Interpret the middle-aged and elderly market in the eyes of "new tourism".
Organize | 吕娆炜
排版 | Clarae
Preface
In January this year, the General Office of the State Council issued the No. 1 document of the Silver Hair Economy, proposing to enrich the cultural and sports services for the elderly and expand the tourism service format, involving all aspects of the field of cultural and entertainment tourism for the elderly.
In the past year, a number of out-of-the-circle topics and industry events have emerged in the middle-aged and elderly tourism market: New Oriental has entered the cultural tourism track for the elderly, the orders of middle-aged and elderly users on the car rental platform have increased by 100%, and the number of trips for people over 55 years old has increased by 2 times year-on-year...... The number of trips of the silver-haired group is rising, and the demand for tourism is also showing a trend of diversification and segmentation.
In this context, how to accurately locate the pain points of middle-aged and elderly users, and combine online and offline channels to continue to acquire customers stably, has become the focus of enterprise layout.
On January 25, 2024, the sub-forum of the 9th China Elderly Industry Business Innovation Conference of ABI2024 was successfully held in Shanghai.
At the forum, Xu Yi, the founder of Spectrum Cultural Tourism, shared the opportunities and dividends of the middle-aged and elderly tourism market.
Here's what he had to say:
PART 01
4 key words to understand middle-aged and elderly tourism
The theme I share today is "Opportunities and Dividends in the Middle-aged and Elderly Tourism Market", which also includes a lot of our own discoveries and experiences in doing middle-aged and elderly tourism.
As an industrial media, we see more opportunities in the industrial field, so we will do some new tourism projects, there are good enterprises, there are new tourism companies, we will also participate, whether it is in the form of investment or escort to serve them.
In 2023, we will focus more on the Xiaohongshu sector, and at the same time, we will also have a business of selecting places, which is to help global tourist destinations connect high-quality resources with Chinese tourism enterprises.
Regarding the middle-aged and elderly market in the eyes of new tourism, I will continue to understand what "business" is from 2023, because in the past, whether in the company or writing a book, it was actually more about understanding the industry and understanding the state of the industry, but when you really start a business, run a company with a team, and have your own shareholders, you need to be responsible for many people, including yourself, and many times you need to understand what business is.
Middle-aged and elderly tourism must be a trillion-dollar market, which is undoubtedly and a common perception. How to understand the business of middle-aged and elderly tourism, I will look at the following keywords:
1. Population base: The base of the middle-aged and elderly population is about 280 million to 480 million, and the caliber of statistics may be different, because some are counted from the age of 55, and some are counted at the age of 50, but basically within this range.
2. Unit price: The unit price of middle-aged and elderly tourists is about 5000, and the unit price I give may be relatively higher. Many people think that the unit price of middle-aged and elderly customers is about 1000 yuan to 3000 yuan, before there was a consulting customer to ask the unit price of middle-aged and elderly customers, his consumer age is about 60 years old, and the unit price of a consumer in Beijing is about 1000 yuan, this kind of group of people also exists, but there are some other customers, go to Europe or overseas regions, the price of the order can reach about 60,000.
3. Gross profit margin: around 20% to 35%, but we know that the income of middle-aged and elderly tourism may not only be in tourism, its comprehensive profit is actually very high, you link an old man, may be linked to some business related to other industries related to the elderly.
4. Consumption frequency: The consumption frequency is basically about twice a year.
PART 02
Stock and incremental market for middle-aged and elderly tourism:
Older people vs. new older people
In another 6 years, the post-80s will be 50 years old, and my experience in the tourism industry is about 10 years, and the post-80s and post-90s that we used to understand seem to be the younger generation, but this is not the case, because the post-00s are now in their 20s. So don't think that the post-80s and post-90s are very young, and the post-70s are all moving towards the age of 60, so I think middle-aged and elderly tourism is indeed a growing market.
For me personally, I feel very deeply that the elderly in my family are now facing the situation of retirement, after they are old, I feel that there are very few products that can meet their consumption needs and travel needs, even if I am in the cultural tourism industry, I know many destinations, I know many companies that do travel agencies, but when I really want to arrange a trip for them, I think the space to choose is very small.
Therefore, the change of the middle-aged and elderly population brings about the change of demand, and the demand brings about the change of the way of connection. I have come up with two concepts: the elderly population and the new elderly population.
The so-called new elderly population is a growing market. When we refer to the middle-aged and elderly people or the middle-aged and elderly tourists, it is actually a very vague concept, we must see these two different groups, some groups favor 1000 yuan of travel, and as far as I know, some companies have also achieved a scale of 70 million, so the scale of this group is very large.
But part of it is stock, part of it is incremental, so what is brought about between the elderly group and the new elderly group is a change in tourism demand and connection mode. The product with a unit price of 1000 yuan relies more on traditional travel agencies to send flyers offline, but you will find that many elderly people are now playing Douyin, and its connection method has changed, it used to be through offline connection, and now it is more online.
I remember in 2019, there was a very good middle-aged and elderly travel company, they approached me and asked me to open more stores offline, can I do it for the middle-aged and elderly people, I told him yes, but based on the offline connection method will bring a problem?
But today, you will find that many companies have changed the way they connect online, whether it is Channels, Douyin or Xiaohongshu, which can completely realize that a customer in Beijing can buy the products of the Shanghai company, and the trust between us can also be completed through live broadcast and community dialogue.
This is the change in demand and the way we connect, so it has brought about a change in the way we operate in middle-aged and senior tourism.
As for the definition of "elderly people", most of them were born in the 50s and 60s, have little travel experience, and rarely use mobile phones, so as to meet the needs of low-cost travel and shopping travelers. Most people haven't flown or traveled yet, and this segment of the population is here to stay in the next 5 to 6 years.
But we should see more of the rising new elderly population, who were born in the 70s, who learned to use mobile phones, who have some travel experience, who have deeper travel needs, and who are not satisfied with low unit prices.
This is what I understand as the elderly population and the new elderly population. The middle-aged and elderly tourism market we talked about is not only an opportunity for the stock of the elderly, but also a new historical opportunity for the new elderly population that is constantly migrating between generations, the main body is changing, the base is expanding, the travel demand is upgrading, and the connection mode is changing.
PART 03
Supply & Flow:
The double dividend of middle-aged and elderly tourism
Our topic today is dividends, we all feel that there are more opportunities for middle-aged and elderly tourism, when an industry to discuss dividends, how to look at it? I think more is the industry's business elements when the changes, there will be dividends.
When we talk about travel today, when we talk about OTAs and Ctrip, it's actually a very stable business, because the business elements are no longer changing, and its opportunities and volume are very certain. So when the business elements change, it is actually an opportunity, so is there a variable in the middle-aged and elderly tourism market, and if so, what will it be?
There are two aspects that I see: supply and flow.
Why is it a dividend of supply, I just mentioned that when I want to find middle-aged and elderly tourism products for the elderly at home, it is actually not easy to find products that meet the requirements. Regarding the characteristics of the middle-aged and elderly tourism market, I think there are three main aspects:
1. Service-oriented, interaction-oriented, regional:
We have served some customers this year, specializing in high customer unit price tours, you will find that there is no regionality, we see a large number of order cases by searching Xiaohongshu, a customer unit price of 100,000 yuan. At first, I didn't believe it, I thought 2-30,000 yuan should be about the same, but in fact, there are a lot of orders of 100,000 yuan, so when I do Xiaohongshu, there is no regionality, and I can do business across the country on Xiaohongshu.
2. There are many offline scenarios and few online transactions:
Relying on stores, no mobile phone usage habits, less online transactions. These are some of the characteristics of middle-aged and elderly tourism in the face of the stock market.
3. Lack of quality products and services:
Whether it is an OTA or a travel agency, you will see that many companies have taken a fancy to the middle-aged and elderly travel market in the past year, including many large companies, and they feel that there are many opportunities here. Everyone is most familiar with New Oriental Cultural Tourism, but more often than not, companies are also laying out this market.
However, in the past, when many companies made tourism products, they only put a very simple label, and their product services and designs were not well adapted to the needs of the elderly. It's more of a label, a marketing method, or a concept, and there is no middle-aged and elderly tourism from the product level.
What is the tourism demand of the middle-aged and elderly people? When the New Oriental Cultural Tourism first came out, there was actually a lot of discussion, and everyone was curious about what kind of impact the New Oriental Cultural Tourism would have on the middle-aged and elderly tourism, in fact, I think he just caters to the needs of a very niche group, but the positive significance it brings to the market is very good, it is really to make products for the middle-aged and elderly people, you can see that it is from the perspective of products rather than retail.
However, the proportion of New Oriental cultural tourism is very small, and it will not affect the fundamentals of the middle-aged and elderly tourism market. Spiritual pleasure, cultural needs, leisure and relaxation and low-cost shopping are actually an ever-expanding meeting the needs of different groups of people.
What is the demand for products and services for middle-aged and elderly tourism? I think that the selection of scenic spots, the duration of pulling the car, the materials with the car, and the service ratio are the quantifiable things that we must reflect in the design when we used to make products, but you look at the OTA products currently on the shelves, in fact, there is no such quantification, and they are basically labels. We've seen some clubs do really well because they're service-oriented.
I have visited several good middle-aged and elderly tourism stores in Shanghai, the elderly will generally bring three or four old people to chat, the boss is there to chat with him, I said that your time cost is so high, everyone has to chat with him to drink tea, but he told me that the unit price of a customer may be tens of thousands of yuan. This is the social scene, emotional companionship, and self-realization, which all belong to the product and service needs of middle-aged and elderly tourism.
The reason why I just said that the supply of middle-aged and elderly tourism market is a dividend is because there is no good supply now. But we see that whether it is the stock or the incremental market, its scale is getting bigger and bigger, so I say that the supply is still in a blank state.
In addition, regarding middle-aged and elderly tourism entrepreneurship, the choice of entrepreneurs' business is very important, and they need to be clear about what kind of people and what needs they are facing, and their needs are also stratified. It is also important that middle-aged and elderly people, some of whom have not yet traveled, do not need to be over-served. In addition, there are some mature consumer groups, which are relatively segmented high-end niche needs.
What I just mentioned is the supply dividend, and I personally think that there is a lack of good companies to run out for the time being. The other point is about the traffic dividend, which is based on the context I mentioned earlier, the changes in travel demand and connection patterns brought about by the elderly population and the new elderly population.
Today, many companies have their own traffic, including the university for the elderly, education for the elderly and even the pension industry, in fact, they all have traffic, and they may have to find products based on traffic, but there are also many situations where they are based on products to find traffic, and even at both ends.
Where are the traffic opportunities in the middle-aged and elderly tourism market, offline are travel stores, square dances, and communities, and online include video accounts, beauty articles, small rice cakes, Douyin, and Xiaohongshu. Now many seventy or eighty-year-old people have begun to surf the Internet, so the centralized Internet access of the new elderly group is the traffic dividend for the current period of time.
I think the elements of business are nothing more than flow and supply, the flow is constantly changing, the connection mode is constantly changing, and the supply dividend is reflected in the market There is a large amount of demand, so I think the supply and flow are actually the double dividends of middle-aged and elderly tourism, and the middle-aged and elderly tourism market is at the same time.
PART 04
The key question of middle-aged and elderly tourism: where do the tourists come from?
From a business perspective, the middle-aged and elderly tourism market needs to solve a key question: where do the customers come from?
In the era of new tourism and new media, it has brought a lot of opportunities to ordinary entrepreneurs. Take Xiaohongshu, which we are relatively familiar with, as an example, when you search for "senior tourism" in Xiaohongshu, there are already many such posts, and you will find that the keywords in the comments are "how much is an old man in Beijing", "can a 60-year-old man be", "how much is Tianjin activities".
In the past, we understood Xiaohongshu to be a market for young women in first- and second-tier cities, and there was no problem with this, but today's Xiaohongshu is no longer the Xiaohongshu of the past.
There have been many people who have asked me whether the elderly can do it on Xiaohongshu, and the background of his sentence is that he thinks that the elderly group belongs to a niche demand, or that the elderly group basically does not go online, but today I can give you a clear answer, any small demand is a big demand on Xiaohongshu.
Xiaohongshu is a national-level application with a monthly activity of more than 100 million, and its monthly activity will be higher and higher, you will find that the comments mentioned above are all replies from the elderly, and the keywords of the comments are very close, such as "how do I sign up", "how much is it for two people", "is there a place", etc., this demand is very valuable.
We just mentioned that a lot of people make videos, but in fact, the effect of making videos is minimal. I tell you that making content is actually a very expensive and inefficient behavior, and if you don't understand the essence of content, making content is a very expensive thing.
Of course, you may be able to generate 10,000 videos in an hour through AI tools, and these 10,000 videos can be understood as 10,000 flyers, but it is important who the flyer is pushed to, and if the flyer is pushed wrong, there will be no feedback.
Many people focus on likes, interactions, and traffic when making content, but from a business perspective, this may not be a good thing. Many people have a misunderstanding about Xiaohongshu and Douyin, thinking that they need more and more traffic, but in fact, this is not the case, from a business point of view, what you need is less and less traffic.
There is a travel account in the video account, he started doing it during the epidemic, and now he has seven or eight thousand fans, and each of his videos is asking "how much, how to sign up, how to contact", which is a complete breakthrough based on the changes in connection methods and needs brought by new people, and it is completely possible to find his customers through the online video account.
Personally, I understand that the content logic of Youtube, Douyin, and Xiaohongshu is the same, there are only two points: your content must have a supply tag, and at the same time, your users must have a crowd tag. Once the supply tag and the crowd tag are matched, you can find your own customers on the internet.
END
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