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The summer vacation is a traditional peak season for tourism. The new round of the epidemic has disrupted many people's summer travel plans, and has a huge impact on travel agencies that look forward to recovering their decline by summer revenue.
Experts believe that the tough times should also be full of confidence in the resilience of the development of my country's tourism industry.
Relevant departments should do a good job in service work to help tourism enterprises, especially small and micro enterprises, reduce losses and reduce costs.
The tourism industry and scenic spots should actively carry out self-help and expand online business to reduce losses.
People should fully consider safety issues when traveling. At this stage, they should try their best to choose to travel within and around the province.
"I wanted to take my kids out during the summer vacation. I went to Wuzhen, Zhejiang and then to Shanghai Disneyland. The air tickets and hotels were booked in advance." Ms. Xu from Beijing said that she did not expect another round of the epidemic. The plan is all in vain".
There are not a few people who have the same experience as Ms. Xu.
Since July, the current round of the epidemic has spread to many parts of the country, pouring cold water on the supposedly hot summer vacation.
The summer vacation is coming to an end, can I still go out with peace of mind?
What should the tourism industry do in the face of difficult times again?
Tourists: Summer trip plan was disrupted
Two months ago, Mr. Zhang from Shenzhen started planning for this year’s summer vacation. The destination he deliberately chose was the Hulunbuir Prairie in Inner Mongolia, which has a lower tourist density. “After hearing about our travel plan, there are five families who want Follow along, a team of more than 20 people." Mr. Zhang ordered the ticket in advance and worked out a detailed itinerary. He planned to fly to Harbin first, and then rent a car to drive to Inner Mongolia to see the grassland, live in a yurt, eat roasted whole lamb, horse riding……
Every summer is the peak tourist season. In the first half of this year, the situation of domestic epidemic control is improving, and the tourism market is gradually heating up.
Ctrip Travel's "2021 Summer Tourism Big Data" released in mid-July shows that this year's summer group travel and free travel orders have increased by more than 10 times compared with the same period in 2020, and the number of inter-provincial travel orders has increased by 413% year-on-year.
Just as people were planning a summer vacation, a new round of epidemics caused by the delta strain of the new crown mutant virus invaded many places in the country.
On August 5, Hulunbuir Hailar, Inner Mongolia, reported a confirmed case of local new coronary pneumonia.
There are still 2 days left before Mr. Zhang's scheduled departure time.
"It's definitely not reconciled to give up. Go as planned and don't worry about it." Mr. Zhang felt a little helpless.
The local tour guide told them that if they travel as planned, they will have a nucleic acid test every time they arrive at the destination.
"It is a trivial matter to do nucleic acid testing. The main concern is that the health code will turn yellow, which will delay the child's normal school enrollment next semester." Mr. Zhang said, and finally he and his friends chose to give up traveling.
On August 5, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism issued a notice requesting that for provinces (regions, cities) where there are high-risk areas, travel agencies and online tourism companies should immediately suspend the operation of inter-provincial group tours and "air tickets + hotels" in the provinces (regions, cities). "business.
Travel agency: "Anyone who meets the free cancellation requirements will be refunded in full"
Xiaowen, who works at a travel agency in Zhangjiajie, Hunan, told reporters that at the beginning of this summer vacation, eight or nine groups can be picked up every day. It is estimated that each tour guide's monthly income can be more than 30,000 yuan.
After the outbreak in Zhangjiajie, all orders were cancelled, causing direct economic losses of 300,000 to 400,000 yuan.
"Almost all travel agencies are waiting for the arrival of this summer vacation. They want to make up for the money they lost in this peak travel season, but I didn't expect the peak season to end at the beginning." Xiaowen said that the travel agencies were basically closed in the first half of last year. After October, it gradually resumed business, but it has also been in a state of loss.
I was expecting to earn more money this summer, but the new round of the epidemic broke the plan.
Xiaowen has stopped work and is on vacation at home.
Jia Jia, a tour guide who also "worked at home", said: "The travel agency has settled and I am laid off again." Before 2020, Jia Jia worked in a large international travel agency in Zhejiang. Affected by the globalization of the epidemic, she moved to a domestic company. Travel agency.
"The performance in the first few months was okay, but it hasn't been done recently. Cross-province and cross-city delegations are not allowed. The company stopped all treatment and recuperation group business at the end of July." Jiajia told reporters that the company's business was closed. The tour guide stopped and had no income. She was one of the employees who left recently.
According to data from the Tourism Branch of the China Future Research Association, summer travel accounts for about 40% of the annual revenue of travel agencies.
The suspension of inter-provincial travel has a huge impact on travel agencies that are looking forward to recovering their decline by summer revenue.
Qunar data shows that since the end of July, unsubscription has continued, and the overall unsubscription volume has approached this year's Spring Festival holiday.
Liu Yonglin, who runs a small and medium-sized travel agency in Beijing, said that the current cancellation rate is over 80%.
His travel agency has been dealing with online customers' unsubscription and itinerary changes recently, "as long as they meet the free unsubscription requirements, they will be refunded in full."
Since the current round of the epidemic, airlines and railway departments have introduced corresponding free refund measures.
Many online travel platforms have upgraded their service guarantees, adjusted the scope of free refunds and modifications, extended the cancellation time, and protected consumers' rights and interests in accordance with local epidemic prevention measures.
Demand: develop local tours and surrounding tours
Xia Jiechang, vice president of the Institute of Financial Strategy of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that in the face of the impact of the epidemic and its unpredictable trends, neither pessimistic nor blindly optimistic must be taken into consideration. Complexity, but also full of confidence in the development resilience of my country's tourism industry.
Xia Jiechang said that in response to the difficulties faced by tourism-related enterprises, relevant departments must do a good job of service to help tourism enterprises, especially small and micro enterprises, reduce losses and reduce costs.
At the same time, in the face of a sharp decline in business volume, the tourism industry and scenic spots should actively carry out self-help, strengthen exploration of online theme planning and other content, and carry out cloud viewing exhibitions, cloud tourism, cloud live broadcast and other projects.
Online travel companies should also actively cooperate with related companies to flexibly expand their business boundaries and reduce losses through online business expansion.
Wang Tianxing, deputy director of the Culture and Tourism Policy and Regulation Center of Beijing International Studies University, suggested that at this stage, try to choose intra-provincial and surrounding tours as much as possible to take into account safety and meet travel needs.
Tourism enterprises should also proceed from reality and combine local culture and tourism resources to further develop local tours, in-depth tours, and leisure tours.
The "2021 Chinese Residents' Peripheral Travel Trend Report" recently released by Tongcheng Travel shows that summer travel shows a general trend of "strong peripherals and weak long-term", that is, the scale and recovery of the peripheral travel market is significantly better than that of long-term travel.
Specifically, the two-day-one-night weekend has a strong demand for leisure vacations around the surrounding area, and it is the most popular type of surrounding excursion since this summer vacation. The surrounding self-driving cars, theme parks, integrated resorts, zoos, aquariums, etc. are all popular choices .
Recently, Zhejiang's foreign long-term travel has been reduced, but in-province travel has gradually become more popular.
Many citizens have changed their original out-of-province travel plans into intra-provincial and surrounding tours. Deqing Mogan Mountain and Hangzhou Qiandao Lake have become relatively popular tourist destinations.
Our reporter Tao Wen