6.04% of Zhongxin Travel to Alibaba for a total price of 242 million yuan.
There is a view that Ali is trying to buy the bottom right now.
Shen Meng did not approve of this.
"The epidemic has repeated and irregular distribution. The living environment of the tourism industry continues to deteriorate, and future growth is obviously uncertain."
"The current core goal of the tourism industry is still to'live'." Another person familiar with the matter told the "Securities Daily" reporter, but whether this core goal can be achieved remains to be examined.
Waiting for dawn
Explore the digital journey
Practitioners still have hope.
Xiao Min, an OTA platform practitioner, told the "Securities Daily" reporter that her task this year is to "wait for the light and move forward with heavy burdens."
Xiao Min told the "Securities Daily" reporter that the industry situation has not shown any signs of improvement for a while, and there are no solutions to truly improve the situation of the industry and related companies in the market.
But a series of innovations made by the industry are valuable.
In the past two years when the tourism industry seemed a bit lonely, flying freely and renting freely turned out, and blind boxes appeared for the first time; local travel and peripheral travel have promoted the exploration of local tourism resources to a new stage.
Digital technology has been applied unprecedentedly in the tourism industry.
The new wave of informatization represented by 5G is fully integrated into the tourism industry, and digital transformation has set off a new wave in this slightly traditional industry.
The meta-universe trend has also spread to the tourism industry.
"Zhangjiajie Tourism" announced that "the nation's first scenic spot Metaverse Research Center has settled in Zhangjiajie", and Zhangjiajie Metaverse Research Center was officially listed in the Big Data Center of Wulingyuan District.
The boundaries of tourism are expanding, and "tourism+" is stimulating the imagination of the market.
Deng Ning, deputy dean of the School of Tourism Science at Beijing International Studies University, said that looking forward to 2022, there are still foreseeable and certain opportunities.
"For example, after the double reduction, the education and study market, the rise of mid-to-high-end leisure, and health and wellness markets, digital empowerment of small and medium-sized businesses and localized operations, compound products of peripheral tourism theme tours, deep integration of cultural and tourism, and cross-industry creative industries, etc. In his view, the tourism industry will continue to move forward in 2022, but these will bring new space for the tourism industry to rebound in the post-epidemic era.
(Securities Daily)