I really want to escape, but I can’t.
Editor’s note: This article is from the micro-channel public number “Wen Brigade” (ID: wenlvpai), Author: Zhu Yuejing.
OF: Zhu Yuejing, Editor: Guo Hongyun
The Spring Festival has always been the peak time for travel. Whether it is 2020 or 2021, the epidemic will give the tourists who are on the Spring Festival stalls a blow. In the year that the epidemic has continued, some people have left, some have changed careers, and some have persisted, but some have seized the opportunity to find a “new way.”
Wenlv found 5 travel practitioners to conduct in-depth interviews and organize their sad journeys this year into stories. Through these stories, we can see how the travel industry has gone from panic to Self-help, from recovering to the state when facing the epidemic again, and listening to how they fought hard and strived for life in 2020.
01、In 2020, I will experience the feeling of a lifetime of nine deaths, but I will feel better after I get over it
Xiao Nan | Beijing | Unexpected life travel
At the beginning of the year, the business was greatly affected, especially when we first faced a large number of chargebacks. In addition, we also had to launch some newly developed overseas destinations at that time, but all of them were returned due to the epidemic. .
The first half of 2002 was the most difficult time. There was no business and no income, but wages and rent were costly and faced great financial pressure. . forIn order to ease the pressure of cash flow, our team tried to sell goods, receive advertisements, and even formed a shopping community. Later, as the epidemic situation gradually stabilized, I thought that I could finally start business.
But what I didn’t expect was that a new round of epidemic broke out in Beijing in June, and all plans were disrupted again. If we continue, we may really close the door. Due to an occasional business trip, it was discovered that the South recovered quickly. After discussing with the team, we decided to open a branch in Shanghai to focus on the business in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai.
After moving to Shanghai in July, our business began to slowly recover, until September, we can basically recover to the previous business volume, and even reached a sharp increase in business volume during the double festival. In addition, we have also developed a product of “Traveling Freely” with reference to “Flying with Heart”, that is, pre-sale of travel products in advance, which greatly relieved part of the pressure on cash flow.
Although the epidemic broke out sporadically in many places later, the impact was not as severe as it was at the beginning. At the beginning, everyone was deeply panicked, and everyone was getting used to the normalization of the epidemic. Now, good protection is the greatest protection for yourself. In fact, the local tourism bureaus or governments also want to restore the economy, and relatively speaking, there will be supportive policies. I feel that in 2020, I will really experience the feeling of nine deaths, but after I get through it, I will have a better feeling.
As the Chinese New Year approaches, epidemics have broken out in many places, and everyone will be more worried about travel, and the impact on us will be relatively large. Because before the “return home policy” was released, our order volume and customer demand performed well, but after the policy came out, most tourists were in a wait-and-see state, and many tourists lived in first- and second-tier cities, so you need to pay attention when traveling. There will be more places.
Under the epidemic situation, people will be more inclined to low-risk places when traveling. After all, safety is the most important, so we will also focus on launching products, one is based on seasonality, and the other is based on the destination epidemic policy. And we have also made corresponding adjustments in products. In addition to launching “Travel as you wish”, we also launched products that only provide solutions, which can be used as additional income, which is also a new income generation for us. The second is the surrounding travel. There are many homestays in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai, which are very suitable for short weekend trips. In the future, online marketing activities may be carried out.
In fact, there are still a lot of people who like to travel, as can be seen from the double-festival holiday, but nowadays, more consideration is given to the destination policy. After all, the holiday is very Short, if back and forth isolation, there is not enough time. Moreover, outbound travel is not open now. This is also a new opportunity. The key to this part of consumer groups to expand is how to seize this opportunity.
Although the impact during the Spring Festival is inevitable, we will adjust our products at any time according to the different destination policies to meet the needs of users. At the same time, during this period, the team will also focus more on how to gain new user growth. After the epidemic, it will consider how to convert.
I think tourism is still a sunrise industry, but the current domestic living standards are rising, and the requirements for travel are higher, and more attention is paid to comfort and experience. In the future, the market will not shrink, but will only expand. It is only caused by objective factors at the moment. When the epidemic is over, a new outbreak point will surely usher in.
02、The Spring Festival stalls travel peak, I was expecting a full resurrection, and now I can only take a holiday at home span>
Xiaolian | A tourist city in Northeast China
I run a travel e-commerce operating platform in Northeast China. Before the epidemic, the business developed well. Because of the epidemic, in order to ensure the normal operation of the company, the company continued to adjust its business this year, increasing surrounding tours, camps, etc. The province’s business is basically done very little.
Compared with previous years, the tourism industry in the Northeast this winter is really too “desolate”, because the Northeast is very lively in the winter, but since the outbreak of the epidemic in January this year, the number of tourists has been decreasing, and the orders from guests have also been reduced. Return all. This time is approaching the Spring Festival, and we have no time to make adjustments, so we can only have a holiday at home.
Since the outbreak of the epidemic in 2020, the tourism industry has been in a downturn, and theIntermittently, I have basically been doing intra-provincial and surrounding tours throughout the year. At the beginning of the epidemic, we have been thinking about what we can do. After all, if the business is stagnant, there will be no income. After the first panic experience, the second time we have experience. At present, we are trying to live broadcast the goods, and the conversion rate can reach about 1%~2%. In fact, this is not a sideline business, it should be regarded as the main business after adjusting the business.
And I think the future travel scene must be video-based, not just route guides, but also homestays, hotels, and Internet celebrity check-in points. They will definitely It is only popular through video, so now a large part of the team is doing this. On the one hand, they can directly bring the goods, on the other hand, they try to make a matrix of travel accounts.
The biggest feeling that the epidemic has given me is the change in product travel demand. This change may severely inhibit the sales or development of travel agencies, and the post-epidemic era has changed from sightseeing tours to in-depth leisure tours, and future tourists may There is not much need for travel agencies. Facing such a situation is both an opportunity and a challenge.
Although the epidemic has lasted for a year, our company has been adjusting, but it has also brought new thinking, which can help the online resources of the cultural tourism industry. For example, if a scenic spot does not have online promotion or has no online operation capability, we can help the scenic spot to do it, that is, help the digitization of tourism resources. This, in my opinion, has a great opportunity in the future. For travel agencies, it may also be an opportunity for transformation. After all, travel agencies are more familiar with destination resources.
For the future development of the tourism industry, I think it is still very vigorous, especially after the combination of culture and tourism, not only tourism and tourism, but also culture and philosophy, additional Great value. Back to us, we will do it normally in 2021, because the vaccines are already out, and the impact is expected to be small next year. We are still very confident. In the future, high-end peripheral tourism may also be a hot spot, and we are also polishing related products. As said before, the market will definitely get better,As long as there is no epidemic, the cultural tourism industry is the first to open up.
03,Unexpectedly, in the winter off-season, the turnover actually increased
Xie Yue | Lhasa | Mi Zang Homestay
It is certain that the business will be affected. Since the beginning of the epidemic, we are not very sensitive in Lhasa. Airports and train stations in the city have only increased body temperature tests. The feeling at the time was that everyone did not take the epidemic to heart. Our homestay also receives orders for the Spring Festival every day, and is also planning Chinese New Year activities. We are waiting for the New Year with joy. Until the closure of Wuhan on January 23, Lhasa’s control can be considered strict in the true sense. From the 24th onwards, applications for refunds were received, and until the 26th, the epidemic control was upgraded, and a notice was issued before the 29th that all but necessary personnel in the store had to leave Lhasa.
I roughly post an account. During the Chinese New Year, the room cost alone will lose almost 10w+, not including tourism, specialty products, cultural and creative income. Moreover, at the beginning of the epidemic, there was no income at all, and the express delivery stopped. In order to avoid sitting in the air, we began to try to sell Tibetan specialties and cultural and creative products, relying on these incomes to barely make a living.
Although the sporadic outbreaks in many places did not have a big impact on us, but during the double festival, the turnover actually increased compared with last year, because each year is the low season in Lhasa, the number of tourists has increased from 7 to 8 After the peak season of the month, it has been diminishing, and it has unexpectedly increased this year.
For this year’s Spring Festival, local control over population entry and exit, as well as Tibet’s requirements for passengers entering the country to carry a seven-day nucleic acid test report, etc., this year’s New Year’s visitors are relatively more rational. So far, we have not exploded orders. , At this time in previous years, the orders for the New Year were full.
Actually, the impact of the epidemic before the holiday can be large or small. For the large ones, make less money. For the small ones, it is also in the long run. This is to accumulate energy for the Lhasa tourism market in July and August, the peak season of 2021 The Lhasa market is definitely better than last year.
From the perspective of tourism business, there is more competition in the Lhasa market. At present, outbound travel is temporarily closed. Many tourism practitioners who cannot go abroad gather in Lhasa. The market has begun to appear grading, small and precise travel customization Service is getting more and more popular. Because with the rise of the post-90s and post-00s, these people’s consumption concepts and ideas will be more consuming and more conscientious than those born in the 80s and 90s. For traditional mass group tours, private customized service travel will be more popular among young people. People like it.
04、All orders are refunded, and 50% of the annual revenue is gone
Sun Wei | Inner Mongolia | Caitu Travel
We mainly focus on land connection, the best time is summer and winter, summer is on the grassland, and winter is to the northeast. In July, domestic inter-provincial tourism was opened, and our business probably recovered to about 40%. However, the impact in winter is relatively large. After the sporadic outbreak of the epidemic, the turnover in this quarter fell by about 70%.
Originally, we set our goal for January and the Spring Festival, because the winter performance can account for about 50% of the whole year, but now the situation of the Northeast epidemic is relatively severe, and it is basically a total loss.
In fact, from the beginning of the outbreak of the epidemic in 2020 until July, we have been in a state of panic, especially at the beginning of the epidemic, the business was completely stagnant, there was no source of income, and the team was repeating During the discussion, there was a suggestion to do part-time jobs, such as micro business, but found that they were not good at it, so I gave up.
As usual, the peak season in Inner Mongolia starts in June. We think we can wait and see, but until mid-June, the epidemic broke out again in Beijing. The industry has not improved, and if you continue to wait, the company may become “yellow”. The entire month of July is considered to be the most flustered period. After the discussion, I decided to wait another month. If there is still no improvement, I will consider doing other things. But after August, the epidemic has gradually stabilized, and the business has slowed down a bit, and it feels “survived” in an instant.
Actually, the repeated winter epidemics have had a great impact on us, but the overall mentality of our team is still very optimistic, and we are now preparing for the development of other line products. During the epidemic, we also tried to transfer our offline business to the OTA platform. We only had ideas before, because of the epidemic, we put almost all our energy online.
As a novice, you will definitely encounter pits. On the one hand, because the team does not have anyone who is proficient in online operations, it has been exploring for almost half a year, and it is currently on the right track. On the other hand, the market in 2020 is relatively chaotic, because many of the basic overseas businesses are transformed into domestic ones, and there are even price wars in various forms. Whether online or offline, you need to find a way that suits you. Only good products and services can attract users.
The epidemic has accelerated the reshuffle of the industry, and it is also pushing the industry to progress. This is a process of survival of the fittest. There will be continuous reshuffles in 2021, but I think the epidemic is not a devastating blow, but there may be opportunities. We are currently developing products for 2021, and we hope to make more products next year, which are now relatively single.
The tourism market is still full of expectations, and I hope that after the epidemic, the industry can be more standardized. And we have also done a basic analysis of the market. Currently, we will develop products for the period from February to April and May. If this part of the product is still affected, we will not have too much anxiety. The most worried thing is summer. If summer and winter are bothThe season is still affected, which is really a big blow to us.
05、The biggest wish this year is to return to normal. It is too difficult to seal twice a year
Xiaoye | Xinjiang | Groundhog Travel
As the Spring Festival approaches, the epidemics in many places have repeated, and the impact on us is still quite large, because most of our customers are from Guangzhou, Beijing, Shanghai and other first-tier cities, but at present, all localities are advocating “You must travel, local New Year’s, many orders have been returned. During the Spring Festival itself, we did not do activities as usual. We only made one route. Like Beijing, we have scheduled three tours. Now all of them have stopped. Customers in Shanghai and Guangdong have also returned. There is even one tour in Shenyang that is halfway through. , Returned, and refunded in full.
For us, there was basically no income this year. Last year, because of the epidemic, many private customized group orders were returned. Originally, I wanted to wait for the Spring Festival file to return to the blood.
In fact, this is not the first time. On July 14th, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism issued a new notice saying that inter-provincial tourism was open. At that time, we felt that hope was coming. Because summer is very suitable for visiting Xinjiang, and in the first half of 2020, we have been integrating resources to prepare for the opening of the second half of the year. However, Xinjiang suddenly broke out of an epidemic, all plans were stopped, and business was completely stagnant. All the funding sources were also cut off. It was really “too sad” at that time.
In the closed time, our team began to switch to online business, trying to make short videos and graphic content, “I am idle and I am idle, it is better to do something else”. But everyone is inexperienced, all of them are newbies, and they are constantly trying and trying.New, after a long time, I explored the doorway, and made 100,000+ content, and the video account has hundreds of thousands of fans. Even if the conversion rate is not high, we still have a sense of accomplishment. After all, we started from 0. The epidemic allows us to make changes and innovations, so that we can live better.
From last year to this year, my biggest feeling is that there are more and more self-driving tours and private customization, and there are more and more types of sister groups and family groups. For example, the “Northwestern Fever” during the “Double Festival”, when Xinjiang was in an epidemic period, we also joked that Xinjiang created the Great Northwest.
Although the current situation of the epidemic is severe, I am still full of confidence. As we all know, outbound travel is currently not open, and some mid-to-high-end consumer groups return to domestic travel. They are not sensitive to product prices and pay more attention to service value, small group customization Tour may be more in line with their needs. On the other hand, the epidemic has forced the market to shuffle, and it will also usher in new opportunities and challenges. Returning to the business itself, users are still enthusiastic about traveling to the northwest, and coming to Xinjiang in different seasons can also feel different things. Therefore, It is an opportunity for Xinjiang and Northwest, and it also gives us great confidence.
The biggest wish in 2021 is to return to normal. At the same time, I hope to survive this “cold winter” and welcome the warmth of spring. If you want to survive in the future, you must make differentiated products based on the company’s philosophy and user positioning. , This will attract the audience. Our company belongs to the studio model. At present, there are only 4 people, and they can do their best. Once there is an emergency, one is to choose to go lightly, and the other is to transfer offline business to online to increase customers’ Sticky, waiting for the full opening day.
The distribution map in the middle of the article was provided by the interviewee.