The one-year anniversary of the resumption of outbound tourism accelerates recovery

Visa-friendly countries and niche destinations are popular, and independent travel products are iteratively upgraded.

Spotlight

　　The Spring Festival holiday of the Year of the Dragon is approaching, and many citizens are starting to embark on outbound travel journeys. In January last year, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism announced that starting from February 6, 2023, national travel agencies and online travel companies will resume on a pilot basis the operation of outbound group travel and "air tickets + hotel" business for Chinese citizens to relevant countries. Tomorrow marks the first anniversary of the resumption of outbound travel. Reporters learned from major platforms, travel agencies and overseas tourism bureaus that outbound tourism has entered the recovery channel, visas are convenient for countries, niche destinations are very popular, and independent travel products are iteratively upgraded. In 2024, the outbound tourism supply chain will further recover. At the same time, tourists will consume more rationally, and quality, fragmented and personalized products will be more popular.

Market inventory

Chinese tourists’ outbound travel demand has been intensively released in the past year

　　During the Chinese New Year, Chinese tourists injected new momentum into the global tourism market. Ctrip data shows that outbound travel by Chinese tourists in 2023 will increase by 550% year-on-year. The rapid growth of outbound travel is particularly prominent during the holidays. During the National Day Golden Week in 2023, outbound travel surged eight times year-on-year; during the New Year's Day holiday in 2024, the number of mainland outbound travel orders increased nearly four times year-on-year, and outbound air ticket bookings increased month-on-month. An increase of 11% and a year-on-year increase of 265%. Recently, the growth rate of outbound travel has exceeded expectations. Taking Ctrip data as an example, as of mid-January 2024, the number of outbound travel ticket bookings for the Spring Festival in 2024 increased by 460% compared with the same period last year.

　　Locally, after outbound travel resumes in 2023, the number of tourists choosing to go abroad is increasing day by day. The person in charge of Tiantian Holiday said that the holiday is blooming everywhere from neighboring Southeast Asian countries to North America, Europe and other destinations. Many tourists are taking advantage of the holiday to rush out of the country to travel around the world, and the travel time is concentrated during the Golden Week.

travel trends

Visa-facilitated countries are growing rapidly and niche games are out of the circle

　　Tourism destinations in Southeast Asia performed better than expected. Ctrip data shows that in 2023, the top ten cross-border vacation destinations preferred by domestic tourists are: Thailand, Singapore, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom, Vietnam, and Indonesia. Southeast Asia remains the first choice for Chinese consumers to travel abroad. In 2023, Chinese tourists’ visits to Thailand will increase 11 times year-on-year; travel orders to Singapore will increase 528% year-on-year; orders to Malaysia will increase 11 times year-on-year; orders to Vietnam will increase 817% year-on-year; orders to Indonesia will increase 616% year-on-year .

　　The increase in the outbound tourism market brought about by the optimization of visa policies exceeded expectations. The countries with the highest increases were Tunisia and Georgia. Judging from the full-year data, the number of orders from Chinese tourists to Georgia in 2023 increased by 553% year-on-year and 129% from 2019; the number of orders to Tunisia increased by 347% year-on-year and recovered to 50% of 2019. . Tuniu platform data shows that countries such as Egypt, New Zealand, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates, as well as the Caucasus, have become "dark horses" in the outbound travel market in 2023. When it comes to overseas self-driving travel, more tourists choose niche countries, such as Northern Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and South America. At the same time, niche destinations and check-in places are popular among self-driving tourists.

supply analysis

New upgrade to adapt to changes in consumer demand

　　Tuniu related people said that the outbound travel business is affected by factors such as visa supply, airline capacity and price increases. The overall recovery level is not high and the recovery speed is relatively slow. It will still take some time to rebuild the outbound travel supply chain. People related to Tiantian Holiday said that price is still the primary factor when domestic tourists weigh travel destinations at this stage. The current price of outbound tourism products has increased by about 10% compared with the same period in 2019. Tuniu said that traveling consumers pay more attention to safety and high-quality travel products are more popular. Especially in destinations such as Europe, Southeast Asia, Australia, and New Zealand, the platform will increase investment in products and resources.

　　In terms of outbound accommodation, the length of stay has also increased accordingly. Relevant data from Ctrip shows that in the first three quarters of 2023, the proportion of outbound accommodation staying for more than five consecutive days increased by 3.5 percentage points compared with the same period in 2019. At the same time, fragmented and personalized outbound tourism products will become more popular. In-depth and personalized experiences after arriving at the destination will become the pursuit of more and more tourists, such as in-depth Chinese explanations of foreign museums, destination food restaurant recommendations and reservations, local Citywalks, etc.

　　Since the summer vacation of 2023, the number of single visa orders for daily holidays has continued to increase, and visa + air ticket + hotel packages for some Southeast Asian island routes and Japan and South Korea sightseeing and shopping routes have become popular. In 2024, Tiantian Holidays will launch short-term vacation products in Southeast Asia. New scenes such as sports are becoming new growth points for outbound tourism. In particular, the European Cup and the Paris Olympics, which will be held in Europe this summer, will also promote the rapid growth of self-driving tours in Europe.

　　Text/Guangzhou Daily all-media reporter Luo Lei