As the start date approaches, the summer travel market is cooling down. On August 8, a number of travel agencies successively adjusted their tourism products and launched off-season travel itineraries. It is understood that due to the decline in transportation, hotels and other costs, the prices of many tourism products have returned to the rational range, and even the prices of some products have dropped by about 29%. Now that the popularity of the summer stall has quietly passed, various tourism enterprises are also busy "changing seasons and new", and have laid out peak-shifting tourism products mainly for middle-aged and elderly groups. At the same time, in the face of the upcoming "November" Golden Week, tourism companies are also stepping up marketing.
The price returns to the rational range
The summer vacation is coming to an end, and the tourism market has begun to "change seasons" in the alternating seasons of summer and autumn.
"From this week, students are beginning to start school one after another, and after the end of the summer vacation, because transportation, hotels and other resources are no longer as tight as in July and August, the price of tourism products will indeed become cheaper, and now there are normal price changes, gradually returning to the rational range from the peak." Zhou Weihong, deputy general manager of Spring Tourism, said.
Zhang Jing, general manager of Shenzhou International Travel Service International Exchange Company, also felt that the cost of the product is slowly declining, "Our summer products are mainly customized tours, because the fixed fees such as hotels and cars have decreased slightly, so the products will have certain discounts, but after August 8, there are basically no student groups, so there is no discount sales." The current product is about 20% lower in price than before." Another person in charge of a large travel agency in Beijing revealed that at present, the price of products has dropped by about 20% compared with the summer period.
Speaking about the sales time of summer tourism products, Li Mengran, media public relations manager of Zhongxin Travel Group, said that summer tourism products suitable for children are generally sold before the start of school on September 9. In the past two weeks, some parents have begun to reduce their children's travel, and they will basically arrange to return before the end of August, so that their children have time to adjust their status and prepare for the start of school. But there will also be a small number of parents who choose to stagger the peak and seize the "little tail" of the holiday to take their children to travel.
Middle-aged and elderly sightseeing tours are on the shelves
During the summer vacation, parent-child travel has become the mainstream of travel, and in the month before the "November" holiday and the off-season tourism market after the "November" holiday, sightseeing routes suitable for adults, middle-aged and elderly travel will become the main focus.
"The main trend of parent-child travel in the summer is to prefer a form of travel that combines study and travel, and before the next peak travel period, that is, the 'Mid-Autumn Festival + National Day' holiday, the staggered peak travel dominated by middle-aged and elderly groups will kick off." Zhou Weihong analyzed that on the one hand, the product at this time will avoid the peak of the crowd, reduce the waiting time in the trip, and enjoy a more comfortable experience, on the other hand, the price has also decreased compared with the summer.
Han Jie, chairman of CYTS Aoyou Technology Development Co., Ltd., also said that in September, October and the fourth quarter of the product will change significantly compared with the summer vacation, the population will shift from parent-child to the elderly or other customer groups, product-related content such as meals and itineraries will also be more inclined to the elderly customer group, and the price will be adjusted accordingly due to the difference in product content level, and the overall market price will be lower than that of the summer.
In terms of the difference in product content, the Beijing Business Daily reporter compared the products launched by Zhongxin Travel in the summer and the products launched in the United Arab Emirates in September, including the Atlantis Dubai Hotel, which focuses on parent-child vacations, two museums of Dubai Future Museum and Warner Bros. World Theme Park, while the products departing on September 9 are mainly pure play groups explained by tour guides.
"In the summer, it is mainly about parent-child travel, so it is basically based on the various parks in Dubai. However, for middle-aged and elderly tourists, they prefer to visit famous attractions, so the Dubai products launched in September and October have been adjusted to regular tourist-oriented products. Li Mengran further explained that a combination of factors such as tourist experience and product content has led to the difference in price. In terms of domestic travel products, Zhongxin Travel will also launch more products focusing on sightseeing during this period.
In addition, Zhang Jing also said that products suitable for middle-aged and elderly travel include many natural scenery and cultural scenery, and Shenzhou International Travel Service plans to launch Xiangxi tourism products mainly for middle-aged and elderly groups in the autumn.
In the second half of the year, there were more outbound travel routes
After the summer vacation, the domestic and outbound travel market will temporarily return to stability, specifically from the market price, travel frequency and other aspects of further return to rationality, National Day, Mid-Autumn Festival holiday for office workers, family travel is just needed, will usher in the peak of travel. Han Jie predicted.
At present, many tourists have made travel plans for the "November" holiday in advance. According to the latest data released by Ctrip, the number of orders for overseas group products booked through Ctrip for National Day travel in the past week increased by nearly 3.5 times compared with the same period last month, and the number of private group orders increased by more than 3 times. Tourists' travel demand is constantly being released, and tourism enterprises are also increasing their layout.
"From the perspective of popular destinations, in the domestic market of the 'November' holiday, Lanzhou, Kashgar, Urumqi and other destinations focusing on natural scenery and cultural experience are more popular; Classic tourist cities such as Sanya, Zhangjiajie and Chongqing have also attracted the attention of tourists in advance. Zhou Weihong said that in terms of outbound long-term travel, tourists traveling to Spain as the main destination are very enthusiastic about consultation and registration, and the current National Day travel schedules have basically sold out.
It's not just travel agencies, OTA platforms are also making preparations. The person in charge of the same degree of leave said that the same degree of leave has begun to prepare for the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day long holidays, and will launch high-quality domestic long-term tour products and diversified outbound travel routes based on the Tongcheng special line.
"In the second half of the year, with the increase in the choice of outbound travel, the proportion of domestic tourism will be relatively reduced, and with the gradual easing of the contradiction between supply and demand, Spring and Autumn Tourism judges that tourism prices will gradually stabilize in the next tourism recovery process." Zhou Weihong believes that the "November" holiday will become the next golden node for the accelerated recovery of the tourism market.
Beijing Business Daily reporter Wu Qiyun/Photo by Wen He