Image source@Visual China
文 | 价值星球Planet，作者 | 程佳，编辑 | 唐飞
"I wanted to go to the resort hotel for a hot spring during the Chinese New Year, but several hotels had no rooms. ”
Qingtang, who lives in Suzhou, looked at the resort hotel on the platform that displayed the status of "full", and was annoyed why he didn't book early, and at the same time, he also hurriedly booked a room for next weekend, "If you can't soak in the hot spring on New Year's Eve, then wait until next week." Anyway, the weather will be cold in the future, so it's good to soak in the hot springs on the weekend. ”
Like Qingtang, choosing to "soak in hot springs" in the cold winter has become a new favorite of young people. Choose a scenic hot spring resort and jump into a pool filled with natural hot water, surrounded by the warm current of natural flow, while savoring the delicious food provided by the hotel, and feel the wonderful experience of ice and fire, which is undoubtedly a double experience of relaxation and relaxation.
Snow viewing, skiing, and hot springs have become popular "travel trio" this winter. On the first day of 2024, some people chose different ceremonies for New Year's Eve, some chose to watch a concert with friends, some chose to ski with their families, and some chose to watch a "snowing" movie with their lovers. There are also some people who start the countdown to the New Year with friends soaking in the hot springs and drinking a little wine.
On Xiaohongshu, there are more than 790,000 notes related to hot springs, and on Douyin, the hashtag #bathing hot springs# has been played more than 2.67 billion times. According to the data, on the first day of the New Year's Day holiday, the popularity of ice and snow tourism on the Tongcheng travel platform increased by 194%, and the popularity of hot spring tourism increased by 178%.
Young people's love for hot springs is not only due to their relaxing and relaxing properties, but also to their lifestyle and health perceptions. On the one hand, soaking in hot springs helps to burn calories, and half an hour of hot spring bathing is equivalent to jogging for two kilometers, which is very attractive to young people who pursue a healthy lifestyle;
01 Ice and snow tours and hot spring tours have soared
One step ahead of the three-day holiday on New Year's Day is the 2023 winter theme tour.
As the first full winter in the post-epidemic era, the popularity of related theme tourism has risen. According to data issued by a number of platforms, with the arrival of winter, in addition to ice and snow tourism, "warm travel" represented by hot springs has also become a popular tourist destination.
According to Tuniu's 2023 Hot Spring Tour Consumption Trend Report, since November, the search volume of keywords such as "hot springs", "hot spring tickets", "hot spring hotels" and "private hot springs" has increased by more than 2 times compared with the same period in October, and the number of bookings for hot spring tour products has increased significantly.
"Hot springs" are not unfamiliar to Chinese consumers, after all, from Mohe River in the north to Sansha, there are hot spring hotels where there are Chinese. According to China National Geographic, except for Shanghai, which is limited by geological conditions and has not been able to develop natural hot springs, high-end hot spring hotels can only be sold by transporting hot spring water from Jiangsu, and the rest of the provinces (regions) have a different number of hot springs.
However, unlike the stereotype that "northerners love to rub and bathe", southerners love "hot springs" more than northerners. According to data from Tuniu's platform, in November, southern users accounted for more than 70% of the bookings for hot spring tour products. Among them, users in Shanghai, Nanjing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Suzhou, Xiamen, Hangzhou, Wenzhou and other places ranked high in booking popularity.
What's even more interesting is that the most dense area of hot spring hotels in the country is not in the northeast, but on the southeast coast.
The distribution of hot spring hotels is inevitably related to the topographical factors of hot spring distribution. There is no shortage of hot springs in China, but they are not evenly distributed, and the hot springs recorded so far are mainly concentrated in the three major regions of Northeast China, South China, and Southwest China. Among them, the five provinces of Yunnan, Tibet, Guangdong, Sichuan and Fujian have accounted for half of the total number of hot springs in the country, and these regions have also formed their own unique hot spring cultures.
However, in addition to the geographical distribution of hot springs, the local market demand is also the main reason for the distribution of hot spring hotels.
"Northerners can still go to see ice sculptures, snowmobiles, skiing, and ice fishing in winter, but in Guangdong, where it doesn't snow, they can't think of any other winter sports other than hot springs in winter. Ah Hua, who lives in Guangzhou, bluntly said to Value Planet that when the wave of cold air hit before the winter solstice, he and his friends organized a bureau and drove to Qingyuan to soak in the hot springs, "Friends from the north go to the snow resort, and we go to the hot spring pool, all have the same winter ritual." ”
The Cantonese people who love to "soak in hot springs" have supported the birthplace of China's modern hot spring tourism and a major province in the domestic hot spring industry. A set of pre-pandemic data is directly reflected in this. According to the statistics of the questionnaire of tourists and enterprises in China's hot spring tourism industry, the total number of hot spring tourism in mainland China in 2018 was about 790 million, and the total income of hot spring tourism was about 249.29 billion yuan. Among them, Guangdong is a major hot spring province in China, Guangdong received 180 million hot spring tourists in 2018, and the annual income of hot spring tourism was about 67.84 billion yuan, ranking first in the country.
According to data from the Tongcheng travel platform, on the first day of the New Year's Day holiday this year, Guangdong was the province with the highest popularity of hot spring tourism, and the search popularity of Conghua hot springs in Guangzhou increased by 246% month-on-month.
In the past three years, affected by the epidemic, the hot spring industry in all parts of the country, including Guangdong, has been severely affected in the short term, and this year, as the first full winter in the post-epidemic era, the hot spring industry needs to continue to heat up.
02 "Crispy young man" falls in love with "hot spring health"
Young people account for a large proportion of the people who pay for the "hot springs".
According to the data of Tongcheng Travel, more than half of the post-90s/post-00s users who pay attention to hot spring tourism are a direct reflection of the integration of the hot spring industry with the needs of young consumers.
Qingtang and Ah Hua also mentioned that they go to the hot springs in winter to be with friends. "The experience of soaking in the hot springs now is different from when we were children and went with our families. When I was a child, soaking in the hot spring seemed to be 'soaking', and I bought at most a bag of hot spring eggs to eat. Now soaking in hot springs is like going to a resort complex, not only soaking in hot springs, but also playing cards and watching movies with friends. Ah Hua said.
Unlike Ah Hua, who likes to "socialize" in hot spring hotels, Qingtang likes to soak in hot springs because it can "maintain health". "The hot spring hotel we often go to has a medicine pond soup, and after soaking, we have a full body massage, and the whole body can be completely relaxed at the end of a process. ”
Qingtang keeps up with the trend, boasts that he is a "crispy young man", and uses "crispy" to describe himself who has been plagued by insomnia and anxiety for a long time, vividly pointing out Qingtang's own "sub-healthy" physical state. "I couldn't sleep at night because of the pressure at work, and then a friend took me to a hot spring spa, and then I slept well for a week, and then I would often go to the beauty salon for spa treatments. ”
"When it's cold, I go to the hot spring hotel with my friends on weekends and holidays to relax and pass the time with friends. Qingtang added.
Although hot springs are not as popular as snow viewing and skiing as a winter "travel trio", more and more young people are participating in them.
The reason behind it is not difficult to understand that in recent years, young people's awareness of healthy consumption has been increasing, and healthy consumption has become a new "rigid need" of young people. According to the data of the "China Better Life Survey", the post-90s group ranks second in the consumer list for health care. As an activity that can be enjoyed and healthy, hot springs are naturally sought after by young people.
In this regard, Zhu Keli, executive director of the China Information Association and founding president of the National Research Institute of New Economy, believes that on the one hand, young people's health awareness is improving, and they pay more attention to health preservation and health care, and hot springs can play a role in relieving fatigue, beautifying and promoting blood circulation, which meets the health needs of young people. On the other hand, with the diversification and personalization of the tourism market, young people are more pursuing unique travel experiences, and hot springs, as a tourism activity with leisure and relaxation effects, can allow young people to experience different cultures and customs.
In addition, Zhu Keli also told Value Planet, "The development of social media has made hot springs a social way, and young people can show their personality and taste by sharing their travel experiences and photos." Bai Wenxi, Chief Economist of IPG China, also mentioned, "The spread of social media has made hot springs a fashion trend, and young people are willing to follow the trend and try online celebrity attractions and activities. ”
In short, there are many reasons why young people love hot springs, including the pursuit of a healthy lifestyle, the love of new ways of socializing, and the importance of health and wellness. With the improvement of people's requirements for quality of life, it is foreseeable that hot spring tourism will continue to be popular with more young people in the future.
03 Is the "hot spring business" profitable?
"The spring cold bathes Huaqing Pool, and the hot spring water is slippery and creamy. As early as a thousand years ago, Bai Juyi's song "Song of Long Hatred" told the scene of hot springs in the Huaqing Palace, which shows that the "hot spring format" has a long history.
Hot spring tourism, which integrates tourism, leisure and fitness, is a hot spot for leisure and vacation tourism. The hot spring tourism forms on the market can be divided into four categories, namely hot spring hotels and hot spring resorts, hot spring tourist resorts, hot spring tourism cities, and hot spring towns.
Different from sightseeing tourism, leisure and vacation tourism, including hot spring tourism, takes rational recuperation and relaxation as the main purpose, has a long stay time, strong consumption capacity, high requirements for environmental infrastructure and accommodation, and shows a certain loyalty to the choice of tourist destinations.
According to data from the China Investment Industry Research Institute, from 2018 to 2022, except for 2020, when the epidemic affected the mainland's hot spring resort tourism revenue was only 105.95 billion yuan, the mainland's hot spring tourism revenue has remained at the level of 250 billion yuan. This means that hot spring tourism has been stable at this income level for many years.
Source: CIC Industry Research Institute
"On the one hand, the seasonal characteristics of hot spring tourism products are obvious, although many practitioners are now doing 'hot spring +' layout to extend products, but there is no peak season driven, other projects are easy to be idle, and it is difficult to smooth out the gap between peak seasons." On the other hand, hot spring tourism requires heavy asset investment in the early stage, but the capital return cycle is relatively long, and the cost during operation is also high. In general, it is difficult to make a profit. ”
Although the business conditions of the hot spring tourism industry are not ideal, and a single market development model may become a bottleneck for the development of the industry, this does not mean that the future of the hot spring tourism industry is bleak. According to the forecast data of China Research Institute Puhua in 2022, the national hot spring tourism market will reach 1.06 billion in 2022, accounting for about 20% of the number of domestic tourists, ranking first among all tourism formats. This shows that the number of domestic hot spring tourists has reached a considerable scale, and there is a huge market potential behind it.
Zhu Keli bluntly said that the business prospects of the hot spring tourism industry depend on the market demand and business strategy of specific projects. "As a tourism activity with leisure and relaxation effects, hot spring tourism still has a certain demand in the market. However, in order to achieve business success, it is necessary to continuously innovate business models and service content to improve user experience and satisfaction. ”
"For example, hot springs with special themes can be launched to provide personalized services, local cultural characteristics can be combined to create a hot spring culture with regional characteristics, and brand awareness and user groups can be expanded through Internet marketing and social media promotion. Zhu Keli believes that as long as it can meet the market demand and continuously innovate the business model and service content, the hot spring center is still a promising commercial project.
Bai Wenxi believes that the business prospects of the hot spring industry are more optimistic. "Although hot spring tourism is somewhat seasonal, the demand for hot spring tourism is gradually increasing as people's attention to health continues to increase. In addition, hot spring centers can continue to innovate and optimize services, such as introducing special hot springs, creating immersive experiences, and providing rich living facilities to attract more young consumers. Driven by market demand and industrial innovation, it is expected to become a project with great development prospects. ”
In short, the hot spring tourism industry should continue to innovate ideas and continuously improve the hot spring function and service chain, so as to promote the hot spring tourism industry to a deeper and wider extension.
*Qingtang and Ahua are pseudonyms.