A few days ago, the Politburo meeting set the tone: take service consumption as an important starting point for consumption expansion and upgrading, and support consumption such as cultural tourism, elderly care, child care, and housekeeping, which once again confirmed the high positioning of cultural tourism.
If we want to build a tourism powerhouse, inbound tourism is undoubtedly an area that cannot be ignored.
This summer, the inbound tourism is also getting louder.
With the continuous expansion of the "visa-free circle of friends", as well as the explosion of "China Travel" and "City Not City" on global social media, foreign tourists have flocked to China, and a large number of foreign friends are eager to try.
The state of travel agencies is a microcosm. According to a recent report by CCTV News, all travel agencies with international business are full of orders, and a large number of foreign friends want to come to China to turn around, and the person in charge of a travel agency in Poland also said that China is now an ideal tourist destination for many people.
Moreover, the unexpected surprise is that inbound tourism has become an effective way to break through the "information cocoon", making "China Travel" = "quiet, safe and modern", and a huge chain reaction may start from there.
It is not difficult to judge that this is not only an opportunity for the recovery of inbound tourism, but also an opportunity for the industry to reshape.
The question is, how exactly does the demand side support the formation of a long-term trend? How to build a high-quality system on the supply side?
01
Three clues to insight into needs
From the demand side, there are three points worth paying attention to, which constitute a relatively stable support framework.
The first point is that the development of inbound tourism conforms to the national strategic needs, and the economic and strategic value that can be brought is not limited to the tourism industry.
From an economic point of view, inbound travel is an important part of trade in services, and the expansion of the visa-free policy is equivalent to encouraging exports, which will help increase GDP. Moreover, inbound tourism can bring incremental wealth to the country, because inbound tourism is to earn foreign exchange income, which is different from the logic of outbound tourism and domestic tourism.
Referring to a recent Morgan Stanley report, the imagination is also considerable.
According to Morgan Stanley's estimates, the revenue of inbound tourism is expected to reach 1.7-4.5 trillion US dollars in the next 10 years, and the contribution rate of inbound tourism to China's GDP is expected to rise to 2-4% in 10 years.
In addition, the development of inbound tourism to let the world see the real China, is destined to be an important symbol and link of tourism power and opening up.
Just like the breakthrough of inbound tourism to the "information cocoon". The video content taken by foreign tourists during the trip allows the foreign public to understand China more intuitively, and has caused a large number of spontaneous transmissions, and its high-frequency use of "unexpected" and "never expected" to express sensory impact, reflecting cognitive changes, which will also serve as the underlying support of a tourism powerhouse.
In the final analysis, user behavior is the appearance, and cognition is the underlying driving force.
Looking at it further, this is also of great significance for areas such as open innovation. Historically, the world's innovation centers have been centers of personnel exchange, just like Greece and Rome more than 2,000 years ago, and Xi'an during China's Tang Dynasty.
In this context, it is reasonable to expect that relevant policies will continue to be effective and support the release of demand in the long run.
The second point is that the development of inbound tourism conforms to people's "high-level needs", and at present, it is a collection of "counter-cyclical" and "new increment" characteristics.
As the economy grows to a certain level where food and clothing are no longer a major issue, people will naturally turn to the pursuit of spiritual needs, which are reflected in Maslow's high-level needs in terms of socialization, respect, and self-actualization. When people think of tourism, the first key words that come to mind are exploration, freedom, enjoyment, etc., which just meets the need for self-realization.
In the long-term spiritual pursuit, people are likely to be more active in finding the meaning of life, and tourism provides a way to land.
At the same time, given the pressures on the global economy, people may instead increase their spending on FMCG or services markets to improve their well-being and tend to travel, similar to the "lipstick effect".
Nowadays, inbound tourism is also considered to be a new incremental opportunity in the tourism market. As mentioned earlier, Morgan Stanley expects the contribution of inbound tourism to China's GDP to rise to 2-4% in 10 years' time. Previously, Liang Jianzhang, chairman of the board of directors of Trip.com Group, said that if its proportion can be increased to the international median, that is, 1.5% of GDP, it will bring at least 1 trillion yuan of growth space.
In both dimensions, the Japan experience provides experience.
Looking back at history, at the end of the 20th century, Japan's economy fell into a downturn, and tourism became one of the few industries that developed against the trend; In recent years, Japan's tourism industry has developed rapidly, and inbound tourism has grown significantly and has become a pillar of the economy. In the first quarter of this year, the nominal consumption of inbound tourists expanded to five times the annual figure of 10 years ago.
Third, the demand and connotation of inbound tourism are also continuously enriching and advancing, and "China Travel" is becoming diversified and personalized.
On the one hand, as cognition forms the underlying driving force, the demand for inbound tourism is undoubtedly increasing; On the other hand, this demand is also moving in the direction of diversification and personalization.
For example, foreign tourists are no longer satisfied with flying around, but fall in love with taking high-speed trains and experiencing China's speed; Not only did they check in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Xi'an and other cities, but they also began to expand the map after learning basic access and payment in these "novice villages", including Yiwu, Beihai and other "niche" cities were also excavated.
At the same time, foreign tourists tend to customize and feature itineraries, especially "repeat customers" prefer to learn the personalization of Chinese culture and experience it in depth, such as learning Cantonese embroidery and Cantonese opera in Guangzhou.
These changes are all incremental, and they are opportunities, which will bring more structural new opportunities and inject more impetus into inbound tourism.
Thanks to these three levels of demand, the inbound tourism market has built a relatively stable "triangular support structure" on the demand side.
For example, the demand for inbound tourism can be advanced based on the national strategic needs to obtain good soil, and then better comply with people's high-level self-realization pursuit.
On this basis, it is not difficult to judge that the future of the inbound tourism market is bright, and there is a tendency to accelerate the recovery and even rush to the next level.
02
OTA platforms follow the trend
Of course, the increasing market demand also puts forward higher requirements for the supply side.
From the bottom or source, it may be said that under the national policy dividend, major OTA companies provide a more convenient travel experience for overseas tourists around the whole link of inbound travel such as payment, tickets, accommodation, and travel, and the market behavior is more appropriate.
The first pass of entry is inevitably a visa issue.
This year, China has adopted a series of visa facilitation measures, from unilateral visa exemption, mutual visa exemption, to the 72/144-hour transit visa-free policy, allowing tourists from all over the world to "walk as they go".
According to the latest data, China's 72/144-hour transit visa-free policy has been extended to 54 countries, and the National Immigration Administration has also implemented a 144-hour transit visa-free policy at 37 ports in Beijing, Tianjin, Shijiazhuang and other places. In addition, China has also piloted a visa-free policy for six countries, namely Switzerland, Ireland, Hungary, Austria, Belgium and Luxembourg, which is valid until November 30, 2024, and continues to expand the visa-free "circle of friends".
After entering China smoothly, the basic elements of tourism cannot be bypassed, which can be simply summarized into four aspects: "payment", "accommodation", "travel" and "play".
In order to match demand, the supply side is bound to need the cooperation of OTA leaders, with its international business layout, global supply chain and customer resources, in order to better meet the wide range of users and respond to the high-frequency and diversified needs of the tourism market.
It is crucial that the delivery of travel services and the consumer experience are ultimately realized in an offline environment. This involves effectively integrating tourism products and services, adopting more efficient system processes, and working closely with all parts of the value chain to meet emerging individual needs.
As a leading domestic OTA company, Ctrip's various measures confirm this.
(1) Payment
Due to differences in payment habits and preferences, some foreign tourists are not accustomed to China's payment environment, which affects their travel consumption experience to a certain extent.
This year, various ministries and commissions have introduced measures to optimize payment services, such as the General Office of the State Council issued the "Opinions on Further Optimizing Payment Services and Improving Payment Convenience", which clearly aims to improve the convenience and popularity of payment services, and ensure the smooth implementation of payment methods such as "large-value card swiping, small-value QR code scanning, and cash pocket", so that foreign tourists can enjoy a barrier-free consumption experience.
Under the guidance of the policy, WeChat, Alipay and other platforms have taken action and responded positively. Among them, Alipay has increased the limits for single and annual transactions for foreigners, and introduced convenient features such as multilingual services and "one-code pass". WeChat simplifies the registration and payment process for foreign users, allowing them to bind a foreign card or recharge a small amount to enjoy the same convenient payment experience as domestic users.
In this regard, Ctrip provides "coin purses" at 24 foreign currency exchange outlets in 13 cities across the country, containing a number of small denominations such as 20 yuan, 10 yuan, and 5 yuan, which are convenient for overseas customers to exchange. At the same time, it is also cooperating with hotels in Shanghai to carry out a pilot business of foreign currency exchange in hotels. In other words, when foreign tourists check in at a hotel authorized by Ctrip, they can immediately apply for a small amount of exchange business at the front desk of the hotel.
(2) Accommodation
Concerned that some foreign tourists had previously said that they were refused to stay in hotels on the grounds that they were "unable to receive foreign guests", the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Commerce, and the National Immigration Administration jointly stated that the hotel industry should not refuse to accept foreign personnel on the grounds that they did not have foreign-related qualifications.
At the same time, as the public is increasingly concerned about the security and privacy of facial recognition technology, considering that criminals may use the technology to carry out illegal and criminal activities, hotels in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and other places have canceled the requirement of mandatory face brushing for check-in to dispel tourists' concerns about privacy leakage.
In addition, in Shanghai and other places, there are all kinds of special accommodation resources to further open to inbound tourists, and the front desk also provides English maps, and American and British options are added for breakfast, etc., to continuously dredge the "blockage" of inbound tourism.
(3) Travel
As foreign tourists arrive in China, they may encounter challenges on their way to their destinations, such as not being familiar with how to use public transportation and operating domestic ride-hailing apps, which can affect their travel experience.
Concerned about this pain point, in April this year, Ctrip Limousine entered Ctrip's overseas platform to provide car services for overseas tourists. At present, the service has landed in 26 popular inbound tourism cities across the country, and foreign tourists can directly book the car travel service provided by Ctrip through Ctrip's overseas platform, and enjoy unlimited free, all-inclusive, bilingual drivers in Chinese and English.
In addition, Ctrip also launched the "Welcome to China" campaign, where overseas tourists can enjoy a free pick-up service when they book air tickets to Chengdu, Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Chongqing, Xi'an and other seven cities in the summer.
(4) Play
With the cancellation of the ticket reservation system in many scenic spots, Ctrip has acted in response to demand and optimized the ticket purchase service of scenic spots.
In response to the problems that foreign tourists may encounter in purchasing tickets in scenic spots, such as language barriers and inability to find ticket offices, Ctrip's overseas platform has opened online ticketing services for more than 2,000 scenic spots in China, and has also launched international ticket vending machines in nearly 30 scenic spots, such as the Badaling Great Wall and the Mausoleum Museum of the First Qin Emperor, to support overseas tourists to purchase tickets in multiple languages and payment methods. In addition, Ctrip's overseas platform has also launched more than 8,000 day-trip and half-day tour products to meet the personalized travel needs of overseas tourists.
It can be concluded that the development of inbound tourism is the result of the dual effect of policy support and market demand.
In particular, OTA platforms with strong operation and service capabilities such as Ctrip can better adapt to the needs of the new industry chain and provide consumers with more personalized and diversified outbound travel products and services, which plays a vital role in this process.
With the gradual recovery of cross-border capacity and the optimization of the visa-free facilitation policy, leading OTA platforms such as Ctrip may be the first to benefit from this, occupying a more important position in the future inbound travel market and becoming the main engine of industry growth.
03
epilogue
The potential and opportunities of the inbound tourism market have never been more evident and palpable than they are today.
In the face of the huge potential of the inbound and outbound tourism market and the continuous evolution of consumer demand, supply-side innovation and change have become crucial. This not only helps to drive the continued development of the market, but is also a key driver.
As an OTA leader, Ctrip has not only taken a leading position in the industry, but is also consolidating and enhancing its core competitive advantages.
We firmly believe that with the in-depth development of China's digital economy, OTAs such as Ctrip will continue to integrate into the new era, serve as the infrastructure of China's digital economy, tell China's story well, and continue to explore and explore new growth points in the industry on this basis.
In the future, more exciting surprises and results may continue to emerge, and the new value of OTA platforms such as Ctrip needs to be discovered by the market.