This year's tourism will show a steady and high trend (tourism embraces the "beautiful year" ⑨)
Since the beginning of this year, cultural and tourism consumption has picked up at an accelerated pace. The flow of people in scenic spots is endless, hotel reservations are full, and markets are booming. Tourism practitioners are very excited.
"We have reason to raise the forecast of the tourism economy in 2023 from 'cautiously optimistic' to 'optimistic'. The whole year will show a trend of 'steady growth and accelerated recovery', and the quarterly growth rate is expected to be higher month-on-month." Institute of China Tourism Academy Chief Dai Bin said.
Spring returns to the earth, and everything recovers.
After the boom in cultural and tourism consumption during the Spring Festival, how can the tourism industry further boost confidence and seek high-quality development?
Recently, our reporter conducted interviews with tourism experts and scholars on relevant topics.
Further stimulate consumption potential
During the Spring Festival this year, in order to attract tourists and stimulate consumption, various places have successively introduced ticket reduction and exemption policies for scenic spots, and airlines, hotels and homestays have also launched special Spring Festival promotions.
The data shows that there were 308 million domestic tourist trips nationwide, recovering to 88.6% of the same period in 2019; domestic tourism revenue was 375.843 billion yuan, recovering to 73.1% of the same period in 2019.
For the tourism industry that has been silent for three years, the first Spring Festival after the implementation of the "Class B and B Control" for the new crown virus infection is undoubtedly an opportunity, and its good start has also set the tone for an upward trend in 2023.
However, it should also be noted that there is still a gap between the number of tourists and tourism income compared with before the epidemic.
"It is necessary to give full play to the prominent role of tourism in expanding domestic demand, especially final consumption." Dai Bin believes that the recovery of the tourism industry requires a combination of "healing" and "self-healing", and gradually adjust tourists' willingness to travel and consumption expectations to what they should be Adjust the focus of tourism work to cities in a timely manner, and activate urban residents' needs for urban leisure, peripheral tourism, short-distance tourism, mid-range and long-distance tourism, and outbound tourism by category and stage.
"Strengthen expectations control, release consumption potential, and continue to expand the scale of the domestic tourism market." Dai Bin suggested that in this process, holidays can be used as nodes, supported by summer vacation, ice and snow, research, red, and rural tourism, and continue to release urban and rural residents. Tourism consumption potential, seize the time window period of summer vacation tourism and research tourism in July and August, and strive for the domestic tourism market to enter a new channel for comprehensive recovery as soon as possible.
Wu Ruoshan, deputy director of the Cultural Tourism Policy Research Center of the China Institute of Labor Relations, also said that the tourism industry has made good use of the effects of Labor Day, Dragon Boat Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival and other holidays to drive the gradual recovery of the tourism market.
In Wu Ruoshan's view, "hoarding tourism" is an important way to stimulate consumption potential.
"Although 'hoarding tourism' was a product before the outbreak, it has continued to receive market attention in the past three years and has become an indispensable option for tourism consumption. From the perspective of consumption, this model better conforms to the structure of tourists and travel after the epidemic Changes in habits have brought consumers more cost-effective, more flexible, and richer travel experiences and services. From the perspective of the supply side, when the industry is under pressure, pre-sales can help merchants withdraw funds and sell long-term inventory. For small and medium-sized merchants, pre-sale products also represent service opportunities and business hopes, which can play an important role in stabilizing confidence."
Dai Bin said that while expanding consumption and prospering the market, it is also necessary to prevent tourist destinations and market players from "running away" in order to recover losses as soon as possible, and pursuing short-term prosperity at the expense of damaging the rights and interests of tourists and reducing tourist satisfaction.
New products respond to tourist needs
On February 20, the "Blue Book of China Tourism Economy" (hereinafter referred to as the "Blue Book") issued by the China Tourism Academy pointed out that the impact of the epidemic on travel preferences will profoundly change the investment methods of the tourism industry.
From the supply side, the epidemic has forced most tourism investment start-ups and market players to change their traditional investment models, business forms and business segments, and market players will increase integration and innovation in market segments.
From the demand side, the epidemic has made people have higher requirements for recreational space, and peak-shifting tourism and reverse tourism have attracted attention.
Li Xinjian, executive director of the Capital Culture and Tourism Development Research Institute of Beijing International Studies University, believes that during the epidemic, peripheral holiday products became popular, and such small-scale, family-oriented, outdoor holiday consumer products will still be the mainstream demand in the short term .
But in the long run, if the surrounding holiday products want to maintain their vitality, they need to pay attention to the iteration of products and the update of business formats, and at the same time, they must lay out in the direction of micro-travel, slow leisure, and deep vacation.
"From the perspective of 2023, camping tourism and leisure tourism consumption derived from camping deserve continued attention. In addition to the integration of culture and tourism, we can fully pay attention to the integration of culture, sports and tourism, especially the integration of sports and tourism, such as implanting new trends in tourist attractions Sports gameplay." Li Xinjian said.
Changes have also occurred in the field of outbound travel.
Many institutions such as Tongcheng have found that compared with 3 years ago, the consumption behavior and consumption psychology of tourists have changed. Products with better privacy are more popular.
The research and development of tourism products should be combined with the needs of the market and tourists, and take advantage of the trend.
"Major outbound tourism wholesalers, retailers, resource providers, and suppliers of overseas tourism destinations must make preparations for the recall and training of professionals, the reconstruction of industry relations, the reorganization of resources, and the development of products to welcome the inbound and outbound markets. Sustained and rapid recovery." Dai Bin said.
At present, China's outbound tourism market is recovering rapidly, and under the stimulation of relevant policies, the potential demand for tourism in China has also rebounded significantly.
The "Blue Book" pointed out that with the recovery of commercial activities in countries along the "Belt and Road", business travel will be the main support for the recovery of inbound tourism in the future.
Enterprise aid policies should have continuity
"In order to achieve a greater recovery and higher-quality development of the tourism industry, comprehensive policy support from the central and local governments is needed, professional guidance from the cultural and tourism system is needed, and entrepreneurial innovation from tourism investment institutions and market entities is needed." Dai said. Bin suggested that the relevant state departments guide localities to use relatively active fiscal policies, financial policies, social security policies and industrial policies, and rationally use methods such as discounts, reductions, rewards and subsidies to stimulate the recovery and growth of the tourism economy.
"The recovery of the tourism market requires a process, and the operating conditions of tourism companies improve at different speeds." Dai Bin pointed out that it is necessary to maintain the continuity of the bailout policy for companies and prevent market players from "losing blood before returning to work."
"Take outbound travel as an example. At present, travel agencies have resumed pilot outbound group tours and 'air ticket + hotel' business for Chinese citizens to 20 countries. After that, relevant departments can issue restart policies in time to strengthen travel service providers, especially thousands of outbound companies. Confidence in travel agencies.”
Li Xinjian said that the strong consumption during the Spring Festival holiday in 2023 has made a good start for the development of tourism throughout the year, but the development of the tourism industry throughout the year still needs to be based on stabilization and recovery, and the development will be stable and long-term.
The future of the tourism industry requires not only product innovation, service innovation, format innovation, and model innovation by tourism market entities, but also government departments to continue to optimize the business environment, do a good job in public services, and stabilize market expectations.
According to the "Blue Book" prediction, in 2023, the number of domestic tourists and domestic tourism revenue in the country will recover to 70% and 75% of the pre-epidemic levels, and inbound tourism is expected to recover to 30% of the pre-epidemic levels.
The tourism industry needs to further reconstruct the concept of development, increase policy innovation, and shift from support to support to achieve high-quality development.
"People's Daily Overseas Edition" (Version 12, February 24, 2023)