Cross-border tourism, which had been suspended for three years, was reopened. After three years of trekking in the thick fog of hope, tourism practitioners finally waited for the moment of restart.
On December 25, 2022, the 42-year-old Libo flew to Koh Lanta, the southernmost tip of Krabi Province in Thailand. The hotel operated by Libo on the island welcomed the first batch of tourists from all over the world after being closed for nearly three years.
Meanwhile, Zhang Qi, who runs a ground travel agency in Lombok, Indonesia, is busy updating product prices.
The familiar overseas destinations have changed, and some partners have changed careers and left. At the beginning of 2023, Zhang Qi sent employees stationed in Indonesia to take the previously designed travel itinerary. "Indonesia's oil price has increased by about 50%. The cost of the boat has also gone up, all the prices are changing and need to be repriced."
For tourists, restarting their three-year overseas travel and going to the world again is a recalibration of their previous life and imagination, and it is also a leap to break through the trapped state.
In the warm climate of the island, they took off their masks and at some point completely forgot that the epidemic had ever happened.
The destinations of Qin Xiaohou, a girl from Hebei, are Thailand and Malaysia.
Qin Xiaohou said that the moment the policy came out, it meant that the epidemic had truly ended in the past three years, and she wanted to use this outbound trip to bid farewell and commemorate the hardships of the past three years.
moment of restart
Qin Xiaohou plunged into the sea in Semporna, Malaysia. As he dived deeper and deeper, "the world suddenly became quiet."
What came into sight was colorful fish, and coral groups spread out in patches on the bottom of the sea, with only the sound of breathing and paddling in my ears.
"Going back into the water after being away from the ocean for so long is really indescribable. It's a feeling that you can't understand. The fish you see are unimaginable colors, and the corals you see are unimaginable quantities. Then you will feel Is it real? This is real. A kind of lingering (feeling), I really want to take another look, and then accept the call of you by the wonderful things and fantastic things in this world." Half a month later, Qin Xiaohou chatted It was the first time I left the country three years after the outbreak of the epidemic, and I can still feel the touch of arriving at the scene.
Qin Xiaohou is a travel blogger. Before the epidemic, she traveled around the world on a budget.
On December 27 last year, Qin Xiaohou saw the news of the orderly resumption of outbound travel. He immediately opened the booking software, chose Thailand, one of the countries he was most familiar with, as his first destination, and booked a low-cost air ticket.
Before leaving for Thailand, Qin Xiaohou planned to go to Dali, Yunnan Province for the New Year's Eve.
During her outbound trip, she planned to visit friends in Malaysia at the same time.
After going abroad for the first time in three years, Qin Xiaohou described the preparation process as unfamiliar.
She only put a pair of shoes and two pieces of clothes in her handbag, bought a new suitcase online and sent it to Dali, then went to a bank in Kunming to exchange money, and bought a Thai phone card.
Other than that, Qin Xiaohou didn't make any other preparations.
Before departure, Qin Xiaohou posted the cover photo of his passport in Moments, with the accompanying text saying, "It's been three years, it's time to take it out and catch up with old friends. I have wronged you for these three years, and you will benefit from it in the future." , let's take our time."
On January 5, Qin Xiaohou flew from Kunming Changshui Airport to Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport.
Entering the international terminal, "Almost all the shops are closed, the only ones open are a duty-free shop and a shop that only sells instant noodles and water. 80% of the counters in the duty-free shop are empty." The entire terminal Inside, except for some people sitting at the gate of her flight, the rest of the place is empty.
Qin Xiaohou said that from the moment he stepped into the terminal of the international airport, it was like a free beginning.
Afterwards, she exited the customs smoothly, and she felt at ease.
"It's as if all the organs have been opened. After being depressed for a long time, I can finally breathe a sigh of relief at that moment."
Also on December 27 last year, 30-year-old Chu Yao booked a trip to Thailand.
Before the epidemic, when living in Los Angeles, Chu Yao and her husband often traveled between Nanjing and Los Angeles, and they were also used to the state of "going away as soon as they say it".
After seeing the release of the overall plan for the "Class B and B Pipelines", the previous life of "walking away as soon as you say it" has become touchable again.
Chu Yao hit it off with her best friend and planned to travel abroad together during the Spring Festival.
Considering her three-year-old daughter Miaomiao, Chu Yao chose Thailand, where the temperature is more suitable, the flight distance is moderate, and the jet lag is small.
On December 18, 2022, when Chu Yao booked the air ticket, the direct flight from Nanjing was not yet fully open, so the group could only book air tickets from Nanjing to Shanghai Pudong, and then from Pudong to Bangkok.
One week before departure, she applied for a Thai visa on arrival on the official website of the Thai embassy, and prepared materials including accommodation information in Thailand and round-trip air tickets as required. "There is no special nucleic acid test, but the validity of the passport and the air ticket." Chu Yao Described as a "silky" entry.
The first time Chu Yao felt the world flow again was at Shanghai Pudong Airport.
She hadn't taken an international flight for a long time, so she deliberately arrived at the airport two hours in advance.
On January 16, 2023, the Pudong Airport returned to its pre-epidemic bustle. The crowds were bustling. Chu Yao, her family and friends moved slowly with the team, and it was not until half an hour before takeoff that it was their turn to go through the security check.
Tourists like Qin Xiaohou and Chu Yao are more eager to fly to Thailand, and they are operators who have business in Thailand. Compared with "going", it is more appropriate to use "back" for their itinerary.
Libo, a tourism practitioner, is one of them.
Libo runs a hotel on Ko Lanta, the southernmost island of Krabi province in Thailand.
After the epidemic, the business of the hotel was almost suspended. In February 2021, after about a year of hard work, Libo and his family returned to China.
At the beginning of December 2022, after hearing that the epidemic control policy was relaxed, Libo always paid attention to the policy and flights, and prepared to return to Thailand to check the status of the hotel.
On December 25, 2022, Libo took the Xiamen Airlines flight from Chengdu to Xiamen. On December 26, he transferred from Xiamen to Bangkok, then flew to Krabi, and finally drove to Koh Lanta.
After leaving the island for nearly two years and returning to the island again, Libo's luggage is only a backpack, which contains the necessary documents and simple clothes.
Some changes have been made to the island's infrastructure, with some roads being widened and electricity more readily available.
Tourists have also returned, coming from all over the world to re-emerge under the bays and palm trees of the tropical island.
After returning to the hotel, Libo immediately went to work, "a lot of waste is waiting to be done".
The hotel's human resources team is almost rebuilding, and there are also problems of running in with each other.
But walking on the island, Libo said that during the three years of stagnation, the sea water is still pure, the beach is still white, and the coral groups are still colorful.
When he left in 2021, the climbing vines he planted grew lushly, crowded together, intertwined and densely growing together.
The ficus lobosa, which was originally thick at the wrist, has doubled in size, and the coconut palm has matured and produced its first fruit.
lost three years
In 2017, while visiting the dive sites Hin Daeng and Hin Muang, diving enthusiast Libo first came to Ko Lanta, the southernmost island of Krabi Province, Thailand.
Here is Libo's favorite piece of sea, which is as clear as glass, and the sun's rays fall into the sea, reflecting fine and shining halos.
The rocks are covered with purple corals, and the white and soft sandy beaches. Because there is no excessive commercialization, Koh Lanta looks more pure and simple.
"I decided to build a hotel here because I like it here." Libo, who is happy and quiet, found his refuge and changed his role from a tourist who is an IT product salesman to a local operator.
In October 2017, Libo signed a lease contract, renting a land of more than 3,000 square meters on the island, densely covered with rubber forests.
From the start of construction in 2018 to the completion in November 2019, within two years, this hotel located on the land halfway up the mountain and embodying all the painstaking efforts of Libo was finally completed.
The brand-new hotel has not yet received too many guests. In January 2020, the new crown epidemic began to appear in Thailand, and then showed an outbreak trend. In March, Thailand closed the entry port and entered a state of blockade.
The 15 rooms of nearly 50 square meters have been empty for a long time, and they still need to pay more than 20,000 yuan in labor costs, management fees and other expenses every month.
After praying and struggling for too long, this situation is still like a bottomless quagmire that cannot be filled.
Libo dismissed the hotel's cleaners, front desk, plumbers and gardeners, and the family lived on the island, holding several jobs to maintain the hotel's operations.
What can dispel inner pressure and suffering is to put yourself into the focus of doing things.
Greening can never be done. Planting trees, cuttings, cutting grass, and making organic fertilizers, Libo has become a gardener, a plumber who repairs the water grid, and a cleaner who cleans the swimming pool and maintains the water quality of the swimming pool.
The wife cleans and tidies up the room every day, sometimes receives local Thai guests, and needs to prepare breakfast for the guests.
His 14-year-old son also accompanied Libo to do physical work, dredge the sewer, and lift pipes.
Recalling that year, Libo said, "It was almost a shutdown, and it was very difficult." During the epidemic, the family adopted a black and white kitten named Pound. In the days when there were no guests, they got along with the kitten day and night. The time added some fun.
When the debt problem could not continue, in February 2021, the Libo family decided to return to China.
The hotel is entrusted to the local Thai people to take care of it. Relying on the financial assistance measures launched by the Thai government during the epidemic, the "half for one person" subsidy project, the hotel barely operates.
The day of departure was February 22, 2021, and Koh Lanta was as bright as usual. The sun poured from the roof of the hotel like a waterfall, illuminating the red bird plantains blooming by the pool, and illuminating every corner of the hotel.
"I can tell the origin and story of every brick and tile in the hotel." Libo recalled the reluctance at that moment.
The plants in the hotel, such as Banana, Perfume Coconut, and Ficus, are planted and managed by him personally.
When repairing the swimming pool floor, in order to catch up with the progress, Libo pushed the earth-tamping machine to do the work by himself. After a day, his hands were numb due to the shock and he lost consciousness.
The roof is a sloping roof design based on his opinion, facing the west, and you can see the afterglow sinking into the sea every day at sunset.
The car that took the whole family away from the island drove out of the hotel. On the balcony of the room in the corner of the third floor of the hotel, the cat Pound lay on the balcony and watched them leave.
Libo's lover looked at the cat that had blurred into white dots in the distance and couldn't help crying. Libo beside him was also feeling sad, uneasy about the future, and irreparable loss.
Similar to Libo.
In July 2015, Zhang Qi, a 28-year-old diving enthusiast, encountered the sea of Lombok while traveling.
"When I had fun, I put my work here. I started to engage in the tourism industry." At the end of 2015, Zhang Qi opened a local travel agency in Lombok with his friends in Indonesia, providing services for those who landed in Lombok. Tourists provide services such as hotels, car and boat reservations, travel itinerary product design, one-day tours and half-day tours.
Engaging in tourism in Lombok, Indonesia, is not all smooth sailing.
From 2015 to 2017, the company was in its infancy.
In August 2018, a 7.0-magnitude earthquake and several aftershocks occurred in Lombok. After the earthquake, Lombok's tourism industry was hit hard. It was not until 2019 that it recovered and regained its former vitality.
In October 2019, Zhang Qi, who hadn't been home for the New Year in four years, returned to his hometown Baoji, Shaanxi, and prepared to celebrate the New Year at home.
"2019 is the best year for business, and we plan to do it well in 2020." He recalled.
At the beginning of 2020, the epidemic broke out, and Zhang Qi never returned to Lombok.
Challenges from stagnation to flow
At the busiest time before the epidemic, Zhang Qi's company needed to receive 60 groups of guests every day, and each group of guests could have more than 10 people.
However, in the two years of 2021 and 2022, Zhang Qi will receive no more than 10 orders. The tourists are all from Singapore, Jakarta and other places, and almost none of them are from China.
When asked about changes in income, he said with a wry smile, "Income has shrunk by 95%, almost no income."
"When will you come back?" Lombok's partners will send messages every other month to ask about Zhang Qi's situation.
Within three years, Zhang Qi kept in touch with the car rental companies, tour guides and drivers he worked with, but some former partners left Lombok and went to Java or Bali to continue their tourism business.
Now, although cross-border travel has fully restarted, unlike Thailand, flights from domestic flights to Indonesia have not yet fully resumed.
"The resumption of outbound travel also depends on the resumption of flights and the outbound travel procedures required by the destination. Now traveling to Indonesia requires proof of vaccination and payment of visa fees on arrival, which is still a bit troublesome for tourists." Zhang Qi said.
In January 2023, Zhang Qi only took three orders.
Recently, he has been busy updating prices every day.
At the beginning of February, Zhang Qi’s company employees based in Indonesia retook the previously designed travel itinerary to investigate the changes in local car and boat prices. Prices are changing and need to be repriced."
In January, the occupancy rate of Libo Hotel exceeded 80%, and the reservation rate in February also reached more than 70%.
But most of the guests are from Germany, Britain, Sweden, Denmark, France and other European countries.
Since returning to Koh Lanta at the end of December last year, Libo has only seen two Chinese tourists on the island. "Although outbound tours are open, there are very few group tourists. Some of the tourists are similar to me and their business in Thailand was interrupted due to the epidemic." People. Tourism is nowhere near what it was before the pandemic.”
For Libo, from the suspension to the recovery of the tourism industry, the biggest challenge in the restart process is the manpower problem.
He added, "Vehicles, boats, restaurants, and hotels have all resumed, and there is a shortage of people everywhere. The cleaners in our hotel are all found by Thai partners in the local area." Libo remembers when he met the courier who delivered the goods a few days ago , the courier complained that he was too tired recently. When asked why, the courier told Libo, "Many colleagues have left, either to work in restaurants or as drivers."
The outbound travel business of the company where travel consultant Dai Bo works has also not resumed.
From the end of December 2022, Dai Bo, who works as a travel consultant in a travel agency in Chengdu, has uninterrupted consultation messages on his mobile phone every day.
"Ask about prices, strategies, and products. I'm basically too busy. I keep making plans, replying to messages, and making quotations." However, the destinations for consulting travel are mainly domestic cities, and there are not many inquiries for cross-border travel. The will is not strong either.
Dai Bo said that in the three years since outbound travel was suspended, the industry has also lost a number of talents.
After the policy was released in January 2023, Dai Bo was busy with various trainings: visa knowledge training, company business training, route training, etc.
When a client inquires about outbound travel, Dai Bo will still make some introductions accordingly.
But for guests who really want to travel, he will advise them to suspend their demand.
In Dai Bo's view, tourism in Southeast Asia is the first step in the recovery of cross-border tourism, and it will take some time for the overall recovery of tourism in Europe, America, Japan and other places.
He explained, “There are still some barriers to outbound travel, such as the 48-hour nucleic acid negative certificate for returning home, which will affect tourists’ travel psychology. The visa requirements of the destination country and relevant epidemic prevention requirements will also affect the choice of tourists and the stability of flights. .Many tourists are just consulting, and the number of tourists in the real sense is not as good as expected.”
Tourists also perceive the changes in Thailand's tourism market.
Qin Xiaohou observed that in the past, Chinese tourists loved shopping, and the streets of Bangkok and Chiang Mai were full of drugstores and massage shops.
There are Chinese signboards in front of all service stores, and small vendors shout Chinese greetings from time to time.
Nowadays, Qin Xiaohou had to take a taxi halfway around the city to find a drug store that was within walking distance in the past.
In shopping malls in Thailand, there are not as many people shopping as Qin Xiaohou imagined.
Before going abroad, in order to facilitate traveling with her children, Chu Yao booked a series of services such as hotels, chartered cars, and tour guides on Ctrip.
The local services she received in Thailand were different from her expectations.
On the first day of landing, the rented vehicle did not have air-conditioning; the driver and the ground guide did not accompany the whole itinerary; the restaurant that Chu Yao wanted to check in did not have a reservation, and the explanation when visiting the scenic spots was not professional.
"It may be that outbound travel has been suspended for three years, and the communication between domestic and foreign countries has not been fully restored. The reception capacity of the ground connection is limited." Chu Yao guessed.
return to the world
The small disappointments during the journey disappeared when I contacted and chatted with the local people.
The tour guide who received Chu Yao in Bangkok lost his job during the epidemic and had to sell amulets to make ends meet.
He also seemed rusty when dealing with tourists again. He has not spoken Chinese for three years, and his Chinese is not very proficient.
When visiting Phuket, the tour guide who received them was 67 years old this year. Because he could speak English, he could receive European tourists. He was not completely cut off from the tourism industry, and he was still working.
Chu Yao looked at his notebook, and the itinerary for February is almost fully booked.
"It's gradually recovering." The tour guide shared with Chu Yao.
During the trip, Chu Yao told her daughter Miao Miao, who was "the same age" as the epidemic, "This is the first time you have traveled abroad since you were born."
Before the epidemic, Qin Xiaohou described his life as brave and willful.
At the age of 18, with only a few hundred dollars in hand, Qin Xiaohou traveled around poorly.
I became a "sleep tester" for various travel websites. By writing a sleep test manuscript, I received a manuscript fee of 150 to 300 yuan and a free night's accommodation.
Sometimes, Qin Xiaohou would be a "sofa guest" and live in other people's sofas.
"At that time, I could make friends from all over the world, and I was never afraid of the fact that I had no money." Also with friends he met while traveling, Qin Xiaohou borrowed 100,000 yuan to open a restaurant in Weizhou Island, Beihai, Guangxi. B & B, earned the first pot of gold in life.
Without a job, Qin Xiaohou lived a life outside the mainstream by writing articles, doing shopping, and saving a fortune for travel.
She feels that although the life of playing around is not rich, it is full of heart.
After the epidemic began, Qin Xiaohou was forced to stop.
Before the epidemic, the operation of the homestay was not good, so Qin Xiaohou closed the homestay.
In the first two years of the epidemic, she could still rely on the money she saved in the past to support her life.
In the second half of 2021, economic distress will gradually emerge.
During this period, she taught herself flower art and opened a flower shop, but the flower shop eventually closed down.
In March and April of 2022, Qin Xiaohou was detained at home for 21 days, cooking and reading at home every day. She felt that this kind of life was hopeless.
"I told myself, I can't stay like this any longer, I want to make a change." Qin Xiaohou, 25, found three jobs successively. forced to terminate.
She found another job as an assistant to the general manager. She planned to use the money she saved from work to pay off the tens of thousands of yuan she owed before, and then consider starting again.
The change in exit policy came suddenly.
But at the moment when he saw the news, Qin Xiaohou bought a ticket to Thailand without hesitation.
After buying the ticket, Qin Xiaohou cried wantonly in front of his friends.
This journey made Qin Xiaohou feel a kind of temporary relaxation.
But she also felt that the time of this journey was too short, and she seemed not ready to welcome her life back to normal track.
As he gets older, Qin Xiaohou feels that he has more responsibilities.
"Buying a car, renovating a house, you can't go so fearlessly right now."
There are still some moments that give birth to fiery moments in Qin Xiaohou's heart.
After being away from the ocean for a long time, Qin Xiaohou felt that he had entered another world when he entered the water again.
"There were only whirring and paddling sounds in the sea. At that moment, I deeply felt that a certain corner of the world was still so wanton and free."
"After entering the water, I will feel that no matter what kind of scenery, no matter whether you have seen it or not, whether it is the sea or snow-capped mountains, grasslands, deserts, such powerful things will be remembered again when we meet again. Shocking." Qin Xiaohou said.
In Chiang Mai, Qin Xiaohouai went to a small town called Pai County in the north.
Pai County is a quiet town "long" on the hill.
On the winding mountain road from downtown Chiang Mai to Pai County, Qin Xiaohou would meet many passengers riding motorcycles like her.
Living in Pai County, I wake up early in the morning, the mountains are cold, I can hear insects and birds, and when I open the window, I can smell the morning mountain breath.
Some foreigners will set up stalls in the night market to earn travel expenses, some play the guitar, and some paint.
"On the edge of the Grand Canyon, there will be little foreign girls sunbathing there, in a very comfortable state. A series of things made me feel like my utopia there. The spirit is very relaxed, no one cares who you are, no one Care about your experience."
In Qin Xiaohou's view, this journey is also to find the voice from the heart that has been away for a long time.
"I am using this outbound trip to bid farewell and commemorate my three years of hardship. The real calibration of my life comes from my heart. Before I start to decide on something, I will make sufficient preparations and I will first convince myself , Can you accept and bear it. Then prepare yourself for the future life.”
Beijing News reporter Li Lihe and Zhou Siya