A year later, the cold winter still has not passed.
Editor’s note: This article is from the micro-channel public number “Global Travel Weekly” (ID: Traveldaily), Author: Jia Li Yong.
One year later, the cold winter has not passed.
[Global Travel News] Due to the outbreak of the epidemic, on January 12, the cities of Shijiazhuang, Xingtai and Langfang in Hebei Province have all declared their cities closed. For this reason, a group of people who were going to set foot on the way home can only “sit in place to celebrate the New Year.”
This scene is hard not to remind people of Wuhan a year ago.
At the end of January 2020, the new crown epidemic began to raging; soon, on January 23, Wuhan announced the closure of the city.
In a rush, tourism companies quickly began to stop taking orders, unsubscribing, closing stores, etc., but the bigger test is yet to come.
January 24, 2020, this is the day when tourism companies were formally pressed the pause button.
The Ministry of Culture and Tourism issued an emergency notice requesting national travel agencies and online travel companies to suspend group travel and “air ticket + hotel” travel products. Attractions such as the Forbidden City, Shanghai Disneyland, and Chimelong Resort have announced their suspension of opening.
The epidemic in Wuhan was gradually brought under control, and after the ban was lifted on April 8, there were successive outbreaks of local cases in Beijing, Xinjiang, Qingdao, Liaoning, Hebei and other provinces. On a global scale, the epidemic still does not mean to stop. The cumulative death toll globally has exceeded two million.
Especially as the Spring Festival is approaching, the outbreaks in Hebei, Heilongjiang, Jilin, Beijing and other places have made the atmosphere deserted again. As of 24:00 on January 18, 31 provinces (autonomous regions, municipalities) and Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps There are 1387 confirmed cases. The domestic tourism industry, which began to recover and grow in late 2020, has tightened its nerves again. Some OTAs even stated that they are ready for no harvest of particles during the Spring Festival this year.
Different from managers who rack their brains to keep the company alive, migrant workers in functional positions see more of their own jobs. Their subsequent changes in the content, pace and status of their work, perhaps at the micro level, can give us a better understanding of the changes in the tourism industry this year.
Wuhan｜OTA｜Hotel operation and BD｜Mercury (pseudonym)
I happened to be on vacation when the epidemic broke out last year. During that time, I almost always maintained the Wuhan Hotel Volunteer Alliance, doing online information collection, and obtaining hotel requests and feedback. After the Spring Festival, the company began to complete the tasks, but until May, the hotel needed to provide a nucleic acid test certificate before accepting our visit.
Looking at the tourism industry in Wuhan after a lapse of one year, one can still clearly feel the sequelae left by the epidemic: Wuhan, as a thoroughfare of nine provinces and a gathering place of universities, has only normal work and life, not much entertainment and culture, and activities have basically shifted. Arrived in Changsha.
The enthusiasm of the city is closely related to our work, which is reflected in the complete inconsistency between everyone’s efforts and returns. In the case of good urban traffic, it is easier to achieve higher performance. However, due to the epidemic in the city of Wuhan, our work has become more difficult. Even if we work longer in 2020, our performance is still not as good as those of colleagues in other regions.
In 2020, Wuhan’s hotel investment is very prudent, with fewer new stores opening, and a decline in hotel inventory, especially apartments and homestays, which have been reduced by more than half compared to the previous two years.
Fortunately, the enthusiasm for communication between hotels and OTAs is still relatively high. After all, hotels need us to understand the market to decide whether to increase investment or increase room volume, or whether to open stores in other cities.
There was news in mid-January that two confirmed cases from Hebei had been to Wuhan, and Wuhan immediately carried out investigations. However, in the case of repeated epidemics, many hotels have stopped operating and went home for the New Year, and some hotels in popular business districts may still insist. If in previous years, this was all time to make money.
Now we are all looking forward to some positive sounds during the cherry blossom season in mid-March. However, it may take another year or two to remove the Wuhan epidemic label.
Hebei｜Baishishan Scenic Area｜Marketing｜Kangdongpo
According to the original marketing plan, starting from January 1st New Year’s Day, there will be at least 4 large-scale events a month in Baishishan Scenic Area, and a major festival in three months. Because of the outbreak in Hebei, the marketing plan for 2021 was completely disrupted. A year ago, the 2020 marketing plan also suffered the same fate.
In 2020, the Baishi Mountain Scenic Area will officially open on June 1. Before that, we can only adjust our strategy. The entire marketing team will start live broadcasting on platforms such as Douyin and Kuaishou every day. Pre-sale on May Day and Ching Ming Festival, selling 99 yuan per year card. It can be said that basically all offline marketing methods have been transferred to online.
However, it was difficult for everyone last year. The scenic spot did not dare to invest heavily in marketing, so we did not find KOLs to cooperate. Compared with the originally estimated marketing expenses, the marketing expenses in 2020 have shrunk by nearly 2/3.
In order to expand distribution channels, we used to find travel agencies as agents in each region, and the agents would distribute resources at multiple levels. For example, in Beijing, we only find a travel agency as an agent. But then we changed our strategy. Every travel agency can cooperate with us and get preferential prices in order to be able to complete marketing tasks, and at the same time use the travel agency’s platform and its own traffic to do marketing activities.
At the request of the government, all scenic spots in Baoding City are now closed for two weeks, and the Baishi Mountain Scenic Area is also closed. Except for some personnel on duty in the scenic area, the rest have all been on holiday.