Outbound travel has been suspended for nearly two years Ctrip is waiting for a restart

Since outbound tourism has been affected by the new crown epidemic, it has been basically in a state of suspension since January 2020, which has also brought a huge impact to many domestic enterprises mainly engaged in outbound tourism business.

As the largest online travel service platform in China, Ctrip.com (hereinafter referred to as "Ctrip") began to redeploy in response to changes in the market situation after a series of urgent outbound travel-related aftercare work in the early last year, and quickly cut the "position" back to China from abroad. At present, there is still no official clear attitude towards the restart plan of outbound tourism, and in the case that the business layout adjustment has initially stabilized the situation, Ctrip has also begun to make corresponding preparations for outbound tourism and make corresponding judgments on changes in the situation. Obviously, once the market restarts, Ctrip hopes that it can quickly "start" on this familiar "track" for the first time.

The dawn of outbound travel?

"In addition to Asia, the international tourism market in Europe and the United States has recovered quite well, recovering to half of the pre-epidemic level, but the Asian market has not yet improved, and I believe it will soon catch up." In his public speech at the Global Partners Summit held in Macau on December 9, Liang Jianzhang, co-founder and chairman of Ctrip Group, gave his own judgment on the resumption of China's outbound tourism, saying: "It is estimated that other Asian countries will continue to open up in the next three months, and if these countries are successfully liberalized, China will not be too long, and it is estimated that there will be conditions for opening up in half a year." ”

In fact, this is also more consistent with the judgment made by the reporter of The China Times recently and a number of people close to the policy and regulatory level in the aviation, tourism and other industries. An aviation industry person told this reporter that even if outbound travel can be lifted next year, it will be gradually released through a gradual way, such as the initial opening of similar tourism bubbles or some countries with similar epidemic conditions and China, of course, these are also carried out under the implementation of strict epidemic prevention policy foundation and including health codes and nucleic acid testing and other technical means, compared with international travel before the epidemic, the entry and exit of the post-epidemic era will undergo fundamental changes.

As an important event held by Ctrip Group since 2018, the choice of the Global Partner Summit to be held in Macao is obviously also very meaningful. According to the statement made by the Director general of the Macao Macao Macao Tourism Administration, Senna Fernandes Fernandes, "The fact that this summit was held in Macao for the first time in an overseas destination is a confidence in Macao's epidemic prevention work, and it is also a very big driving force for the rapid recovery of Macao's tourism and convention and exhibition industry." ”

Ctrip also said that under the influence of the global epidemic, Macao is one of the few outbound travel destinations that mainland tourists can visit with peace of mind, which is also an important reason why Ctrip chose Macao as the host of the summit.

The achievements of the Macao SAR in epidemic control, customs clearance procedures, entry and exit prevention and control measures and docking and cooperation with the mainland region have actually provided a good model for the operation of relevant processes after the restart of outbound tourism. There are indications that this set of measures based on nucleic acid reporting, health codes, customs health declarations and related testing processes will become the new standard process for a long period of time in entry and exit activities in the post-pandemic era. Although it is more cumbersome than the previous entry and exit experience, it can at least minimize the impact of the epidemic.

Ctrip Group CEO Sun Jie also said in her speech at the summit on the 9th that Macao is the first area for us to open up to mainland tourists without mandatory quarantine, aiming at this opportunity, Ctrip and Macau Tourism Office, Air Macau launched a series of cooperation, starting from January, Air Macau launched a buy-one-get-one product, and the output of the Macau line increased rapidly. By March, the sales volume of Air Macau Line in Ctrip had recovered to 85% of the same period in 2019, when we also took advantage of the chase, and successively launched Boss Live, Macau Week and other activities, and by July, the production and sales of Macau Line had recovered to 101% of the same period in 2019. Looking at the data from January to September 2021, the number of mainland citizens entering Macau from the airport is about 22% in 2019. Bookings through Ctrip have returned to 42% in 2019, almost twice as high as the market.

As Senna Fernandes said, "It is not easy for you to come here, and it is also a strong support for our work." In fact, for the overseas tourist destinations that have lost Chinese tourists for nearly two years, they are also looking forward to the early return of this arrival, even if it is not easy. Liang Jianzhang revealed that he visited the tourism bureaus of more than a dozen countries during his overseas inspection, "They are very much looking forward to the return of Chinese tourists, and they all feel that Chinese tourists are particularly good, not going to their local summer (peak season), many of them go in the off-season, such as our China's eleventh and Spring Festival, staying for a long time, they are very much looking forward to Chinese tourists, they are also very much looking forward to coming to China." ”

Continue to cultivate deeply in China

However, until the ban on outbound travel is truly lifted, the domestic market is still the fundamentals of tourism companies that can continue to be based on the market in this difficult time.

In Liang Jianzhang's view: "Now and for a period of time to come, Ctrip will continue to deepen the domestic strategy, the most important thing is to deeply connect with global partners, not only to do close cooperation in transactions, but also to do close cooperation in marketing and content, and a lot of investment in the past period of time to do content, awards, live broadcast platforms, planet numbers, lists, these are the focus of continued deep ploughing in the future." ”

In the period when the demand for outbound travel maintained a high growth rate before the epidemic, Ctrip can rely on its advantages in resources and product strength to establish market competitiveness, and in the "chaotic world" after the epidemic, various "playing methods", "rules" and even demand in the industry are changing, which also prompts Ctrip to make up its mind to carry out another round of changes.

In addition to shifting the market focus back to China, re-establishing content as the core of marketing, and marketing promotion activities through more close to the crowd, connecting upstream and downstream resources through a comprehensive content strategy, attracting more young people's interest in the platform, and continuing to maintain a high conversion rate have become part of the change.

Liang Jianzhang also said frankly: "The epidemic stage is very much in need of content and inspiration recommendations, if you can do a good job of this piece can stimulate more tourism demand." ”

In Sun Jie's view, the current tourism industry still has to find answers from the profound changes caused by the return of outbound tourists to the domestic market. Because of the emergence of this part of the new high-end consumption power, domestic airlines, hotels, scenic spots, parks, destinations, etc. ushered in the golden opportunity of brand marketing, users also urgently need to know the "how to play" and "how to choose" in the country; on the other hand, this part of the consumption power is forcing the upgrading and iteration of domestic travel products, and the national level is also taking advantage of this east wind to promote rural tourism, red tourism and other travel products.

At present, young users have become the main consumer force of Ctrip's platform, and many sectors within the "tourism marketing hub" system have also made rapid progress: the number of orders directly generated by Ctrip's live broadcast room in the third quarter increased by nearly 15 times compared with the second quarter; in the Ctrip community, the monthly peak of content conversion rate reached 30%; and in the 7 months since the launch of Ctrip Planet flagship store, the number of business content releases, exposure, fans and fan transactions GMV have maintained an average monthly growth rate of 50%.

"Ctrip has always been known for business travel and high-end crowds, and we are pleased to see that young users have joined us in the past few years, and in 2021, young users under the age of 30 have accounted for more than half, and users under the age of 40 have reached 80% of the order volume." Young users are becoming the main force of Ctrip consumption, young means development space, means the possibility of growth, but also means that the future is promising. Sun Jie said.

Sun Jie said that the national 14th Five-Year Plan has put inbound tourism at a strategic growth point, compared with the world, developed countries account for about 1% to 3% of GDP, Singapore accounts for 5%, Thailand accounts for 12%. China is now only about 0.5%. If in the future we can reach the proportion of developed countries, then our growth will be several times.

"Inbound tourism is also a very good channel for telling Chinese stories well, and it has played a very good role in foreign publicity." Then, as a member of the 14th Five-Year Plan Expert Committee of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, we have also been making some initiatives with the state to improve the construction of inbound tourism and improve it, so that overseas guests can enjoy more diversified and personalized products, which is very important. We want to provide them with as many conveniences as possible, such as online visas, the use of mobile payments, and language-breaking communication, etc. Once the infrastructure of inbound tourism is perfected, its potential market is very large. It has great value to the country and the industry. Sun Jie said, "Ctrip has a great layout in Europe and the United States and other places, and I hope that after the opening of inbound tourism in the future, we can bring global high-quality guests to our partners here." ”

Responsible Editor: Huang Xingli Editor-in-Chief: Han Feng