Beijing News Shell Finance News (Reporter Wang Zhenzhen) At 9:00 pm on February 5th, nearly 50 tourists gathered at Gate 48 of Terminal T2 of the New Baiyun International Airport, and will participate in the "Ode to Song" organized by Guangzhilv, a subsidiary of Lingnan Business Travel Group. Slowly enjoy the itinerary of 'Dubai, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates 6 days' and 'Shang Expo' Egypt 10 days', take Emirates flight EK363 departing in the early morning of February 6, and start the outbound tour.
This is the first outbound tourism group in the country to set off after three years since the Ministry of Culture and Tourism announced on January 26, 2020 that "national travel agencies and online travel companies have suspended the operation of group tours and 'air ticket + hotel' tourism products". my country's outbound group tourism business has officially restarted.
The first day of GZL’s outbound group tour pilot resumed, with nearly 150 people
At the departure site, Guangdong Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism, Guangzhou Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism, Emirates Airlines, etc. jointly held a departure ceremony for tourists.
Guangzhizhi introduced that among the first group of tourists, the youngest is 24 years old and the oldest is 80 years old.
Since the departure time is right after the Spring Festival Golden Week, students and working personnel basically return to school and work. Therefore, the travel crowd is mainly retirees with more time, accounting for about 80% of the travel crowd.
According to Ms. Li, who is about to leave for Dubai, since she retired, she basically maintains the frequency of outbound travel 1-2 times a year. She planned to go to Dubai in the first half of 2020, but gave up due to the epidemic.
When she learned that outbound group tours were resumed and that the United Arab Emirates was one of the first 20 pilot countries to open up, she immediately asked her family and friends to sign up for the trip.
Wu Guoliang and Chen Bolu, the gold medal leaders of Guangzhizhi, said that the guests have not traveled abroad for three years, and they will introduce the departure process and the details of life in the destination country to the guests in advance. At the same time, they will remind tourists of civilized travel along the way.
Zhao Wenzhi, president of Guangzhizhi, said that although the outbound travel business has been "suspended" for 3 years, the company's exchanges and communication with foreign consulates, tourism bureaus, hotels, airlines and other reception links have never stopped. From the continuous training of the core business team during the epidemic, After the release of a series of policies, the relevant products are quickly put on the shelves, and then the first batch of lines are accepted and the follow-up lines continue to be put on the shelves. They are always preparing for the restart of the outbound tourism business and market recovery.
Today, GZL has organized more than 500 group tours and self-guided tours across the country, of which nearly 150 are group tours, with destinations including the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Thailand, and Cambodia.
In addition to the two tour groups "Egypt 10 Days" and "UAE Dubai and Abu Dhabi 6 Days" that departed in the early morning, the company's outbound tour groups departed today include "Thailand 6 Days" and "Cambodia 5 Days".
For the smooth travel of the outbound travel team, Baiyun Airport has specially opened a team-specific check-in counter for outbound group tourists to improve the efficiency of passenger procedures and save travel time and costs for passengers.
Li Xun, general manager of Emirates Airline China, said: "I am very happy to restart the outbound travel group business. Emirates Airline will continue to promote the steady restart of passenger services in the Chinese market, and look forward to the local tourism industry returning to the level before the epidemic as soon as possible. The A380 flagship model is used to fly to the Guangzhou route, with one flight per day; the Shanghai route currently operates four flights a week, which will be increased to one flight per day from March 1, and plans to resume a daily flight to Dubai from March 15 Direct flight to Beijing."
The "first group mode" will be launched for outbound group tours, and the 40 places for the first group tour in New Zealand are sold out within 1 minute
According to Guangzhizhi, after arriving at the destination, the group tourists will be warmly welcomed by the local people in different forms.
For example, "Dubai 6-day group", after the tourists arrive, local officials will greet them at the airport, and the 7-star Burj Al Arab Hotel will provide tourists with "early check-in" service on the first day; Arrange a grand welcome ceremony for tourists, and then tourists will enter the park for free.
After the tourists of the "Egyptian 10-day group" arrive, the local government will hold a welcome ceremony on the Aswan cruise ship, and government officials will present exquisite souvenirs to the tourists.
After the arrival of the "Cambodia 4-day group" tourists, officials from the local Ministry of Tourism will welcome them at the airport and present them with garlands and souvenirs. In addition, tourists will participate in the welcome dinner in Siem Reap, attended by the deputy director of the Cambodia Tourism and Tourism Bureau.
Regarding the "Thailand 6-day group", the Tourism Bureau of Thailand will present souvenirs to the first group of tourists and hold a welcome ceremony at the airport.
GZL said that in the next period of time, a series of outbound group tours will start the "first group mode", and the tourism bureaus, hotels, and scenic spots of the destinations will prepare a variety of courtesy arrangements for them.
For example, the company's "'Shang · Hunting' Kenya 10-day" tour group departed on February 10. After arriving, tourists will have a series of courtesy, including officials from the Tourism Bureau picking up the plane at the airport, a dance welcome ceremony after staying at the hotel, and a welcome ceremony in Nairobi. There are African barbecue singing and dancing performances, and a bonfire party in Masai Mara.
"Since the Ministry of Culture and Tourism announced the pilot resumption of outbound group tours on February 6, GZL has quickly communicated with relevant national tourism bureaus to strive for the courtesy of the first group, so as to bring Chinese tourists a better and more profound travel experience." Zhao Wenzhi said.
According to GZL, at present, the company has put more than 800 outbound travel products on the shelves, including group travel, "air ticket + hotel" independent travel, customized travel, local entertainment, visa agency, etc.
In addition to the multiple first tours departing on February 6, in the next two months, there will be a series of first team tours from Kenya, Russia, and Chiang Mai, Thailand.
In addition, the customer data from GZL shows that since the Golden Week of the Spring Festival this year, the number of registrations for outbound group tours has continued to rise.
On February 3, GZL launched the first tour of "New Zealand's North and South Islands for 10 Days". The tour fee is about 26,000 yuan per person, and the 40 places were quickly sold out within 1 minute.
In addition, GZL’s seven national operation centers have fully launched outbound group travel routes from 20 countries. The types are mainly market-differentiated, niche and cost-effective quality travel routes.
At the same time, outbound service products such as visa agency, hotel reservation, and local entertainment have also been fully launched, further enriching the options for domestic tourists to travel abroad.