【Experts Thinking】
The new crown pneumonia epidemic has brought a comprehensive and profound impact on economic development and social life. As a tourism industry that relies on people's mobile consumption, the impact is more direct and significant.
The repeated epidemics have brought many changes and challenges to the supply and demand sides of the tourism industry.
From the perspective of supply, after more than two years of baptism of the epidemic, relevant enterprises and practitioners are facing many difficulties and are constantly trying to break through.
On the one hand, many tourism companies are in a situation of demand interruption, business suspension, financial difficulties, operating losses, and personnel loss.
The judgments of market players, investors and practitioners on the development prospects of the industry are also not optimistic.
On the other hand, many tourism companies try to find new development opportunities by sinking into the market, business transformation, innovative services, live streaming, cross-border integration, and digitalization.
From the demand side, the repeated epidemics have led to unstable employment and a weak income base for residents.
In this context, the consumption power, consumption confidence, travel methods and travel preferences of urban and rural residents have also undergone significant changes: tourism consumption expectations have been affected; after long-distance travel is restricted, short-distance local and surrounding travel is more common, Micro-tourism and micro-vacation represented by camping have become a trend; people's awareness of risks has generally increased when they travel, and they have higher requirements for emergency measures and refund policies.
The tempering and breakthrough experienced by the tourism industry during the epidemic will also reshape the industry to a certain extent through the interaction of "demand changes-supply adjustment-policy guarantee".
From the perspective of changes in demand, since the outbreak of the epidemic, people's travel purposes, travel methods, travel distances and travel habits have all changed significantly.
In terms of travel purposes, the open natural environment can avoid crowds from gathering, and people are more yearning for the natural environment after being isolated at home. Therefore, getting close to nature and feeling the mountains and rivers has become the first choice for travel.
In terms of travel methods, family tours, small group tours, and customized tours are more popular, and group tours, which have been shrinking year by year before the epidemic, are more and more neglected.
In terms of travel distance, long-distance travel is limited, while short-distance local travel, surrounding travel, micro-tourism, and micro-vacation have become the trend. People who cannot go to see the world from a distance begin to work hard to discover the beauty around them.
When it comes to travel decisions, most people have planned and booked their trips in advance, but due to the repeated epidemics, they are more inclined to make temporary decisions, and the choice of travel time, location and items is more flexible and variable.
In terms of travel concerns, people's awareness of travel risks has generally increased, and they have paid more attention to the health and epidemic prevention status of destinations and tourist facilities, emergency measures, refund policies, travel insurance, passenger flow early warning and relief measures.
From the perspective of supply adjustment, in order to adapt to and guide the above-mentioned changes in tourism demand, there is a lot of room for innovation in the tourism industry's product structure, industrial chain, supply model, business mix, investment structure, and service methods.
For tourism companies of different types and regions, faced with the choice of whether and how to switch from a heavy asset model to a light asset model, they need to think about how to develop various low-density, high-quality products and market them through new media. To better meet the travel needs of the "Generation Z" crowd, it is necessary to study how to work with destinations to ensure the safety of tourists' entire itineraries and chains. It is necessary to constantly discover new travel needs, cultivate new leisure markets, and use professional services to attract and Meet people's needs for a better life.
It is foreseeable that for a certain period of time, epidemic prevention and control will still be an important background for tourism development.
The "14th Five-Year Plan for Tourism Development" released at the beginning of this year mentioned the word "epidemic" in as many as 33 places, requiring all aspects and fields of the tourism industry to meet the requirements of epidemic prevention and control.
Therefore, tourism companies and destinations also need to accelerate the development of smart tourism characterized by digitalization, networking and intelligence, and accelerate the promotion of online reservations, time-based reservations, electronic tickets, traffic monitoring and monitoring, non-contact services, smart tours, Application of license plate recognition, self-service payment, etc.
From the perspective of policy guarantees, in the face of the impact of the epidemic and the plight of the tourism industry, government departments at all levels have launched various relief policies, including financial support, financial credit, tax relief, social security, employment stabilization, etc. Relevant industries and enterprises provide support, and constantly adjust the circuit breaker mechanism for "inter-provincial travel" according to the development of the epidemic.
In the future, according to the trend of the epidemic and its long-term and comprehensive impact, it is necessary to do a good job in guiding expectations, stimulating demand, optimizing supply, and improving the environment.
For example, it is necessary to scientifically study and judge the trend of the opening of the international tourism market, and prepare relevant policy reserves according to the needs of China's epidemic prevention and control; According to the actual situation of the type of enterprises, formulate more targeted support policies, and if possible, realize "one industry, one policy"; attach great importance to the stable employment of the tourism industry, and leave the most valuable manpower for the development of the tourism industry. resources; pay attention to investment issues in the tourism field, avoid or prevent unfinished tourism projects under construction; scientifically guide investment, mergers, acquisitions and reorganizations in the tourism industry, maintain the industrial ecosystem and achieve industrial chain coordination; improve the cultural and tourism statistical system , make full use of the opportunity of the epidemic, reform and improve the existing statistical system and use big data applications and data mining technology to improve tourism statistical methods; pay attention to the impact of the epidemic on the income and consumption of urban and rural residents, and do a good job in the supply-side structural reform of the tourism industry At the same time, strengthen demand-side management; to tap the growth potential of tourism consumption in the central and western regions and rural residents, areas with conditions can implement the tourism consumption doubling plan for rural residents, and use consumer credit, subsidies, incentives and other methods to encourage rural residents to travel; Optimize the tourism consumption environment, improve tourism public services, and guide the industry to open up the blocking points of tourism consumption.
Although the current epidemic situation still poses great constraints on the tourism industry, in terms of its future development, many favorable factors such as national policy support, stable economic development, implementation of industrial planning, extensive application of science and technology, and upgrading of consumption structure have jointly built a beautiful tourism industry. prospect.
We expect and firmly believe that the tourism industry, which has continued to grow rapidly for more than 40 years, has gone through this stormy road, from form to connotation, from form to logic, will be reshaped, and embark on the road of high-quality development, Steady and far.
(Author: Song Rui, Director of Tourism Research Center, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences)