February 6, 2023, is a time node attracting much attention in the tourism industry: after three years, China will resume the pilot outbound group tour and "air ticket + hotel" business to 20 countries including Thailand.
The first group of outbound tourists left Guangzhou for Dubai at 0:15 am, while 14 tourists from Chengdu left for Phuket in Thailand in the afternoon. How eager are people to travel? According to reports, a travel agency in Guangzhou launched a "10-day tour to the North and South Islands of New Zealand" on February 3. The tour fee was about 26,000 yuan per person, and 40 slots sold out within one minute.
Outbound team tour restart, whether the market will usher in a rapid outbreak? Compared with the previous, outbound travel routes, prices will be restructured? How hot is it for outbound travel?
Some tourism products are immediately empty as soon as they go online
At 10:30 a.m. on June 6, the T1 International/Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan terminal of Shuangliu Airport, an endless stream of passengers sent a signal that tourists' confidence is rapidly recovering, outbound tourism is hot up.
Chen LAN, a resident of Chengdu, and her family of three were waiting early for a flight departing at 14:50 to Phuket, Thailand, for a six-day, five-night trip. Chen LAN said that this was her third trip to Thailand, and it was also her son's long-awaited high school graduation trip. "It's finally here!"
At present, many cities in China have sent overseas tour groups, Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chengdu and other cities have sent overseas tour groups, the destinations are different, there are "Thailand", "Singapore", "Egypt", "Dubai, Abu Dhabi", and so on, and this is just the beginning.
"Going forward, we will strengthen the layout and expansion of various open destinations in Southeast Asia, including the routes to Phuket, and plan to maintain the frequency of daily Tours to form a more regular market supply. In the meantime, we will gradually open a series of new overseas destinations from March, such as the first tour of Russia." Gao Lei, general manager of Chengdu China Youth Travel Service Co., LTD.
The reporter has learned that on February 7 and 8, many travel agencies and online travel companies launched a series of initial group Tours to Russia, the United Arab Emirates and Chiang Mai, Thailand. "Air ticket + hotel" products such as semi-free Tours to Singapore and free Tours to Fiji for 7 days have also been launched.
The recovery in tourist confidence is also reflected in the gradual recovery in demand for long-term overseas travel. According to reports, Guangzhou Guangzhilu International Travel Service Co., Ltd. launched its first tour of New Zealand's North and South Islands for 10 days on February 3. The tour fee was about 26,000 yuan per person, and 40 spots sold out within one minute. On Ctrip, the first outbound group from New Zealand, which departed on March 18 with an average of 27,999 yuan per person, was also sold immediately after sale.
Meanwhile, online travel platforms have seen an increase in bookings for outbound travel products. Ctrip data showed that the week after the Spring Festival, the number of outbound group tour and "air ticket + hotel" package bookings increased more than three times compared to the week of the holiday. "This data reflects tourists' renewed confidence in outbound travel, as well as a wider range of products on travel agencies' shelves, providing people with more diverse choices when traveling." Ctrip team tour CEO Jiang Wen said.
What are the changes in routes and prices?
To boutique, custom - based, the price has been floating
The reporters combed through the first group of overseas tourists from around the country on February 6, and there were two characteristics worth paying attention to. Compared with the previous large group of outbound tourists, which usually consisted of 30 to 40 people, several first groups controlled the number of visitors and maintained the number of 10-25 people. The composition of tourists covers all ages, which means that tourists have different demands for travel products.
"There have been many changes in tourists' consumption concepts and trends." Gao said that tourists originally wanted to go out and have a look, but after three years of backlogs, the willingness of tourists has changed from simply "going out and having a look" to in-depth experience Tours, which put forward more requirements for the sense of experience and quality of tourism teams.
Chengdu to Phuket Thailand first group travel consultant Xu Wei has a more intuitive feeling. Xu Wei admitted that although Phuket is a classic route in the past, there are still many unknown changes, which need careful observation and research by professional tourism service practitioners. He not only had to help tourists with travel arrangements and schedule consultation, but also did a lot of "homework" on the latest policy requirements of the destination in advance.
In fact, not only have there been many new changes in outbound travel demand, but also the products and prices of outbound travel are being restructured. The reporter has learned that at present, Chengdu CYTS has designed and launched more than 30 outbound tourism products, involving more than 10 countries and regions such as Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Russia, Maldives, the United Arab Emirates, mainly free tour and semi-free tour products.
An estimate from a travel platform showed that a seven-day trip to Thailand in February would cost 6,000 to 10,000 yuan per person at a five-diamond luxury hotel, while a seven-day trip to Malaysia, Vietnam, Cambodia and other countries would cost 4,500 to 6,500 yuan. "Compared to 2019, prices have really gone up." Gao Lei said that one of the reasons is affected by the route recovery resources, another reason is that the overseas destination tourism service system has not recovered to a very complete or mature state, the whole market supply still needs to be improved, the price is slightly higher.
In addition, after the epidemic, tourists have higher requirements for tourism quality. Currently, the tourism products launched in the market are mainly high-quality and customized. But overall, the growth will be modest and will ease as the supply chain recovers, especially for international flights.
Will there be explosive growth?
It is expected to recover to 40 to 50 percent of 2019
With the resumption of the domestic outbound group tour market on February 6, both traditional travel agencies and online travel platforms mentioned that the number of page views of outbound routes and the number of inquiries related to passports and visas have increased significantly. Thailand, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, New Zealand, Maldives, Laos, Indonesia and other destinations are favored by tourists. So, after the restart of the outbound tourism market will usher in explosive growth? How long until the bulk shipment?
"Personally, I think there will be a retaliatory rebound in the outbound tourism market this year, and the overall market situation will have a relatively big recovery, but there is still a long way to go before it returns to the level of 2019." Gao said that according to the China Tourism Academy's report, outbound tourism is expected to recover to 40 to 50 percent of 2019.
In fact, according to the current market feedback, the number of tourists who have actually signed up is not large enough, some tourists have expired passports and failed to apply, and they are concerned about the price of outbound tourism and the entry epidemic prevention policies of destination countries. All these lead many people to wait and see about the current group outbound tourism. In addition, "Limited by international airline capacity, destination hotel supply and local agency reception capacity, and other factors, the current large-scale restart of outbound group tour is not qualified".
Zhou Mingqi, founder of Jingjian Intelligence, an industry economic consultancy, agrees that the outbound tourism business will restart quickly, but it will take longer to recover to pre-pandemic conditions. "We are optimistic that outbound tourism will return to 60 to 70 percent of pre-epidemic levels by the National Day holiday this year."
But an obvious message is that on the online travel platform, "Qingming" and "May Day" two small holiday outbound travel search volume, consulting heat has begun to appear, "Qingming" related search volume increased 127% month on month, "May Day" related search volume increased 187% month on month. Outbound tourism is expected to see an explosive growth this year, with pre-epidemic levels expected to recover from May Day to summer vacation, according to Tongcheng Travel.