Micro-vacation brings new vitality to the tourism market
During the Qingming Festival that just passed, the number of domestic tourists in my country reached 75.419 million, of which tourists from the province accounted for 94.9%; the average travel radius of tourists was 95.0 kilometers, a decrease of 44.9% compared with the same period last year; the average recreational radius of destinations was 4.9 kilometers, compared with the same period last year. A decrease of 60.4%.
Data shows that under the epidemic, people's travel needs still exist, but many people have turned "embracing the distance" into "discovering the beauty around them".
Actively adapting to changes in demand, the main players in the tourism market have launched micro-vacation products with short itineraries, high frequency and heavy experience, and more new ways of playing and new destinations are welcomed by tourists.
The upcoming May Day holiday, can micro-vacation bring more vitality to the tourism market?
why rise
Under the epidemic, more and more people are changing their travel strategies, from long-term and long-distance to short-distance and high-frequency.
"Tourism Green Book: Analysis and Forecast of China's Tourism Development from 2021 to 2022" released by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Institute of Finance and Economics, the Tourism Research Center of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the Social Sciences Literature Publishing House, focuses on cities and their surrounding areas. , the driving time is 2 to 3 hours, and the emerging travel mode with high frequency and strong satisfaction for 2 to 3 days is defined as micro-vacation.
The "Green Book" pointed out that due to the impact of the epidemic, tourists are more cautious about participating in long-distance travel, hoping to use weekends, May Day and other small long holidays or other fragmented times to travel nearby to relax and achieve the purpose of vacation, micro-vacation tourism is gradually become the preferred mode of travel for tourists.
The epidemic has played a catalytic role in the rise of micro-vacation, but in essence, it reflects people's rigid demand for tourism and is a new trend in the upgrading of tourism consumption.
According to the judgment of Dai Bin, President of the China Tourism Academy, "close travel, shallow demand, and low consumption" represented by local travel and short-distance travel have become the basic market for the survival of the tourism industry.
With the development of economy and society and the change of people's consumption concept, tourists' travel needs have changed from sightseeing to leisure, and they have higher expectations for the diversity, quality, depth and professionalism of tourism products.
"Tourists prefer short-duration and short-distance itinerary products. Suppliers' production layout under the influence of the epidemic will inevitably pay more attention to the launch of such products." Li Fan, general manager of Ctrip and group tour agency business, said that with a degree of vacation A variety of products suitable for micro-vacation are provided online and offline. Compared with 2019, the booking recovery of such products in 2021 will exceed that of traditional long-distance travel products by more than 50%.
In addition to the two-way choice of market demand and supply, the popularity of micro-vacation also benefits from the continuous promotion of local governments.
Many places have introduced policies to reduce or exempt tickets for local tourists, issue various cultural and tourism consumption coupons, and mainly promote micro-vacation and micro-travel routes that enrich local life. Travel - just to find you" micro-travel route collection and selection activity; Taiyuan Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism also launched 6 boutique travel routes during the Qingming Festival to stimulate local tourism consumption.
Active layout
"The two-year epidemic has made the tourism industry re-recognize the power of the market and begin to re-examine tourism resource development, project construction and industrial innovation from the perspective of consumers. More and more tourism companies are beginning to pay attention to short-distance tourism and local leisure tourism. market." Dai Bin said.
The needs of consumers have pointed out the market direction, and the main players in the tourism market have accelerated the deployment of the micro-vacation market as an important track for innovation and development.
Mafengwo has launched the city tide tour IP "Please get on the bus on weekends".
According to Sun Yunlei, Dean of the Mafengwo Domestic Destination Research Institute, micro-vacations are generally carried out based on hobbies or some kind of experience. Mafengwo has launched a series of weekend community activities that are popular among young people, such as exquisite camping, crossing the center of the earth, and extreme Frisbee.” By creating a new tourist scene in a familiar environment around it, it will give tourists a fresh and interesting travel experience.”
Tongcheng Travel has also created an IP of "Hi Play 48 Hours", which integrates high-quality tourism resources such as destinations, accommodation, and transportation around different cities, strives to provide users with diversified and personalized short-distance travel services, and promotes the quality of services in the micro-vacation market. Increased industry efficiency.
Different from long-term travel, micro-vacation focuses on the local market. How can micro-vacation products touch the heartstrings of local tourists?
The "2021 "Micro-vacation" Popularity Report released by Mafengwo shows that "post-80s" and "post-90s" are the main groups of micro-vacations, accounting for more than 80%. Micro-vacations are driven by "playing games", and more and more of microvacation users are willing to pay for high-quality services and experiences.
Sun Yunlei said, "Multiple added value of tourism services is very important. The integration of culture, art, sports and other experience content into micro-vacation has become an important means to improve the quality and efficiency of tourism development."
Micro-vacation reflects the change in demand from off-site sightseeing tours to local leisure tours. Rather than covering all elements of food, housing, transportation, travel, shopping, and entertainment, local consumers are more looking forward to micro-vacation products in one or two links to get fresher, higher quality service.
The fact that camping has become a popular way of micro-vacation shows this. The essence of camping is an outdoor leisure activity. It can bring people a fresh experience in accommodation and entertainment. Therefore, it has won the favor of many young consumers. According to the data of Qingming Festival, the search volume of Qingming holiday camping increased by 98% month-on-month.
long-term bullish
Fundamentally speaking, micro-vacation fits the new trend of tourism consumption upgrading and the new requirements for high-quality development of the tourism industry, and the industry is optimistic about its development trend.
Netizen "Qin Tian Sunning" is a contracted traveler of Ctrip. He has recently experienced micro-vacation products in several cities. His biggest feeling is that micro-vacation products are relatively loose in itinerary and are suitable for consumers to relax, and because of the destination It is more convenient to reach and easy to form repeated consumption, which is a potential market segment.
Jia Jianqiang, CEO of 6-person travel.com, said that micro-vacation products have the characteristics of high frequency and quick decision-making, and are products between living consumption and tourism consumption. Tourism companies can use such products to supplement the scenarios of long-term tourism products, and at the same time, they can accumulate more target customers.
"Micro-vacation has restructured tourism consumption behavior in time and space. It will become a long-term trend, which will make tourist attractions face new competition. The choice of tourists is no longer limited to a single scenic spot, but the whole local life. Service consumption scenarios." said Zhao Lisong, senior strategic advisor of Meituan Tickets.
Li Fan believes that travel agencies still have their own advantages in developing micro-vacation products.
"The epidemic has caused uncertainty in the itinerary, which makes the service value of travel agencies more prominent. At the same time, the travel agency's in-depth understanding of the destination can also provide better ideas for the design of such products." He said that Ctrip is in the micro-vacation market. In addition to the supply of conventional products, it will pay more attention to providing differentiated product choices for mid-to-high-end consumers. "From the perspective of sales in 2021, the growth rate of private tours around 2019 has doubled, far exceeding the recovery of conventional travel products."
Dai Bin said that mass tourism has entered a new stage of comprehensive development. Those micro-tourism and micro-vacation based on the integration of culture and tourism and the sharing of hosts and guests can bring new experiences to residents and tourists in the name of culture, art and technology.
He suggested, "Intensify the development of urban modern life tourism resources, guide and support the tourism utilization of neighborhoods, business circles, cultural venues, and urban parks, and create a rich and diverse new space for citizens and tourists to share a beautiful life. Adapt to short distances. To meet the real needs of tourism and local leisure, a number of urban parks and country parks tourism routes and leisure projects have been launched.”
(Economic Daily reporter Zhang Xue)