How to transform the scenic spot to "break through" after free tickets
Not long ago, scenic spots such as Huashan Mountain in Shaanxi, Lushan Mountain in Jiangxi, and Chaka Salt Lake in Qinghai announced that they would be free of tickets for tourists from all over the country for one month in June; from June 1 to the end of the year, 11 new state-owned scenic spots in Qingdao were opened for free; on June 19, The Xiamen Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism announced that from now until the end of August, 8 state-owned A-level scenic spots that charge a fee will be opened for free, including the main scenic spots on Gulangyu Island... The midsummer in June is the traditional peak tourist season. However, the repeated epidemics have made this year's The tourism market has been deserted a lot.
In order to stimulate people's willingness to travel and promote the restoration of the tourism market, recently, many scenic spots have opened the "free mode" and opened their doors to welcome tourists.
After the scenic spot is free of tickets, it has ushered in a strong passenger flow, but at the same time, it has also ushered in greater pressure on revenue and management.
How to expand other revenue methods after the scenic spot tickets are free?
Will it bring other problems?
These are all worthy of further consideration.
The advent of "ticket-free tide" stimulates the willingness of mass tourism consumption
Huashan, Changbai Mountain, Huangguoshu Waterfall, Zhangjiajie, Gulangyu Island... The summer vacation is coming, and many well-known scenic spots offer "welfare" to tourists, which tugs at the heartstrings of people going out to see the world.
"In my impression, Huashan has almost no free tickets. This event made us decide to experience the spectacular and dangerous Huashan landscape again." Recently, Mr. Wang, who lives in Xianyang, Shaanxi, made an online reservation for Huashan early in the morning. Tickets, "There are walking routes and ropeway routes in the reservation applet, but the tickets on foot are not easy to grab. We made an appointment for the ropeway route, which saved 160 yuan per person for tickets, which is very affordable."
In addition to Huashan Scenic Spot, there are many scenic spots offering discounts such as free tickets, discounted prices, issuance of travel coupons, as well as discounts for specific groups such as high school entrance examination candidates, local residents, and medical workers.
The Laoshan Scenic Area in Qingdao, Shandong welcomed a large number of parent-child tourists after free tickets. "The drizzle on Laoshan, the clouds and misty sea in the past two days really deserves the name of 'the fairy mountain on the sea'." Ms. Wang brought her children to the Laoshan Scenic Spot to relax. Say.
Zhang Jing, a staff member of Laoshan Scenic Area, told reporters that in addition to free tickets, the scenic area will also issue a total of about 2 million yuan worth of consumer coupons, one for catering and accommodation operators in the scenic area, and the other for tourists.
Since the National Development and Reform Commission issued the "Guiding Opinions on Improving the Ticket Price Formation Mechanism for State-Owned Scenic Spots and Lowering the Ticket Prices of Key State-Owned Scenic Spots" in 2018, the country and localities have continuously introduced policies to promote the reduction of ticket prices for state-owned scenic spots for many years.
The "14th Five-Year Plan for Tourism Development" proposes to encourage the formulation and implementation of subsidy policies such as ticket reduction and exemption for tourist attractions, free opening in off-season, and discounted performance tickets.
The price reduction of tickets for state-owned scenic spots is the general trend.
Since the beginning of this year, the epidemic has repeated, and the tourism market has been silent for a long time.
With the recent adjustment of the "circuit breaker" mechanism for inter-provincial tourism from the provincial level to the county level, more precise epidemic prevention and control measures have restored the tourism market to a certain degree of liquidity, and measures such as free tickets and discounts have also brought more popularity to the scenic spot. Faster consumption growth.
According to statistics, the number of reservations for entering the mountain on the first day of the ticket-free Laoshan Scenic Area was 4,604, which was more than six times that of the day before the implementation of the ticket-free measure. The Laoshan Scenic Area received a total of 102,000 tourists in the three days of the Dragon Boat Festival holiday, a year-on-year increase of 40.3%.
Lushan Scenic Area has received 53,800 tourists in the first three days after the implementation of the ticket-free policy on June 6.
Data from the Ctrip platform shows that thousands of tourists have booked free Huashan tickets through the platform's activities. Since June, Ctrip's Huashan ticket orders have increased by 278% month-on-month; Zhangjiajie National Park has sold nearly 4,000 0 yuan tickets, from June to now , the number of votes increased by 667% month-on-month.
"Summer vacation is a peak tourist season in various places. For scenic spots such as Changbai Mountain, Huashan Mountain, and Lushan Mountain, which are mainly mid-to-long-distance tourists, the annual summer tourism revenue accounts for more than one-third of the annual tourism revenue. The ticket-free policy will change the impact of the epidemic on tourism consumption some time ago. The suppression of demand can play a significant role in enhancing tourists' confidence, gathering popularity, and rapidly increasing passenger flow," said Han Yuanjun, an associate researcher at the Strategy Institute of China Tourism Academy.
Fang Zeqian, an industry analyst at Ctrip Research Institute, said that preferential policies such as free tickets can not only enhance the attraction and reputation of the scenic spot, thereby helping the scenic spot to actively strive for the summer market, but also promote secondary consumption such as catering, surrounding, and ground transportation in the scenic spot, bringing the scenic spot to the scenic spot. Revenue growth.
Reduce ticket dependence on scenic spots and explore diversified business models
"After we launched the activities of free admission for candidates and 50% off tents, many parents called to book their children's graduation party. In just one week after the college entrance examination, we have received thousands of candidates and parents, and our revenue has increased by 300% year-on-year." Da Shan, head of the "Seventh Five-Year Camp" in Yangqi Township, Shangli County, Jiangxi Province said.
After the introduction of preferential measures for tickets, they put their profit points on food and beverage consumption, music and coffee, movie projection, parent-child research and other projects, attracting many young people to come to check in.
Without ticket revenue, how can scenic spots increase revenue?
Winning a large number of passenger flow, how to promote the "secondary consumption" of tourists in the scenic spot?
At present, many scenic spots have been exploring more diversified profit points, focusing on factors such as catering, entertainment, accommodation, shopping, etc., to drive the growth of consumption in the scenic spots and surrounding facilities.
In the past two years, featured games such as night tours and internet celebrity IP have been very popular among young people, and many scenic spots have launched new featured tourism products based on current market hotspots and created new campgrounds and resorts.
For example, Songcheng Performing Arts Park, Datang City that never sleeps, etc. attract audiences with various high-quality performing arts programs; the Forbidden City has become popular all over the Internet with creative cultural and creative products, and the revenue of cultural and creative products has already exceeded ticket revenue; Attracting young people through rock climbing, night tours, Hanfu festivals, music festivals, etc. has also increased income in previous ticket-free activities.
Under the long-term "ticket economy", scenic spots can "lie down" to make money, so simple sightseeing tours have always been the mainstream form of tourism for most scenic spots, but this has long been unable to meet the increasingly diversified needs of tourists.
In recent years, the impact of the epidemic has seriously reduced the tourist flow of the scenic spot, and the "capital fee" model based on the large passenger flow in the past is unsustainable.
The scenic spot seeks to change the revenue model, which has become the "only way" for future development.
"Under the background of 'going to the ticket economy', it is also the general trend of its own iteration to accelerate the transformation of scenic spots into diversified and open leisure resorts and improve the ability of innovative marketing and high-quality services." Fang Zeqian said.
"Whether there is an epidemic or not, it is an important development direction for scenic spots to improve their diversified management capabilities and expand more revenue channels." Jin Zhun, secretary-general of the Tourism Research Center of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said, "To optimize the income structure, it is necessary to use all-for-one tourism. The idea is to transform scenic spots into life terminal destinations, guide tourists to change their consumption patterns, and create comprehensive tourist attractions.”
Han Yuanjun pointed out that at present, scenic spots integrating fashion, technology, art, sports, culture and other factors have become the new favorites of tourists, and immersive experience has become an essential element for the upgrading of traditional scenic spots and the prosperity of emerging scenic spots.
To follow the new trend of consumption, scenic spots must start from the perspective of long-term value chain, and upgrade the value of the whole process from new media marketing, immersive product design, personalized service design, and intelligent service transformation.
"Secondary consumption aimed at the target group will produce good results. For example, family tourist attractions can launch diversified, high-quality, and technology-integrated products in children's experience projects to promote repeated consumption by tourists."
The continuous transformation and development of pressure after free tickets is not a one-time achievement
There has always been controversy in the industry about the promotion of free tickets for scenic spots.
There is a view that this measure will benefit the first batch of scenic spots that announce ticket reductions and exemptions the most, while other scenic spots, especially small and medium-sized scenic spots, will face more competitive pressure.
If these scenic spots take measures to reduce or exempt tickets in order to compete for passenger flow, it may cause the scenic spots to fall into low-price competition, and eventually the passenger flow advantage of each scenic spot will no longer be obvious.
In addition, not all scenic spots have the ability to increase revenue generation and operation management after free admission.
"The actual situation is that there are still many scenic spots that mainly rely on ticket revenue, and the transformation is not achieved overnight. When the epidemic was severe, the lack of ticket revenue made them difficult. When the epidemic improves, the reduction or exemption of tickets means a direct loss of a large part. source of income, and if tickets are not reduced or exempted, the market will be squeezed.” Jin Zhun said.
"Although there is a certain amount of financial allocation, we have always been under great pressure to generate income. However, as a state-owned scenic spot, we have to respond to the call of the state. Rather than our own gains and losses, we hope to drive overall consumption. Laoshan is the integration of landscape and society. 'In the scenic area, there are many community residents in the scenic area, and the increase in passenger flow has greatly improved the catering and homestays they operate." Zhang Jing told reporters that how to increase revenue other than tickets will become a topic they will pay more attention to in the future.
At present, many scenic spots have reduced or exempted tickets through "profits" to drive consumption, and also gain popularity and reputation for themselves.
This also puts forward higher requirements for the scenic spot itself. Only by continuously improving the service quality and improving the tourist experience of tourists can we retain tourists.
In Jin Zhun's view, the reduction or exemption of tickets is a test of the operation and management capabilities of the scenic spot. On the basis of no income, the scenic spot needs to invest more manpower, increase the cost of garbage removal, water power, electricity, etc., and even increase the cost of operation. risks of.
Under the epidemic situation, it is still an important task for the scenic spot to do a good job in epidemic prevention and control.
While carrying out promotional activities to promote tourism consumption, it is also necessary to strictly control the passenger flow and manage the itinerary information of tourists.
Common measures such as tourists scanning codes, mobile posts, and emergency plans require more human and material resources, which also tests the management ability of the scenic spot.
Experts point out that ticket-free measures are not suitable for scenic spots that are highly dependent on ticket revenue.
Scenic spots should not be "swarmed" in a hurry to avoid tickets, so as not to cause new problems.
It can be seen that the epidemic has forced the scenic spot to accelerate the exploration and transformation of the "ticket economy" path. In the future, how to increase the anti-risk ability of the scenic spot will become more important.
(Reporter Lu Yuanzhen of this newspaper)