Reporter Li Li reports from Shanghai
The May Day holiday that has just ended, the sinking market and outbound travel have become the growth poles, and more and more Chinese people choose to travel abroad.
Ctrip data shows that during the May Day holiday, the growth rate of inbound and outbound travel orders was higher than that of domestic travel. During the May Day holiday, Chinese tourists traveled abroad to nearly 200 countries and more than 3,000 cities and towns around the world. Fliggy's monitoring shows that the recovery of outbound travel during this year's May Day holiday has accelerated, and on the basis of last year's sharp rebound, it is still growing at a rate of nearly double.
Outbound travel is becoming a new driving force for the recovery of the cultural tourism market after the epidemic, but a survey by a reporter from China Business News found that as Generation Z has become a new force in outbound travel, new consumption trends such as "purpose" is greater than "destination" and independent travel are driving structural changes in outbound travel.
Independent travel accounts for more than eighty percent
According to the summary data of various OTA platforms, Hong Kong and Macao, Southeast Asia, Japan and South Korea and other short-haul countries and regions are popular outbound destinations, and long-distance outbound destinations are mainly the United States, Australia, and the United Kingdom.
Due to the decline in the yen exchange rate, the cost performance of travel to Japan has increased significantly, and Japan has become a popular destination for tourists. Qunar data shows that the top 10 popular destinations during the May Day period are Thailand, Japan, Malaysia, South Korea, Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, the United States, the Philippines, and Australia, and the number of air ticket bookings to Japan has increased by more than 60% compared with 2019, ranking first among the top ten destinations.
It is worth noting that compared with before the epidemic, independent travel has begun to become the mainstream of outbound travel during the holidays. Fliggy told reporters that this year's May Day holiday accounted for more than eighty percent of the free travel. In destinations such as Europe and Africa, where the threshold for travel is relatively high, the concept of independent travel is also becoming more and more popular, and many young tourists tend to disassemble the original "all-inclusive" itinerary into "a few days with a group tour + a few days of independent travel", taking into account efficiency and freedom.
FIT has become the mainstream of outbound travel, which is related to the general trend of tourists seeking personalized experience and simple and transparent services. From the perspective of the industry, the proportion of young people in the outbound tourist group has increased year by year, especially the proportion of young people in the independent travel group has increased more obviously, and young people have become a new force in the outbound tourism market.
How to view the phenomenon that the growth rate of inbound and outbound tourism orders is higher than that of domestic travel at the beginning of May this year? "This is a normal process, and the recovery period for outbound travel is longer than that for domestic travel. Last year, May Day domestic travel took the lead in ushering in a retaliatory recovery, and the recovery of outbound travel involves more links and factors in the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain, and the recovery speed is significantly slower than that of domestic travel. Cheng Chaogong, chief researcher of Tongcheng Research Institute, told reporters.
In Cheng Chaogong's view, there are three reasons for the accelerated recovery of outbound travel.
The core reason is that the overall recovery of the supply side of outbound tourism is better. According to the statistics released by the Civil Aviation Administration, the passenger volume of international flights in the first quarter has recovered to 78% of the same period in 2019, the number of direct flights with major regions is also increasing rapidly, and the price of international air tickets has basically returned to normal levels.
Secondly, the recovery of various forms of outbound tourism is relatively good, and the service formats such as outbound cruises, overseas ground pick-up, and car rental are all recovering rapidly, effectively supporting the recovery of the demand side.
Thirdly, China's "visa-free circle of friends" has expanded rapidly, and the visa mutual exemption policies with Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and other countries have been implemented, and the related policy effects have created good conditions for the recovery of outbound travel demand.
"Destination" is greater than "Destination"
"I planned to go to Thailand with my friends a month ago, and we didn't want to check in step by step, but wanted to explore more local content, such as the night market in which district and the bar on which corner." Mr. Zou, a tourist from Suzhou, told reporters.
There are more and more outbound tourists like Mr. Zou who are no longer simply traveling to check in, but are looking for unique experiences. This summer, the trend of "purpose" over "destination" continues to be hot among Chinese travelers. According to Airbnb China's data, Olympic fans who want to witness the wonderful performance of athletes in person have made the search popularity of France during the Olympics increase by nearly 8 times year-on-year, 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.
The reporter noted that in 2022, Airbnb China announced that it would suspend support for domestic travel listings, experiences and related bookings, and still focus on outbound travel business. Airbnb said that Airbnb's outbound travel business in China is continuing to grow steadily, and it is expected that by the end of 2024, China's outbound travel will exceed the level of the same period in 2019.
"From the perspective of the distribution of play intentions, 'outbound travel +' is the general trend, and the integration of outbound sightseeing/vacation with travel needs such as adventures, concerts, and sports events is a relatively popular way to play. Due to the rapid growth of young people's demand for personalized and differentiated travel experiences, they are more inclined to explore more non-traditional destinations. As the consumption of concerts and other performances continues to heat up, the outbound travel method of cross-border performances has become a new choice for many young consumers. Cheng Chaogong said. In September 2023, the affordable package of hotel + concert tickets jointly launched by Tongcheng Travel and the organizer of the Jay Chou Carnival World Tour 2023 Bangkok Station was sold out as soon as it was launched.
Noting the trend of outbound travel and the changes in the structure of the crowd, the cultural tourism market has also begun to transform on the product side. According to Tongcheng Travel, it is establishing close cooperative relations with popular destinations such as Malaysia, Thailand, and Singapore, and continuing to optimize the vacation service experience of outbound travel, cruise tourism, and visas by strengthening the full-scene coverage of "online + offline" tourism consumption.
"As a key group of outbound travelers, women are also a key consumer group in the Korean market. In 2024, there will be 282 flights per week from Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shanghai and Anhui to South Korea, and it is becoming a trend to travel to South Korea on weekends. A person from the Shanghai office of the Korea Tourism Organization told reporters.
In order to attract more people to embark on a Korean experience trip, South Korea has launched 11 Korean products for women to relieve stress and travel to South Korea, especially for college students, working people, mothers, retired aunts and other groups. These include the "Be a K-Pop Star!" themed one-day tour for students, the "Colorful Korea 4-Day Tour" for working adults and a three-piece Korean beauty experience, and the "Korean Wellness 4-Day Tour" for retired aunts to create a new self in a traditional historical atmosphere.
With the change of travel trends and product design, it has become urgent to gain insight into outbound consumers. The daily interactive big data extracts the active population of functional apps such as maps, guides, and hotel reservations commonly used by outbound travelers as samples, and the data exclusively provided by the reporter of China Business News shows that there is not much difference between the gender of men and women in outbound travelers. The preference for outbound travel is relatively prominent among the 18-24-year-old and 35-44-year-old age groups, and the post-00s generation is still active in outbound travel and has become a new force in the tourism market.
Daily interactive big data also found that most of the outbound tourists came from first- and second-tier cities, and people with high consumption levels dominated. The top three in the index of preference for outbound travel are Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen. They have a high quality of life and are happy homes with babies and pets. They love to travel more than self-driving, and have an obvious preference for new energy vehicles for daily travel, and pay attention to dietary health and physical health, among which the preference index for food recipes and the application of sports and weight loss is higher.
It is worth noting that outbound travelers have a very obvious preference for financial management, and they are high-performance office workers with economic acumen. Long Journey is keen on puzzle games and knowledge reading, and they are most likely also lovers of physical book reading.
(Editor: Wu Qing Review: Li Zhenghao Proofreader: Yan Jingning)