Top News·Henan Business Daily reporter Han Zhonglin Photo provided by interviewee
The epidemic situation has rebounded in many places across the country recently, The Ministry of Culture and Tourism issued a notice to strengthen the management of inter-provincial travel. A reporter from Henan Business Daily found that many travel agencies in our province actively responded to national policies and canceled inter-provincial travel orders.
As the main business of many travel agencies, inter-provincial travel has always affected the survival of many travel agencies. What should these travel agencies do under the impact of the epidemic?
In response to national policies, Henan travel agencies have reduced inter-provincial travel business
Recently, the epidemic has rebounded in some areas of our country, and tourist groups have become the focus of the transmission chain, which has attracted attention across the country on inter-provincial travel.
Due to the needs of epidemic prevention and control, on October 23, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism issued a notice to strengthen the management of inter-provincial travel.
The notice requires that the "circuit breaker" mechanism for the management of inter-provincial tourism business activities be strictly implemented. For provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) with medium and high risks, travel agencies and online tourism enterprises will be immediately suspended from operating inter-provincial group travel and "air tickets + hotel" business in the province (autonomous region, municipality), and announced to the public as soon as possible. . The operation of special tourist trains is suspended.
"There is no room for sloppiness when it comes to epidemic prevention and control." Wang Wensheng, secretary-general of the Henan Tourism Association Travel Agency Branch, told the Henan Business Daily reporter that judging from the situation of member units, everyone has actively responded to the national policy.
Wang Wensheng said that many travel agencies in Henan have canceled some inter-provincial travel projects. "All routes to medium- and high-risk areas will definitely be cancelled, and some other routes will also have to be cancelled."
"All the routes to the northwest have been stopped. Currently, the ones that have been retained are more to Guangdong and Hainan." Wang Wensheng said that for As far as the travel agency industry is concerned, due to the impact of the epidemic in the past two years, cancellations and changes in inter-provincial travel routes have been relatively common, and mature travel agencies have established corresponding mechanisms.
"The epidemic has had a great impact on our industry, but everyone has to survive. If you want to 'survive', you must be fully prepared." Wang Wensheng believes that the travel agency industry has been deeply affected by the recurring confirmed cases.
"The inter-provincial travel projects we launch mainly have two aspects. One is to organize people from Henan to visit other provinces, and the other is to receive people from other provinces to visit Henan." Cao Lu, marketing director of Henan CITIC International Travel Agency (referred to as CITIC International Travel Service), said, The canceled business involves both aspects.
Inter-provincial tourism fell into a trough again after a brief recovery
"Travel is not a necessity, and it will definitely bring population mobility, so it will be greatly affected by the epidemic." Xu Hui, the head of Henan Southeast International Travel Agency (referred to as Southeast International Travel), told a reporter from Henan Business Daily , 2021 is an unforgettable year for him.
Xu Hui said that Southeast International Travel Service’s original main business was cross-border travel and inter-provincial travel. Affected by the epidemic, all cross-border travel has been cancelled, so it focused its main attention on inter-provincial travel special trains. "One-line multi-point means contracting a train to take customers for a ride, usually passing through multiple provinces."
Xu Hui said that after last year's "hibernation", travel agencies originally planned to show off their skills this year. In the first half of the year, the overall situation was relatively smooth. Although the epidemic rebounded in some places across the country, it had little impact on the company's special tourist train lines.
After entering July, floods occurred in Zhengzhou, followed by an epidemic, and Henan Southeast International Travel Service was severely affected.
"We were forced to cancel five tourist trains, involving thousands of customers." Xu Hui said that fortunately, the government took effective measures and the flood situation and epidemic were quickly controlled.
At the end of August and beginning of September this year, Henan liberalized inter-provincial travel. Xu Hui quickly organized his employees to return to the "battle". "From September to now, we have successfully run two special tourist trains."
Xu Hui said that after the Ministry of Culture and Tourism issued a notice to suspend the special tourist trains, the travel agency immediately held a meeting to make arrangements. Currently, it has been determined to cancel 5 special tourist trains."Two trips are to Fujian, Guangdong and Jiangxi, and three trips are to Hubei, Chongqing and Hunan."
"The scheduled special train can be cancelled, mainly because some of the early investment in publicity and promotion cannot be recovered." Xu Hui said that the preliminary estimate is that the train will be canceled due to The cancellation of special trains resulted in losses of millions of dollars. "About 3,000 people are involved."
Ms. Yang, the relevant person in charge of Henan Zhongzhou International Travel Agency (referred to as Zhongzhou International Travel Service), also told the Henan Business Daily reporter that the travel agency has canceled most of the inter-provincial travel routes and currently only retains some routes in coastal areas such as Fujian. .
Ms. Yang said that since the beginning of this year, the cross-provincial travel business of travel agencies has been somewhat sluggish. It just picked up during the National Day Golden Week, and then epidemics appeared in many places, and related to "tour groups", the related business fell into a trough again.
Inter-provincial travel is the main business of many travel agencies
A reporter from Henan Business News learned that inter-provincial travel is the most important business of many travel agencies in our province, and the industry situation directly affects the survival of travel agencies.
Ms. Yang told a reporter from Henan Business Daily that inter-provincial travel accounts for about 60% of the total business volume of Zhongzhou International Travel Service. Xu Hui also said that inter-provincial travel can account for half of Southeast International Travel's business volume.
"The recovery is only relative." Wang Wensheng said that judging from the tourism data during this year's National Day Golden Week, many areas in Henan, including Zhengzhou, have more tourists, but per capita consumption is relatively low, which reflects to a certain extent that Mainly short-distance intra-provincial travel, the number of inter-provincial travel is still not ideal.
In fact, for many travel agencies in Zhengzhou, the sluggish inter-provincial travel business is not just the result of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism’s request to strictly control inter-provincial travel.
"There are many routes, not because there is an epidemic at the destination, but because there are fewer people going, so we have to cancel." Ms. Yang said that since the outbreak last year, although the policy has been relaxed, the business volume of travel agencies across provinces has always been Not restored to original level.
"Travel is not like daily necessities. Many people have canceled unnecessary inter-provincial travel for safety reasons." Wang Wensheng said that the chain reaction caused by the epidemic will cause many customers to worry, even if many route destinations are non-medium and high-risk. In this area, customers will also “think twice before buying”.
Cao Lu also told a reporter from Henan Business Daily that due to the epidemic, many customers have recently chosen to cancel orders or change their destinations.
Another reason for the sluggish cross-provincial travel business of travel agencies is the reduced demand for travel agencies from tourists. Xu Hui told a reporter from Henan Business Daily that with the rise of self-driving tours in recent years, the number of people choosing to travel in group tours has dropped somewhat.
Although inter-provincial travel has been affected, the prospects are promising
"After the epidemic, tourism will have a retaliatory growth." Wang Wensheng said that although inter-provincial travel is currently facing difficulties in the short term, in the long term, the future of the industry is still bright.
"The epidemic will eventually pass, and people's demand for travel will still be high in the future." Cao Lu believes that although the prospects of the industry are generally promising, travel agencies still need to be down-to-earth to solve the current difficulties. "We all know that there is a shore ahead, but we are still at sea and need to find a way to get ashore."
So when faced with practical difficulties, what should travel agencies do?
Xu Hui believes that travel agencies must first do their own epidemic prevention and control work. This includes keeping abreast of the destination’s epidemic prevention and control policies and doing basic customer protection work.
"Either leave or persist." Wang Wensheng believes that if travel agencies want to get out of the predicament, they need to strengthen their "internal strength" practice.
"Maintain a healthy mentality, maintain the concept of not admitting defeat, and deepen the product development." Wang Wensheng believes that travel agencies need to promote product upgrades while maintaining services.
Xu Hui believes that although the industry is facing impact, if you choose to transform, you must be cautious.
He said that he also tried to transform last year and planned to develop in the cosmetics industry, but in the end he lost a lot of money. “Every industry has certain thresholds, and transformation is not that easy."
" The travel agency industry is currently facing difficulties and hopes to gain attention from all walks of life. "Cao Lu believes that if travel agencies want to get out of the predicament, in addition to improving themselves, they also need the government and resource parties to provide help and support within their capabilities.
Editor: Zhang Heng Xiong Ziwen
