The reporter recently investigated and combed the "May Day" holiday data report of a number of travel platform agencies in many places and found that this year's "May Day" tourism market presents new trends such as county tourism fever, car rental free travel, and performing arts to promote cultural tourism, which also brings tests to housing, transportation and tourism, and requires all localities and departments to actively respond.
County tours, car rental tours, and performing arts tours have become a new choice for travel
Staggered metropolis, county tourism is favored. With the improvement of infrastructure and tourism reception capacity in various places, more and more tourist destinations in lower-tier markets are welcomed. According to Ctrip data, hotel bookings in the county market during the May Day holiday increased by 68% year-on-year, scenic spot ticket bookings increased by 151% year-on-year, higher than the national market, and rural tour bookings increased by 42% year-on-year. Tongcheng Travel data also showed that the popularity of "niche" related travel searches increased by 172% month-on-month, and the number of hotel bookings in domestic third-tier cities and below increased by more than 150% compared to the same period in 2019.
Liu Yang, a "post-90s" who works in Shanghai, plans to go on vacation with his colleagues to Xinchang County, Shaoxing City, Zhejiang Province. "Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai 2-hour tourism circle is rich in ecology, convenient transportation can go directly to the county, there are well-equipped high-star hotels, prices are not high, and the environment is fresh. As a fan of dramas, you can also check in to many popular film and television drama shooting bases. Liu Yang said that going to the county seat for a vacation can be a short escape from the first-tier metropolis.
Car rental is free, and domestic and overseas orders have skyrocketed. Driven by favorable policies such as the release of high-quality tourist routes in many places across the country and the exemption of tolls on holidays on expressways, "big traffic + landing rental" has become a more enthusiastic way for tourists to travel. According to Fliggy's data, car rental bookings in popular cities during the May Day holiday increased by nearly 50% year-on-year, while local car rental demand increased by more than two times, with bookings with a lease term of about four days increasing by about 30% compared to 2019. Judging from Ctrip's car rental data, Datong, Taiyuan, Yantai, Ningbo, Hulunbuir and other places are the "dark horse" destinations with rapid year-on-year growth in car rental orders.
At the same time, thanks to the resumption of international routes and the improvement of supply, the mainland visa-free "circle of friends" has expanded, and the demand for outbound travel has been further released, of which the proportion of independent travel has continued to rise, thereby expanding the demand for car rental. Orders for Ctrip car rental and overseas car rental increased by 132% year-on-year, and new customers accounted for about 60%. Fliggy's bookings for overseas car rentals increased nearly fourfold year-on-year.
At the same time, "performing arts + tourism" has become a new driving force for travel. Traveling to a city for a performance and traveling with a concert has become a new way for many people to travel. Judging from the annual departmental budget of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the expenditure on culture, tourism, sports and media included in government funds will increase from 102.62 million yuan in 2023 to 144.35 million yuan in 2024. According to incomplete statistics, hundreds of concerts and music festivals will be held across the country during the "May Day" holiday.
Fliggy's data shows that hotel bookings around the May Day holiday concerts and music festivals have doubled year-on-year. On the Ctrip platform, the two concerts of Tai Reason drove a year-on-year increase of 105% in hotel bookings for the "May Day" holiday, of which 90% were foreign tourists. The relevant person in charge of the Shanxi Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism said that this year's "May Day" is the first time that Taiyuan has been filled with concerts.
The pressure of living, transportation and travel continues to rise, bringing related risks
With the sinking of the tourism market, the price of holiday accommodation in many third- and fourth-tier cities and counties has increased significantly compared with the usual price. For example, the "May Day" price of a twin room in a Hanting hotel in Jixi County, Xuancheng City, Anhui Province has risen from the usual 150 yuan to 847 yuan, and many netizens complained on social platforms.
The reporter visited a number of hotels and learned that hoteliers and relevant departments also said that they also had difficulties. The person in charge of a hotel in Shanxi said that the off-peak season of tourism in Shanxi is obvious, and the room price is usually discounted, the occupancy rate is low, and the pricing at different times needs to refer to the annual cost accounting. The person in charge of the relevant department said that as long as the hotel clearly marked the price, does not involve fraud, price gouging and other illegal acts, it is difficult to use administrative means to control, "the price increase problem can only be guided by the government, the hotel industry association, and the market supervision department, so that the hotel can make its own price commitments."
The car rental craze is a test for the transportation industry. Li Hong, a professor at the School of Tourism Science of Beijing Second Foreign Language Chinese University, said that the "May Day" car rental fever may bring problems such as traffic congestion and parking difficulties. Many first-tier tourist destination cities themselves have great traffic pressure, and how to digest incoming vehicles, provide vehicle parking places and shuttle services are problems that need to be solved urgently. In addition, tourists driving in unfamiliar places are easy to have violations because they are not familiar with the road conditions, and whether they can quickly solve and provide guidance is a test of the processing ability of the local traffic management and other departments.
Zhang Ye, head of Fliggy's car rental business, told reporters that compared with civil aviation and railways, the car rental industry is affected by factors such as scattered supply, disparity between supply and demand in off-peak seasons, and uneven industry standards. In addition, many consumers have reported that there are frequent problems in the car rental industry, such as unclear quotations, difficult to refund deposits, and non-standard management, which affect the mood of the journey.
According to industry insiders, the process of holding a performing arts event is equivalent to "urban optimization", and all aspects of connection, parking, security, power supply facilities, housing prices, prices, and traffic control all require strong support from the government. The safety of performing arts activities is not only the top priority, but also the most difficult of the difficulties.
Improve the city's carrying capacity and improve the response plan
In the face of peak passenger flow, the city's carrying capacity is the key. Wang Jinwei, a professor at the School of Tourism Science of Beijing Second University of Foreign Chinese, said that the tourist destinations in the sinking market, which are gradually becoming hot, can learn from the management experience of mature tourist cities as much as they can, and scientifically study and judge through big data and other technical means to expand service supply in a timely manner.
Experts suggest that we should improve the infrastructure such as hotels, homestays, travel agencies, taxis, and shared bicycles, as well as public services and business environments; plan a number of parking lots with large capacity and scientific locations, strengthen the transportation capacity of tourist attractions (points), and formulate emergency plans for risk points in advance.
Li Hong suggested that all departments should work together to formulate contingency plans and conduct drills in advance. Use media platforms to release service information such as weather forecasts and warnings, highway conditions, and emergencies in a timely manner. At the same time, in the face of the market chaos reported by tourists, all departments should also coordinate supervision, timely process and report the investigation information, and effectively shorten the cycle of consumer rights protection. Jia Jing, head of the market management section of the Datong Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism in Shanxi Province, said that in the process of dealing with consumer demands, the interests of the supply side and the demand side should also be balanced.
Chen Shanglong, head of the public opinion data center of our news technology, believes that the public opinion of cultural tourism during holidays is relatively concentrated, and social public safety, transportation capacity guarantee, and consumer fraud are also worthy of attention. Zhang Qing, director of the Publicity and Promotion Department of the Shanxi Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism, suggested that the local government should strengthen the research and judgment of public opinion risks, on the one hand, it is necessary to unblock the complaint channels and promote the resolution of online public opinion and offline matters at the same time, and on the other hand, it is also necessary to be vigilant against the unsubstantiated hype behavior of the self-media for the traffic eyeballs, and respond in a timely manner. (Reporter Ma Xiaojie, Jiang Haoran)
Source: Xinhua Daily Telegraph
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