At the end of June, primary and secondary schools have started the summer vacation mode, and the summer tourism season has also started for about two months. A few days ago, Trip.com Group released the "2024 Summer Travel Market Forecast Report" (hereinafter referred to as the "Report"). According to the report, the domestic tourism market has maintained steady growth this summer, and the search popularity of domestic hotels and air tickets has increased by more than 20% year-on-year. Inbound and outbound tourism has grown rapidly due to the impact of policy dividends, with travel orders to Europe, Latin America and other countries increasing by more than 8 percent, and the overall orders of inbound tourism increasing by 1 times year-on-year. From the end of June to the beginning of July, mid-July, and mid-August, there are three peak summer travel seasons.
Domestic travel: long-term travel accounts for more than 7% of endogenous growth to promote the sinking of the market
Long-term travel is the main force in the summer, and according to the current data, it accounts for more than 7 percent. Traditionally popular long-haul border tours continue to be sought after, with travel bookings in the northeast and southwest regions increasing by 40% and 25% year-on-year respectively, and summer wilderness tours in the northwest region also increasing by more than 20% year-on-year. Representative long-term travel destinations include Xinjiang Ring Road, Qinggan Ring Road, Hohhot Grassland Ring Road, West Sichuan Ring Road, West Yunnan Ring Road, etc., and 8-10 day long-term tours have become the favorite of tourists. According to Ctrip's car rental data, the average rental period of domestic summer car rental self-driving is 7 days, and more than 50% of users rent for a long period of 5 days or more.
From the perspective of booking data, Shanghai, Beijing, Chengdu, Guangzhou, Xi'an, Urumqi, Hangzhou, Chongqing, Nanjing and Shenzhen are the top ten popular tourist cities in China in the summer. However, at the same time, lower-tier markets such as fifth-tier cities and counties are still active. During the summer vacation, tourism orders in fifth-tier cities increased by 34% year-on-year, and county-level tourism orders increased by 22% year-on-year, both higher than the growth rate of first-tier and new first-tier cities. Among the top ten popular county-level tourist destinations, Yili Prefecture has become the big winner, with Yining City, Xinyuan County, Burqin, and Turks being selected.
From this year's Spring Festival to "May Day" and then to the summer vacation, the sinking tourism market represented by the county has continued to grow rapidly, reflecting the diversification trend of tourist destinations and source areas, and is becoming an important force to promote the healthy and sustainable development of the tourism market.
This summer, with the recovery of the domestic tourism supply chain, the market returned to endogenous growth. Endogenous growth is reflected in the continuous optimization of market supply. Domestic hotels, theme parks and other tourism businesses have made full use of various favorable policies to launch new projects and products. Parent-child hotels and theme parks in many places have newly opened before the summer, or launched new ways to play in summer. According to incomplete statistics, in June alone, more than 10 large-scale theme parks or parent-child hotels such as Zhoushan Changqiao Ocean International Tourism Resort and Jinqiao Haichang Penguin Resort Hotel opened. Last year's hot but the supply chain has not yet recovered the study tour products, this year the merchants are more prepared, orders soared at the same time, the price is basically the same as last year. In addition, many scenic spots have also launched preferential activities such as free tickets and half-price tickets for high school and college entrance examination candidates.
In order to facilitate users to truly realize self-driving on arrival, before the start of the summer vacation, Ctrip Car Rental has successively set up car rental centers in Xi'an North Railway Station, Shanghai Hongqiao Railway Station, Suzhou Railway Station, Chongqing West and North Railway Station, Changsha Huanghua Airport, Guangzhou Baiyun Airport, etc., and plans to expand to popular destinations such as Haikou East Railway Station, Hulunbuir Hailar Airport, Yinchuan Hedong International Airport, and Dehong Mangshi Airport in the summer.
The endogenous growth is also reflected in the further elimination of pain points in the tourism market. Last summer, tickets for popular attractions/museums around the world were hard to come by, which seriously affected the visitor experience. In response to this pain point, this summer, Shanghai, Suzhou, Beijing and other places will focus on tourists, except for some key scenic spots, promote the complete cancellation of the real-name reservation system for scenic spots/museums, and add sunshade shelters (umbrellas), rest seats and other cooling and rain shelter facilities to further improve the experience of tourists.
Inbound and outbound: policy dividends have emerged, and the market has grown faster
Under the influence of policy dividends such as accelerated recovery of supply chains and visa optimization, overseas payment facilitation and accommodation optimization, the inbound and outbound markets have grown rapidly. China's visa-free and 72/144-hour transit visa-free policies for many countries around the world have formed a "China Travel" boom on overseas social platforms, attracting many tourists to travel to China's "special forces".
According to the report, summer inbound travel orders increased by 1 times year-on-year, and inbound travel orders from 14 countries, including France, Italy, Germany, Malaysia and Thailand, which can enter China without visas, increased by 1.5 times year-on-year. Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Xi'an, Shenzhen, Qingdao, Hangzhou, Chongqing and Kunming are popular cities for inbound tourism. Northeast cities such as Shenyang, Dalian and Harbin, which have "natural air conditioning", also performed eye-catchingly, ranking among the top 15 popular cities for inbound tourism.
The summer global village will still be full of Chinese, from the African savannah to the South American rainforest, from the European Cup green field to the Southeast Asian islands, there are Chinese tourists. Japan, South Korea and Southeast Asia are still popular destinations, but long-haul travel has increased significantly. Among the top 10 popular outbound destinations in the summer, long-haul destinations account for 5 seats, namely the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, France, Italy, etc.
Sports events such as the Paris Olympics and the European Cup have driven a significant increase in travel orders to Europe. French summer travel orders increased by 8% year-on-year, and chartered tour orders increased by more than 5% year-on-year. German travel orders increased by more than 1.5 times year-on-year. "France, Italy and Sweden" and "Benelux France" are popular group tours and chartered bus tours. Compared with last year, the countries with a higher growth rate of outbound travel orders this year are Saudi Arabia, Austria, Turkey, Croatia, Morocco, Germany, Hungary, Tanzania, Kazakhstan, etc., and European countries also account for a higher proportion.
At the same time, with the opening of direct flights to Latin America, long-haul destinations such as Brazil, Mexico, Peru, Argentina, Colombia and Cuba have also returned to the field of vision of Chinese tourists, and summer travel orders have increased by more than 80% year-on-year.
The average price of research products increased by 7% and remained the same as last year
Parent-child users are the absolute main force in the summer travel market, with some parent-child users accounting for about 48% of domestic travel and 52% of parent-child users of outbound travel. This kind of "dragging family with mouth" travel prefers "one car does not transfer in the end", and has a spacious and cool space for car rental self-driving tours and chartered car tours, and the proportion of parent-child users in chartered car tours is more than 8 percent.
Parent-child research products are still very popular, and orders for related products have increased by 7% year-on-year, and prices are basically the same as last year. Beijing, Shanghai, Qinggan, Sichuan, Inner Mongolia, Ningxia, Guizhou, Yunnan, Xinjiang and other popular study destinations in China, some popular routes have been sold out. Overseas long-term study tour routes such as the United Kingdom and the United States, as well as short-term study tour routes such as Singapore and Thailand are popular, and various theme travel products such as real transfers, visits to famous schools, and close to nature are among the top sellers.
Summer vacation is also the peak of "graduation tour", and the "post-00s" start their first long-distance trip in their lives while "taking the oath of travel", following their friends to "textbook tour" and enjoying the great rivers and mountains of the motherland. Ctrip's "Jump into the Textbook Trip" customized gameplay increased by 103% in June compared with May. Among them, the sixth-grade text "Grassland" and the fourth-grade text "Colorful Pool" are the most popular, and tourists customize the experience of Inner Mongolia milk tofu described in the text, the coolness of Jiuzhaigou and so on. The overall tourism orders of the "post-00s" in the summer increased by 5% year-on-year, accounting for an increase of 3 percentage points. It is expected that after the release of the admission notice in July, many prospective college students will go to Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Wuhan, Xi'an, Nanjing, Tianjin and other cities where colleges and universities are concentrated.
Super hot and super long holidays come at the same time, and it is time to "go up the mountain, go down to the sea and enter the grassland" summer tourism
Meteorological experts predict that the temperature in most parts of the country this summer will be higher than that of the same period in normal years, and the number of hot days will be on the high side. Super hot and super long holidays come at the same time, and summer vacation destinations are hot. Whether it is a popular destination for domestic long-term travel or a popular city for inbound tourism, it is inseparable from the good climatic conditions behind it, which is suitable for summer tourism.
The natural summer retreat of "no city" is popular with tourists, and the characteristics of "going up the mountain and down to the sea into the grassland" are obvious. Forest walking, grassland "wildness", water cooling, bamboo rafting, lake wonders, seaside blowing and so on have become market darlings. According to the report, orders for tourism products such as summer vacation-related group tours, independent travel, and scenic spot tickets increased by more than 1 times year-on-year. Among them, orders for grassland, lake, rafting and water park tourism products increased by more than 2% year-on-year, and orders for waterfall tourism products increased by more than 4% year-on-year. Among the summer islands, Liugong Island, Wuzhizhou Island, Donghai Island, Pingtan Island, Penglai Island, etc., and Phuket, Okinawa, Basha Island, Portushiti Island, Phu Quoc Island and other popular destinations abroad.
There are also some tourists who choose to escape the heat in natural scenic spots and suburbs around the city close to home. Popular destinations for summer trips include Shanghai, Hangzhou, Nanjing, Guangzhou, Beijing, Shenzhen, Tianjin, Hefei, Jinan, Zhengzhou, etc.
According to the report, Yili Prefecture, Dali Prefecture, Hulunbuir City, Aba Prefecture, Xishuangbanna Prefecture, Kashgar Prefecture, Altay Prefecture, Yanbian Prefecture and other areas with good ecology, climate and ethnic minority customs are popular for summer tourism, and all of them are among the top 50 popular destinations in China. Tourists can cool off in the natural scenery, and can also experience the special clothing and food of ethnic minorities.
Editor-in-charge: Wu Yue