The unique travel needs of the younger generation have also brought new development opportunities to the tourism industry.
Text: Technode
Author|Huang Chentypesetting|Gao Zhu
This article is expected to take 8 minutes to read
With the gradual recovery of the global travel market, Gen Z, as an emerging group of travel consumers, is gradually becoming a key factor affecting the development of the industry. Against this backdrop, there are some noteworthy new trends in the travel market, which not only reflect the unique travel needs of the younger generation, but also bring new development opportunities for the tourism industry. From food-driven niche city tours, to interactive travel experiences, to a combination of cultural and sporting events, the travel market is undergoing a change driven by interest and experience.
Food helps niche cities get out of the circle
On May Day last year, driven by the phenomenal traffic of "Zibo Barbecue", the number of hotel bookings in Shandong Province during the May Day period increased by nearly 3 times compared with the same period in 2019, ranking first in the country in terms of growth rate. The number of hotel bookings in Zibo increased by more than 10 times compared with the same period in 2019, ranking among the top five popular cities in Shandong Province for hotel bookings during the May Day period.
Coincidentally, Tianshui Malatang in recent months has also attracted a lot of tourists, since March this year (3.1-3.16), Tianshui's overall tourism orders have increased by 4% year-on-year, of which hotel orders have increased by more than 6% year-on-year. Among the tourists who go to Tianshui, tourists from other provinces account for 49%, about half, mainly from Shaanxi, Beijing, Jiangsu, Shanghai, Henan, Sichuan, Qinghai, Guangdong, Shandong and other places. From the perspective of age groups, the post-90s account for 35% of the main group, and the post-00s and post-80s both account for about 20%.
Wang Yalei, an industry analyst at Ctrip Research Institute, believes that food has always been one of the most important parts of travel, and now that global tourism is recovering, all tourists are regaining confidence and restarting their taste buds. To a certain extent, food is also a concrete embodiment of different regional cultures and histories, so food is not only the glue between travels, but also one of the most popular and almost barrier-free cultural experiences in travel, which is loved by the vast majority of people.
It's time for interactive tours
In today's increasingly diversified travel experience, interactive tourism is gradually becoming the new favorite of the industry. It is not only an innovation in the way of tourism, but also a major change in the concept of tourism consumption. Tourists are no longer satisfied with traditional sightseeing, but are eager to experience and participate more deeply in the culture and life of the destination.
On the Ctrip platform, the search volume of the scenic spot from March 25 to March 31 was 4% compared with the previous week, and it also drove the search popularity of Kaifeng related to Kaifeng to increase by 2% month-on-month. From March 18th to March 31st, tickets and hotel orders for Kaifeng Scenic Area increased by more than 3% month-on-month compared with the previous two weeks. During the Qingming Festival holiday, Kaifeng's overall tourism orders increased by more than 7 times compared with the same period last year.
Wang Yalei, an industry analyst at Ctrip Research Institute, said: "The popularity of the phenomenon of 'Wang Po Talking Matchmaker' is related to the topic of young people's marriage and love, and it is also the result of Kaifeng's continuous cultivation of 'Great Song Dynasty Culture'. This also reflects the preference of tourists for experiential tourism. Tourists not only want to see the scenery and eat delicious food, but also want to be immersed in it, have a sense of participation, and be able to interact. Kaifeng has a profound historical and cultural heritage, rich cultural and tourism resources, high cost performance, and rich performing arts projects in major scenic spots, which fully meets the experiential and interactive consumption experience of tourists. ”
Concerts and music festivals drive the city's heat
Since 2023, the tourism economy has gradually matured with cultural consumption activities such as concerts and music festivals. The flow of people driven by the boom in cultural activities has proven to be effective in driving the tourism economy of the city and its surrounding areas. In 2023, cross-city performances will also bring a new traffic password for the development of urban cultural tourism. According to the report, the proportion of cross-city audiences at large-scale concerts in 2023 will reach 68%, an increase of 7.4% compared with 2019, a record high. From the perspective of user structure, the proportion of ticket-buying audiences who watched two or more concerts exceeded 20%, and the number of audiences who watched more than four concerts reached 4%. In terms of age, concerts are more popular with young audiences, and the proportion of ticket-buying audiences under the age of 24 (post-00 audiences) is close to 4 percent. Last year, "2 million people grabbed tickets for Lin Junjie's Guangzhou concert online in seconds", "The concert drove hotel bookings to be hot", "The bubble tea shops and drink shops around the concert were on fire" and other related topics were frequently on the hot search. In September last year, Jay Chou's Tianjin concert accounted for 62% of foreign tourists, and the comprehensive consumption drive was also a blockbuster. A concert ticket drives the tourism popularity of a city, and such stories are staged again and again, not only in Guangzhou, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Haikou, Xi'an, Qingdao and other cities with intensive performing arts activities, but even Quzhou, Yichang and other places are also hot because of the holding of popular concerts. According to incomplete statistics, from March to December last year, more than 146 concerts have been held or will be held in Macao, involving more than 70 domestic and foreign artists and artist groups. According to the Macao Government Tourism Office, visitor arrivals in 2023 will be about 2.23 million, with a daily average of 77,000, recovering to 70% of the level of 2019. In addition, the number of visitor arrivals reached 17,530 on 31 December 2023, a new high for single-day visitor arrivals in 2023 and post-pandemic. Among them, concerts have contributed significantly to Macao's tourism economy, with concerts as the center, visiting scenic spots and destinations during the day and watching concerts at night are becoming the new normal of tourism.
Sporting events have become a new highlight
As cities grow, sports activities have become an important part of urban life, helping to enhance the city's image and attract tourists.
It is understood that the total output of Shanghai's sports industry will reach 200 billion yuan in 2023, and at present, the number of main units of the city's sports industry will exceed 30,000, the industrial structure will be continuously optimized, and the sports service industry will occupy the dominant position, with the total output and added value accounting for more than eighty percent and ninety percent of Shanghai's sports industry respectively. In 2023, the per capita sports consumption will exceed 4,000 yuan, and the spillover benefits of event consumption will be obvious, and sports consumption has become an important part of Shanghai's construction of an international consumption center city.
In recent years, the relationship between sports events and tourism has become closer and closer, especially in 2024, the year of sports, and tourism consumption driven by sports events has gradually heated up. During the three days of this year's F1 Chinese Grand Prix, the attendance was overwhelming, with nearly 200,000 spectators flocking to the Shanghai International Circuit to watch the race. Ctrip data shows that since April, F1 search popularity has increased by 78% month-on-month, and hotel bookings in Shanghai during the race period (April 18 to April 22) have increased by 63% year-on-year, and hotel bookings have continued to rise since April 5, and hotel bookings in Shanghai have increased by 10% this week compared with last week. In addition, during the competition period (April 18 to April 22), the Shanghai International Circuit ranked fourth among the scenic spots in Shanghai on the Ctrip platform, driving Jiading New Town to rank third among the popular business districts in terms of hotel room nights in Shanghai.
A typical example. This summer, Olympic fans who want to go to the scene to witness the wonderful performance of athletes have made France nearly 8 times more popular in search of the Olympic Games, ushering in an unprecedented tourism boom, jumping to the second most popular destination this summer, and the popularity of the capital Paris has skyrocketed by nearly 11 times year-on-year.
By innovating sports tourism products, promoting sports consumption, and closely integrating sports activities with urban development, it is expected to bring new impetus to related industries. The general public will also benefit from more high-quality sports activities and experiences.
It's not set in stone, and outbound travel is also open
Outbound tourism has suffered greatly in the epidemic, but in the post-epidemic era, with the benefit of the visa-free policy, outbound tourism has begun to recover rapidly. According to the "2024 May Day Holiday Travel Summary" released by Ctrip, Chinese tourists will travel abroad to nearly 200 countries and regions and more than 3,000 cities and towns around the world during the May Day holiday.
As Chinese tourists' demand for city walks, personalized tours, and local lifestyle experiences increases, destinations are launching targeted routes and product experiences. According to the Singapore Tourism Board, in response to these changes, it has been holding sharing sessions to introduce the latest market trends and connect with tourism operators to explore ways to support the return of Chinese tourists. Vivid Sydney, the largest multi-format arts festival in the Southern Hemisphere, has also unveiled its 2024 program. From 24 May to 15 June, for 23 consecutive nights, Vivid Sydney 2024 will bring audiences a wonderful Vivid Lights, Vivid Music, Vivid Ideas and Vivid Food experience under the theme of "Humanities".
It is worth mentioning that on May Day this year, Airbnb jumped out of the shackles of traditional homestay room types and launched a new special category "trump card" for the global market. It is understood that "Ace" will invite celebrities from all circles of music, film and television, art, sports, etc., to become ace landlords, and go deep into everyone's daily cultural field, whether you like sports, music, movies, racing and other fields, Airbnb will connect relevant cultural elements together, so that people can meet famous scenes in this field. Through the "Ace" project, lucky visitors will be able to stay at the Ferrari Museum in Italy and have the opportunity to drive a Ferrari 296 GTB sports car with the speed and passion of accelerating to 100 km/h in 2.5 seconds, while the film and television "Ace" will launch Carl's "Flying House", the same model of Pixar's classic animation "Flying House", allowing more than 8,000 balloons to lift off the ground with the dreams of Airbnb guests. There is also a highly restored 2D animation visual effect of Marvel's "X-Men 97" in the X Academy, from the walls, furniture, to every prop in the academy is super realistic, immersively satisfying the superhero complex of Marvel fans. There is also a chance to have a game duel with "Brother Speechless", stay in the game Loft designed by social media celebrity "Brother Speechless" himself, and have the opportunity to experience a bloody battle with him in "Fortnite".
Kong Zhiqiu, head of Airbnb's China business, told a reporter from TechNode: "For Gen Z's demand insights, we have two main trends that we would like to share with you. First, the trend of "purpose" over "destination" continues to be popular among the younger generation of Chinese travelers, who are increasingly going abroad based on their interests, such as going to Japan for a haircut, going to a Taylor Swift concert, or a comic con. It's very common to plan a trip based on a segment of interests. ”
epilogue
The emerging development trend of the tourism industry shows that personalized, experiential and interest-based tourism products are increasingly favored by the younger generation. As Gen Z becomes the main consumer in the travel market, travel operators need to continue to innovate and provide more diversified and differentiated travel services to meet the individual needs of this group. At the same time, how to balance tourism development and cultural preservation, how to improve the quality and depth of tourism experience, and how to maintain local characteristics in the context of globalization are all issues that the tourism industry needs to think deeply. In the future, the development of the tourism industry will pay more attention to cultural integration and technological innovation to adapt to the changing market demand and consumer expectations.
This article is an original article by TechNode reporters, and may not be reprinted without authorization.
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