How did the hot and pitting “Great Northwest” wind blow?
Editor’s note: This article is from the WeChat official account” Tech planet “(ID: tech618) , author: Li Xiaolei.
The bad news came 20 days before the trip.
After drawing up the “October” holiday itinerary, the online travel platform used big data to predict the travel trend of this year’s November Golden Week. Almost every platform mentioned one point: “Great Northwest” has become this year’s “11” Popular destinations during Golden Week. On Ctrip, search volume for “Greater Northwest” increased by 475%. Since August, tourists from Shanghai, Guangdong and other places have begun to search for air tickets and hotels in Great Northwest.
Before the “October” holiday started, most people did not realize the explosive power of the “Great Northwest” route during the Golden Week. The signs first appeared in the circle of friends. A writer in Weibo issued a question, the previous “October” holiday opened the circle of friends, is to know the world Opportunity. This time the “October” holiday opens the circle of friends, why are almost all in the westNorth Tour Tour?
I unexpectedly became one of the tens of millions of tourists from the “Greater Northwest”, even though I had already made a psychological presupposition before departure: If foreign travel is shelved, domestic travel will inevitably erupt. But when I opened the Moments during my trip, and soon I saw the dynamics of 5 Moments traveling in the Northwest, more of them were still surprised.
During this 8-day trip, I witnessed an explosion of tourists and a brief collapse of the Northwest tourism industry chain.
The travel agency has not been able to arrange drivers after bursting orders. Tourists in popular scenic spots spend most of their time queuing. Although they did not encounter serious traffic jams, they saw “camel jams” in the desert and the reflection of Populus euphratica in Ejina Banner Here, the most eye-catching thing is not the poplar trees, but the densely packed, colorfully dressed people on the shore, who are slowly moving forward on camels.
Another change discovered during the “October” holiday travel is that with the rapid development of the mobile Internet, the Northwest tourism industry is also facing structural changes and changes in the pattern and system.
Today, including Little Red Book, Douyin, Mafengwo and Weibo, the influence of Internet platforms on tourists’ travel decisions is self-evident. The transparency and diversification of information has overturned the “one-word” travel method that relied on driver or travel agency recommendations in the past. New changes are slowly unfolding.
Under the influence of these platforms on travel decision-making, it also promotes the production of various links in the tourism industry chain.New changes.
In the special year of 2020, the “Greater Northwest” tourism industry has ushered in an unprecedented outbreak. The tourism-related infrastructure on this route is also facing unprecedented challenges. This particularity has caused the status quo of “fire and pit” in the Great Northwest, and the reasons for all of this have been revealed during the journey.
Why is the fire “Great Northwest”
“October” Golden Week has not yet ended, and stories about travel to the Northwest are the first to spread.
Among them, one of the drivers on the northwest route spread: “Can’t go abroad, there is an epidemic in the interior, Tibet is too high, and Xinjiang has not been fully opened due to the epidemic. Qinghai and Gansu in the northwest have taken over from all over the country. Most tourists.”
To a large extent, this can explain why the travel routes of the Great Northwest with Qinghai and Gansu as the main destinations are so popular.
After deciding to take a self-driving tour or a chartered tour on “October”, I collected a large number of travel guides on Xiaohongshu, Mafengwo, and Weibo. Whenever it involves the Great Northwest Loop, I will always mention a core Key point: “The Great Northwest has almost all natural landforms except for the oceans and islands.”
The epidemic is still emerging sporadically in a small area, which has prompted most people to delineate their travel destinations in the category of “large land and sparsely populated”. In the Great Northwest Loop, just a few days are enough to experience grasslands, snow-capped mountains, deserts, Gobi, lakes, as well as the unique Danxia landforms and Yadan landforms…that is, satisfying the sparsely populated land and abundant tourism resources. It can also make people feast their eyes, it is a very cost-effective sensory enjoyment.
Don’t underestimate the “Great Northwest”. If you do your homework carefully, you will find that the magic of the Great Northwest on Xiaohongshu, Douyin, and Weibo is that although it is not enough to leave the country, the Northwest has a large number of Natural scenery can support the “pretend to be abroad” series.
This route hides the “Little Maldives” Dongtai Jinel Lake, “Little Kamakura”-a new way of taking photos with the new Internet celebrities in the Chaka Salt Lake, “Oriental Little Switzerland” Qilian Grassland, and also known as “Chinese version of Morocco” Zhongwei Village Huanghe·Suji……
Even, in the online celebrity check-in site called “Mars Camp”, you can rent an astronaut suit for 500 yuan here, wear it for half an hour, walk on the desolate surface, pretending to be a “lone astronaut on Mars” “.
In the past one or two years, new changes have taken place in the way of travel along with the enrichment of information content and changes in presentation forms. For young people, visiting traditional tourist attractions is no longer attractive enough, and discovering niche secrets has become a popular trend.
In fact, most of the Internet celebrity sites are emerging destinations that have emerged in the past year or two, rather than traditional attractions on the Great Northwest Loop.
On the one hand, thanks to the upgrade of photographic equipment, the popularity of drones has fully demonstrated the vastness of the Northwest, including small tourist destinations such as Emerald Lake, Dongtai Jinel Lake, and Colorful Lake. The stunning “God’s perspective” makes tourists yearn for it.
Behind the “Greater Northwest” loop line, it includes six provinces from Qinghai, Ningxia, Gansu, Inner Mongolia, Shaanxi and Xinjiang. If you want to really put the Great Northwesttraveling around many times, it may take a lot of “October” Golden Week holidays. But this also means that there are enough tourism resources on this travel route for tourists to consume. Therefore, in terms of geographic numbers, it is not surprising that the Great Northwest is densely populated in the circle of friends.
The Great Northwest Tour is “fire and pit”?
How to handle the intensive outbreak of tourists is a thorny issue for most scenic spots. It is also a difficult problem for the entire tourism infrastructure and matching resources of the Northwest.
Although the chartered car was booked one month in advance, the travel agency only gave us the contact information of the driver on the first day of departure at 9pm. For travel agencies, the problem is that before the holidays, they did not anticipate the surge in demand for cars.
The tourism resources of the Great Northwest Ring Road are mature enough, and the industrial chain has long been formed. Most travel agencies that provide chartered and rented car services are nothing more than information intermediaries. Tourists find a travel agency to charter a car, and the travel agency finds a driver to make the difference. When the demand for cars skyrocketed, drivers became in short supply.
Usually, drivers connect guests through two channels. In addition to travel agencies, it is mainly through word-of-mouth recommendations from past guests and introductions among drivers. The rule in the industry is that drivers will also charge corresponding intermediary fees if they introduce each other. For example, the fee I gave for a two-day tour in Xining was 1,400 yuan, but the driver can only handle 1,200 yuan.
This leads directly to the fact that even if you find a reliable driver through a friend’s recommendation, it may be transferred to an unprofessional driver for various reasons. Even a driver with a car can act as a bagMaster Car, Master Zheng is my first journey The chartered master of, he told me that one of his friends who opened a kindergarten took advantage of the holiday to start a trip and took a job.
Traveling in the Great Northwest, self-driving tours and chartered tours are typical ways, but under the water, even the chartered masters found through serious travel agencies are not necessarily professional and reliable. Most drivers have not been uniformly trained. They may not be familiar with the route, but there is a shortage of drivers, and temporary replacements are not a minority. This is the most fundamental problem that arises when tourism in the Great Northwest breaks out.
The sudden influx of tourists has also caused classic scenic spots such as Chaka Salt Lake, Mingsha Mountain Crescent Spring, and Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes to become crowds of tourists. Although most scenic spots have adopted more digital methods for ticket purchase and ticket inspection, they still pose unprecedented challenges to the carrying and service capabilities of scenic spots.
Take Chaka Salt Lake as an example. The fastest way to enter Chaka Salt Lake is to take the small train or electric car in the scenic area. However, due to the limited number of vehicles in the scenic area, it is difficult for tourists arriving in the late afternoon. After finishing the team and entering by internal transportation, you can only watch the sunset for a while.
It is not easy to see the “Mirror of the Sky” without crowds in Chaka Salt Lake. First of all, you need to buy or rent rubber shoes in the scenic area. Although you can purchase and lease through a small program, the supply is insufficient due to the small number of opening windows and the small number of people. When I waited in line to rent out my shoes, I found that it was too dark to see the salt lake.
Many people are naturally an inevitable tourist experience during the holiday. At Mingsha Mountain Crescent Spring Scenic Area, 1,700 camels were transferred early to wait for the completion of the desert ride after another. Going into the scenic spot and looking up, around the peak of the Crescent Spring Desert, there are figures one after another carried by camels.
Due to the excessive number of tourists, the camels were stuck on the road one by one, and the speed was not faster than walking.
These are the problems caused by the unloading of scenic spots after the crowd broke out. On the other side of its popularity, it has also led to the reputation of a “pit” in the Great Northwest Tour.
With the outbreak of tourism, the corresponding increase in prices of wine tourism naturally exists. According to data from Mafengwo, during the Golden Week of this year, the unit price of homestay guests increased by 32.97% compared with the same period last year, the unit price of hotel guests increased by 25.67% compared with the same period last year, and the unit price of “local travel” guests increased by 31% compared with the same period last year. After spending more money but failing to match the corresponding experience, word-of-mouth rebound has become an inevitable event.
The Internet is transforming the tourism industry in the Northwestern China
During the trip on the Great Northwest Loop, I feel more intuitively that Internet products have brought changes to the travel industry. In recent years, the rapid development of the mobile Internet has also prompted structural changes in the tourism industry.
The Northwest is vast, and self-driving tours and chartered tours are traditional and typical gameplay. In the past few years, the charter driver was the most critical part of this system. They are familiar with the route and understand the food, drink and entertainment near each scenic spot. They usually recommend the destinations for restaurants, accommodations, and scenic spots to tourists. Drivers can draw commissions from restaurants, hotels, and scenic spots.
In the past, there was not much information that people could rely on and inquire about when traveling by car. A full-time travel blogger who held Lonely Planet produced a travel guide, open the right A destination to explore. In these travel books, only part of the content can be provided, and it will be delayed due to the publication time.
In other words, the driver has become the core medium of the series of tourist routes. They can greatly influence tourists’ choices of food, accommodation and attractions during their travels.
This model has been popular in the Northwest for several years, but today, Internet platforms and products, led by Xiaohongshu, Mafengwo, Weibo, etc., provide users with a wealth of content and choices. Popular Dianping also undertakes a lot of Most of the recommended dietary guidelines when going out.
The only way to go from Qinghai Lake to Chaka Salt Lake is Highway S126, which has a “2222” kilometer sign. Master Zheng has been traveling on this route for 15 years, and for the first time he was asked by passengers to stop and take pictures.
In many Internet celebrity travel guides, the special digital signs of highways have become the check-in points for Internet celebrities in recent years. “666”, “888”, “2222”, “3333”, etc., are enough to make you love roads Traveling tourists rejoice.
This year, at the northwest corner of Qinghai Lake, on the cliff near the local sacrificial platform, the rare white prayer flags on the cliff have become popular on Xiaohongshu.
Master Zheng told Tech Planet (WeChat ID: tech618) that he has been here for the second time since the sports car more than ten years ago. In the past, there was a place called “Bird Island” in the northwest corner, where you could see a large number of birds, and it was a destination that many tourists would pay to go around. However, in the past two years, for the purpose of protecting natural resources and bird environment, Bird Island has been closed for renovation, and the northwest line of Qinghai Lake has gradually lost its heat.
The explosion of the cliff has brought new popularity to the northwest corner of Qinghai Lake. The photo site on the cliff where Xiaohongshu became popular has become a toll project. A pair of Tibetan mother and daughter sit at the cliff entrance and charge a fee of ten yuan per person. Tourists usually do not ask why they need to pay, but here, it has become a fixed income for locals.
When we arrived, we discovered that dozens of cars had been parked in this remote place. Everyone has only one purpose, standing on the edge of the cliff, taking a photo of a small red book-like check-in. This made Master Zheng very puzzled. He didn’t quite understand what Xiaohongshu was, but he realized the influence of this product on young people.
If travel agencies and chartered car drivers used to make money with asymmetric information, today, these information asymmetries are being broken by the mobile Internet.
Master Zheng’s son-in-law once opened a restaurant in Chaka Town, but this year, affected by the epidemic, and his business status was not ideal, he had to close the restaurant in the middle of this year. There is a local characteristic “Tu Hot Pot” in Chaka Town, which is ranked No. 1 in Dianping. We followed the past and found that the shop was full of people, and the line had reached number 80. Master Zheng said that this is the restaurant with the most people in this town he has ever seen, although the taste is not good.
He asked us: “Dianping, is it really that powerful?”
Actually, there are not few restaurants that realize the power of public comment. There is a Sichuan restaurant in the scenic area of Zhangye, Gansu. The boss will greet the table and ask if the dishes are satisfied, and will deliver local specialty soda drinks with only one purpose, hoping to get a high evaluation from the public.
At a northwestern restaurant two kilometers away from Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes, the owner realized the remoteness of his location and used Dianping as a starting point to attract tourists.
She specifically registered an account to like all users who wrote reviews about the restaurant. In the comment area of Dianping, you can see that the boss is almost trying his best to get the goodwill of customers. They delivered newly-listed grapes, local red dates, and even, when we were worried that we could not get to the train station, the boss offered to send us to the station. Then he said tactfully: “Take more photos and write a public comment for me.”
They are well versed in the importance of managing customers, and they understand that Dianping now plays a role in catering decision-making among young tourists.
The penetration of mobile Internet products is restructuring the power structure in the tourism industry of the Northwest. In the past, most of the wine tours of tourists would rely on driver recommendations. In various scenic spots and destinations in the Northwest, hotels have good travel agencies or drivers. These hotels will provide drivers with free driver rooms.
However, if tourists order accommodation directly from products such as Ctrip, Qunar, Fliggy, etc., the hotel may not match the driver’s room with the driver, because the driver does not bring direct benefits to the hotel. During our trip, the driver will battle and deal with each hotel over the driver’s room. This is the benefit of the past industry model and power structure to the driver, but today, part of it has expired.
Nature has gifted the Northwest with abundant natural resources, but on the other hand, this vast land also has many barren areas. In Ejina Banner in Alxa, Inner Mongolia, the natural alkaline geology here can only grow a large number of Populus euphratica forests. The master who took us to Ejina Banner is the first time to send a tourGuest here, he looked at the desert beside the highway and sighed One sentence: “There is no way to grow anything. If there is no tourism, how do people live here? “
Ejina Banner has the 20 most beautiful autumn colors in a year. It takes hundreds of kilometers to come here on the Great Northwest Route. But this year, countless people took their time to come here in order to see the yellow leaves of Populus euphratica. In the farm in the Ejina Banner Scenic Area, the room was booked more than 20 days before the holiday. This is the most lively time of the year in Ejina Banner.
After the “Eleventh” holiday, the Great Northwest will gradually return to calm. The owner of a travel agency told Tech Planet (WeChat ID: tech618), “This is our last peak season. After eleven, we will end our work for a year.”
For the tourism industry in the Great Northwest, the explosive growth this year will probably be difficult to surpass in the next few years. The question left to the entire tourism industry in the Northwest is how to deal with the impact of the Internet on traditional businesses. After the rebound in word-of-mouth this year, the industry should reflect and improve? After all, when the Internet is changing rapidly, the industry can no longer follow the old ways.