Shanghai tourists immediately place an order for a European tour! But there is still a distance to go as soon as you say, and there is a significant increase in destinations for outbound team tours in Japan | destinations | tourists
On August 10, the General Office of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism issued the Notice on Resumption of Chinese Citizens' Outbound Group Tourism Business in Relevant Countries and Regions by Travel Agencies. South Korea, Japan, the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Türkiye and other popular destinations are on the new list.
In terms of quantity, the number of outbound group tours by Chinese citizens has increased to 138 countries and regions, with only destinations such as Canada, Saudi Arabia, and North Korea not yet included. Does this mean that outbound tourism can be "said to leave"? Tourism industry insiders believe that the release of the third batch of countries for outbound team tours has basically cleared the obstacles in connecting destinations for outbound tourism. The opening up of a number of popular destinations will also have a positive impact on the recovery of the industry. However, due to limited resumption of international flights and difficulties in visa reservations, it will take some time for outbound tourism to resume on a large scale.
Tourists place orders for European tours as soon as possible
After the release of the third batch of countries and regions for resuming outbound tourism, tourism practitioners rushed to announce it. Zhou Weihong, Deputy General Manager of Spring and Autumn Tourism, immediately said, "This is good news that tourists have heard again in the middle of summer vacation. It is a milestone for the comprehensive recovery of outbound tourism and will also strongly promote the resumption of international flights. Especially for destinations such as Japan, South Korea, the United States, the Czech Republic, Austria, etc., which were popular among Shanghai citizens and tourists before the epidemic, it is worth looking forward to."
After the announcement, multiple tourism platforms such as Ctrip, Tongcheng, Mommy Donkey, and Tuniu have launched new destination routes, including Japanese team tours, free travel, as well as routes from South Korea, Australia, the United States, India, the United Kingdom, Austria, and the Czech Republic, totaling hundreds of routes. The new routes are still being continuously updated. On the Japanese cruise route, the first international cruise route of China Merchants Viking, the "15th Hefeng Yayun Japan Loop", departed from the Shanghai Port International Passenger Transport Center on the North Bund on June 18th, carrying passengers. This route will continue to operate during the summer and National Day holidays; The Blue Dream Star cruise has also launched multiple voyages from Shanghai to Japan. At present, these cruise routes have been launched on major tourism platforms.
From market feedback, the announcement of the third batch of lists has had an immediate effect. More than an hour after the news was announced, Mr. Cao, a Shanghai tourist, booked a 12 day trip to Austria, Czech Republic, and Hungary on November 19th through the Spring and Autumn Tourism Dingxi Road store. At the same time, tourists Mr. Jin and Mr. Zhang, who had originally planned to book their own free travel hotels in Japan, instead placed orders for customized Japanese travel products on tourism platforms.
As of now, various tourism platforms are continuously receiving new orders, mainly targeting Thailand, followed by Japan, Slovenia, Vietnam, Greece, South Korea, and other destinations, as well as cruise routes to Japan. Among them, most of the Asian country routes booked by tourists are for travel in August and September this year, while European country routes are mainly for travel after October.
In addition, the visa department of the tourism platform has also received a lot of inquiries. The consulting client group is mainly concentrated between the ages of 30 and 40, with a focus on family outings. Many consultants hope to use the summer vacation for family outings; Some tourists also prepare for the Mid Autumn Festival and National Day holidays by consulting in advance about visa application matters and the required period.
International flights and visa supply affect the resumption of outbound tourism
For outbound tourism, obstacles to destination openness have been overcome, and popular combination routes such as "Germany+Austria", "Austria+Czech+Hungary", and "Australia+New Zealand" can be launched in the market. However, international flights and visa factors will still directly affect the recovery level of the outbound tourism market.
From the immediate feedback from tourists, it can be seen that there are relatively more registrations for routes in Japan, South Korea, and Southeast Asia, while there are much fewer registrations for long-distance routes in the Americas and Europe. On the one hand, this is because most long-term countries require visa application and require a certain amount of preparation time; At the same time, due to the long duration of visiting countries, most travelers need to coordinate their travel time with family and friends, and will not make decisions so quickly. At present, most of the registered tourists are retirees from Türkiye, the Great Balkan panoramic route, Austria+Czech+Hungary connection and other products.
The limited recovery of international flights is also a direct factor affecting the recovery of outbound tourism. Zhou Weihong told the Liberation Daily Shangguan News reporter that the resumption of international flights needs to be planned several months in advance and will not be immediately followed up just because a new batch of destinations are open. Moreover, the occupancy rate on domestic routes this summer is very high, and many airlines have invested their capacity into domestic routes, which will result in relatively limited manpower and material resources available for international routes. Of course, the launch of a new batch of destinations is expected to promote an increase in subsequent international flights, causing a certain decline in the current high international airfare prices and reducing the travel costs for citizens and tourists.
In addition, there are still restrictions on appointment difficulties and limited quantities of visas for European countries at present. As a result, some travel agencies are nearing the end of their European route bookings for this year's National Day holiday. "In the third batch of lists, Czech Republic, Germany, Austria and other places have been added to the European direction. For team tours, a new batch of Schengen visas will be available, which will also provide more opportunities for travel enthusiasts to travel to Europe from September to October this year."
According to the data from Qunar platform, there are direct flights from 20 destinations, such as Japan, South Korea and the United States, starting from Chinese Mainland in the third batch of outbound team tour list. Among them, the direct destinations in Asia are Pakistan, South Korea, Qatar, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Japan, Türkiye and Israel; Direct destinations in Africa are Algeria and Ethiopia; Direct destinations in Europe are Ireland, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Poland, the Netherlands, Sweden, and the United Kingdom; The direct destination for North America is the United States; The direct destination for Oceania is Australia.
With the resumption of international flights, the number of international flight bookings for popular cities this summer has returned to over 50% of pre pandemic levels. Popular destinations include Bangkok, Thailand, Seoul, South Korea, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Osaka, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Macau, Jeju Island, South Korea, and Phuket, Thailand. In the third batch of lists, Japan and South Korea are popular summer destinations, with bookings increasing nearly 10 times compared to the beginning of the year.