As the “circle of visa-free countries” further expands, more cross-border tourism projects have been developed, and inbound tourism has become a new highlight. Of course, while great achievements have been made in the development of the tourism industry, there are also many challenges. For example, under the model of internet-famous tourism, how can the cultural and tourism industry maintain its persistence? The rapid recovery of inbound tourism also poses new challenges to local receiving parties.
- In the past 75 years, China’s cultural and tourism industry has undergone significant changes.
Initially, the public’s enthusiasm for tourism was not high. Relatively speaking, there were not many choices in the accommodation industry. Tourist attractions were mostly natural landmark projects, and there were almost no artificially developed projects such as theme parks. Therefore, most people’s frequency of traveling was very low, and there were only a few well-known attractions. Public information shows that the predecessor of the National Tourism Administration was the China Travel and Tourism Administration established on July 22, 1964 and approved by the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress. It was directly under the State Council and was initially co-located with the China International Travel Service. Later, the tourism administration was managed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to carry out work. In 1982, the China Travel and Tourism Administration established in 1964 was officially changed to the National Tourism Administration. Now it has become the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, closely integrating culture and tourism. Since the 1990s, tourism has gradually become a tertiary industry and has achieved great development after 2000. At the same time, a number of large tourism enterprises began to rise, including the China Travel Service series, the China International Travel Service series, OCT, Jinjiang series, Guangzhou Travel Service, UTour, Spring and Autumn Tourism, etc. Among these tourism enterprises, there are both large state-owned enterprises and private enterprises rising from the grassroots. The “wholesale and retail system” in which large tourism enterprises act as wholesalers and small tourism enterprises act as retailers was thus created. “Around the 1990s, policies further liberalized and supported tourism projects. People’s incomes were also increasing, and more people began to have the awareness of traveling. There were also more items that could be visited. It was no longer just those few traditional attractions, but there were more man-made scenic spots and theme attractions. The accommodation industry also began to develop rapidly. People’s travels were no longer monotonous, but initially there were multiple choices.” Qu Jia, a senior tourism analyst with decades of experience, told Yicai Global. As a result, a batch of theme parks of the OCT series, such as Happy Valley and Window of the World, quickly attracted the attention of tourists. The Oriental Pearl Tower, which was originally a television transmission tower, also became a well-known attraction in Shanghai since the 1990s. Just recently, the Oriental Pearl Tower welcomed its 100 millionth visitor. International theme parks such as Disney, Universal Studios, and Lego have all laid out in the Chinese market. These projects have created a large number of tourism business opportunities, and then a number of online tourism enterprises such as Ctrip, Tongcheng, Tuniu, Qunar, and Fliggy have emerged. In the past nearly 20 years, a pattern of blooming online and offline in China’s tourism industry has been formed.
- Integration of culture and tourism, rapid rise of county-level tourism
In 2021, the “14th Five-Year Plan” emphasized accelerating the deep integration of culture and tourism, pointing out that it is necessary to promote the high-quality development of the cultural industry and tourism industry, setting the tone for the future of culture and tourism. The promotion of policies not only promotes capital investment but also provides opportunities for a large number of new projects and new activities. The cultural and tourism industries in various places are changing with each passing day, and grand events such as cultural festivals and tourism expositions are emerging. From the perspective of the consumer side, with the diversification of routes and choices, tourists’ demands have changed from large groups of dozens of people in a single form to family tours and even personalized small groups today. In terms of products, more niche tourist destinations are heating up. People are no longer satisfied with landmark attractions but hope to participate in more leisure and unique tourism experience projects. Going to a city for a barbecue, going to a city for a concert, and going to a city for a TV drama have become new models of the tourism industry in recent years after combining cultural experiences. For example, the influence of IPs such as “My Altay” and “Black Myth: Wukong” continues to ferment, recently driving the popularity of related destinations such as Xinjiang, Shanxi, Henan, and Gansu to steadily rise. “I can clearly feel that many of the guests I receive now are family tourists. They will choose more customized tourism routes instead of traditional attractions. During this National Day holiday, the small group I received only had two guests. The projects they visited were very niche, especially a music-themed special performance. Tickets were very hard to get.” Lao Chen has been engaged in high-end customized tours for more than 20 years. During this holiday, he has deep feelings. While the tourism market is becoming more and more diverse, originally overlooked low-tier cities, especially county-level tourism cities, are rapidly rising. From Zibo to Tianshui, these internet-famous tourist cities have quickly become popular. In recent years, county-level tourism business opportunities have exploded. The increase in income has also made tourists in county-level cities travel more frequently. On the Qunar platform, during this National Day, more than 600 third-tier and below cities and county-level residents took a plane for the first time, and the first-time ticket purchase volume increased by more than 50% year-on-year; the outbound tourism order volume of residents in third-tier and below cities increased nearly three times year-on-year, far exceeding that of first-tier cities. As a tourist destination, small cities are also becoming more attractive. The top 10 destinations with the highest hotel booking growth are all small cities and counties. High-star hotels in counties are booming, and the booking growth has reached 50%. Ctrip data shows that residents of fourth- and fifth-tier cities have become new growth points for outbound tourism. The average daily outbound tourism orders during the National Day holiday increased by one time and three times year-on-year respectively. Homestay platforms such as Tujia and Xiaozhu also show that more and more orders now come from the county-level market. In Lancang County, Yunnan Province, Lahu landlord Zhanu also had a fruitful National Day holiday. “Our homestay was fully booked during the holiday.” In April this year, Zhanu transformed his old house into a homestay. He combined ethnic music with the homestay and opened a music homestay – Lahu Music Homestay.
“The Lahu people are a nation that loves singing and dancing. We like to find happiness. I like to communicate with people, like the rural scenery and the climate of my hometown, so I choose to return to my hometown and open a homestay.” As a landlord, Zhanu will also take guests to sing and dance together, perform his composed songs such as “I’m Waiting for You in Lancang” and “Happy Lahu” for guests, and introduce the ethnic history and culture of the Lahu people. In the future, Zhanu also plans to provide Lahu ethnic clothing experience for guests and make his homestay business more prosperous.
More and more ethnic minority landlords like Zhanu have opened homestays. At present, Tujia homestay landlords have covered 51 ethnic groups. Hu Yang, senior vice president of Tujia Homestay, said, “More people are willing to explore the Chinese market in counties. This is a market with rapid growth. Only when there are more transportation methods to reach and more complete supporting facilities can there be a continuous stream of customers, helping the entire county-level homestay economy move towards a positive cycle.”
“The Lahu people are a nation that loves singing and dancing. We like to find happiness. I like to communicate with people, like the rural scenery and the climate of my hometown, so I choose to return to my hometown and open a homestay.” As a landlord, Zhanu will also take guests to sing and dance together, perform his composed songs such as “I’m Waiting for You in Lancang” and “Happy Lahu” for guests, and introduce the ethnic history and culture of the Lahu people. In the future, Zhanu also plans to provide Lahu ethnic clothing experience for guests and make his homestay business more prosperous.
More and more ethnic minority landlords like Zhanu have opened homestays. At present, Tujia homestay landlords have covered 51 ethnic groups. Hu Yang, senior vice president of Tujia Homestay, said, “More people are willing to explore the Chinese market in counties. This is a market with rapid growth. Only when there are more transportation methods to reach and more complete supporting facilities can there be a continuous stream of customers, helping the entire county-level homestay economy move towards a positive cycle.”
- Rapid recovery of cross-border tourism, challenges still exist
In terms of cross-border tourism, the Chinese market has also experienced development from initially single products to diversification. Especially around 2019, it reached a peak. However, the three-year epidemic once affected the development of outbound and inbound tourism, which also slowed down the pace of the cross-border tourism market. Since last year, cross-border tourism has gradually recovered, including major transportation, accommodation, visa procedures, and local reception personnel are all recovering. In order to promote the development of cross-border tourism, a series of visa-free policies have been introduced. With the expansion of the “circle of visa-free countries”, the recovery of cross-border tourism is obvious.
The spokesperson of the National Immigration Administration announced at a press conference held on July 5 this year that in the first half of the year, 14.635 million foreigners entered the country through various ports, a year-on-year increase of 152.7%. Among them, 8.542 million people entered the country visa-free, accounting for 52%, a year-on-year increase of 190.1%.
Cai Muzi, a researcher at the Big Data Research Institute of Qunar, analyzed that outbound tourism is undergoing structural changes. Due to more countries being visa-free, coupled with cheaper air tickets and hotel prices, more and more residents of non-first-tier cities can travel abroad at a lower cost. The destinations are mainly Southeast Asian countries. Residents of new first-tier cities are rapidly approaching first-tier cities in terms of the volume of outbound tourism orders. In some countries, the proportion has exceeded that of first-tier cities. Although residents of first-tier cities do not have a high increase in outbound tourism order volume, they have a longer travel radius and a higher unit price.
During the just-passed National Day holiday, outbound tourism flight and hotel orders on the Qunar platform have covered 1,597 cities in 144 countries. Compared with last National Day, 20 new countries have been added, including Armenia, Zambia, Papua New Guinea, North Macedonia, Guinea, Gambia, Libya, Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Dominica, Gabon, etc. More than half of the new destinations are African countries. In terms of inbound tourism, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Beijing, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Hangzhou, Chongqing, Xi’an, Nanjing, Suzhou, Qingdao, Tianjin, Xiamen, Kunming, and Zhangjiajie have become the top 15 popular destinations for inbound tourism during the holiday.
It is worth noting that as China’s tourism industry develops in a more diversified and customized direction and cross-border tourism further recovers, some challenges also emerge. For example, more internet-famous tourist cities appear, but many tourist destinations are like “a flash in the pan” and are difficult to maintain for a long time. After some low-tier cities become popular, the local accommodation reception capacity is also limited, which also makes it difficult for the local tourism industry to develop in the long term and must increase investment.
From the perspective of cross-border tourism business, challenges such as more diversified foreign language services and payments also need attention.
“At present, inbound tourism is recovering rapidly. But most domestic consumers use mobile payment. After many overseas guests enter China, they basically use international credit cards and cash. Although many high-star hotels are fine, it is not excluded that some small shops may not all be able to use credit cards, so there will be problems for inbound tourists in consuming in some shops. We have also noticed that now taxis, some shopping malls and more hotels and restaurants are starting to add international credit cards and payment methods more suitable for overseas tourists, but the popularity still needs to be improved.” Zhao Huanyan, a senior economist who has been engaged in and researching the cultural and tourism industry for a long time, analyzed to Yicai Global.
The spokesperson of the National Immigration Administration announced at a press conference held on July 5 this year that in the first half of the year, 14.635 million foreigners entered the country through various ports, a year-on-year increase of 152.7%. Among them, 8.542 million people entered the country visa-free, accounting for 52%, a year-on-year increase of 190.1%.
Cai Muzi, a researcher at the Big Data Research Institute of Qunar, analyzed that outbound tourism is undergoing structural changes. Due to more countries being visa-free, coupled with cheaper air tickets and hotel prices, more and more residents of non-first-tier cities can travel abroad at a lower cost. The destinations are mainly Southeast Asian countries. Residents of new first-tier cities are rapidly approaching first-tier cities in terms of the volume of outbound tourism orders. In some countries, the proportion has exceeded that of first-tier cities. Although residents of first-tier cities do not have a high increase in outbound tourism order volume, they have a longer travel radius and a higher unit price.
During the just-passed National Day holiday, outbound tourism flight and hotel orders on the Qunar platform have covered 1,597 cities in 144 countries. Compared with last National Day, 20 new countries have been added, including Armenia, Zambia, Papua New Guinea, North Macedonia, Guinea, Gambia, Libya, Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Dominica, Gabon, etc. More than half of the new destinations are African countries. In terms of inbound tourism, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Beijing, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Hangzhou, Chongqing, Xi’an, Nanjing, Suzhou, Qingdao, Tianjin, Xiamen, Kunming, and Zhangjiajie have become the top 15 popular destinations for inbound tourism during the holiday.
It is worth noting that as China’s tourism industry develops in a more diversified and customized direction and cross-border tourism further recovers, some challenges also emerge. For example, more internet-famous tourist cities appear, but many tourist destinations are like “a flash in the pan” and are difficult to maintain for a long time. After some low-tier cities become popular, the local accommodation reception capacity is also limited, which also makes it difficult for the local tourism industry to develop in the long term and must increase investment.
From the perspective of cross-border tourism business, challenges such as more diversified foreign language services and payments also need attention.
“At present, inbound tourism is recovering rapidly. But most domestic consumers use mobile payment. After many overseas guests enter China, they basically use international credit cards and cash. Although many high-star hotels are fine, it is not excluded that some small shops may not all be able to use credit cards, so there will be problems for inbound tourists in consuming in some shops. We have also noticed that now taxis, some shopping malls and more hotels and restaurants are starting to add international credit cards and payment methods more suitable for overseas tourists, but the popularity still needs to be improved.” Zhao Huanyan, a senior economist who has been engaged in and researching the cultural and tourism industry for a long time, analyzed to Yicai Global.