[Explanation] In 2020, the new crown pneumonia epidemic will have an impact on the global tourism industry, and tourism in many places will be forced to press the "pause button."
On April 15, the German National Tourism Administration held its annual media conference in Beijing.
Li Zhaohui, chief representative of the Beijing Office of the German National Tourism Administration, introduced that in response to the impact of the epidemic, the German National Tourism Administration held a number of live events to allow tourists to "travel in Germany" without going abroad.
[Concurrent] Li Zhaohui, Chief Representative of the Beijing Office of the German National Tourism Administration
Last year (2020), a total of 24 live broadcasts were made, which were divided into three themes.
One is the Discovered German Cities German city tour, all live broadcasts took place locally in Germany.
In this case, we will invite a Chinese-language anchor, and usually a local German, who will lead us to understand the city they live in together with our anchor.
Not only are there some well-known attractions like us, but we also take them to see cafes, or we go to learn about local hand-made.
We hope to show the charm of German cities in all aspects.
[Explanation] Affected by the epidemic, the number of nights of Chinese tourists in Germany in 2020 (a unit of calculation for the room occupancy rate of a hotel during a certain period of time) will drop from 2.9 million to 368,000.
Li Zhaohui said that digital technology has provided more possibilities for the tourism industry, and live broadcasting has become a new way to help the tourism industry recover.
[Concurrent] Li Zhaohui, Chief Representative of the Beijing Office of the German National Tourism Administration
It should be said that the epidemic has dealt a heavy blow to tourism in all countries, and it has also changed the consumption behavior of our consumers forever.
During the epidemic, we insisted that "planting grass" is a continuous process.
In a period when everyone is relatively quiet and cannot go out, but is eager to go out, we will continue to "plant grass".
The live broadcast has a sense of presence, a sense of substitution, and a sense of immersion. This is something other forms of promotion do not have, and we will continue to do it.
[Commentary] Li Zhaohui revealed that at present, Germany still has a strong attraction to Chinese tourists.
In addition to traditional tourist attractions, the real experience and unique discoveries gained from visiting small areas will provide tourists with new tourism motivations.
It is expected that from 2021, international tourism demand will gradually recover, and inbound German tourism will return to pre-epidemic levels in 2024.
[Concurrent] Li Zhaohui, Chief Representative of the Beijing Office of the German National Tourism Administration
Some local agencies and travel agencies in Germany, their employees are currently in such a state of work halt.
They can still get 87.5% of the salary that the federal government gives them every month, which greatly preserves the rate of tourism practitioners staying in this industry.
As a source country of tourists, China is a very important market for the German inbound market. Especially in the last ten years, our growth has been very rapid.
If the epidemic is over, we want to see it slowly return to the state of 2019, I think it should be 2024.
In 2030, the number of Chinese tourists staying overnight in Germany, we hope to exceed the 5 million mark.
Reporting from Beijing by reporter Lang Jiahui
Editor in charge: [Zhang Kaixin]