On November 28, a Beijing Business Daily reporter learned that the China Tourism Academy released the "China Outbound Tourism Development Report 2021" and "China Inbound Tourism Development Report 2021".

Affected by the changes in the epidemic, China's inbound and outbound tourism has encountered an unprecedented impact. Today, two years later, the inbound and outbound tourism market is still consolidating at the bottom. On November 28, a reporter from Beijing Business Daily learned that China Tourism Research Institute successively released the "China Outbound Tourism Development Report 2021" and "China Inbound Tourism Development Report 2021". The report pointed out that due to the impact of the epidemic, the number of outbound tourists in my country has dropped significantly, and inbound tourism has almost completely stagnated in the past two years, supported only by some necessary business travel and study abroad demand in China. Looking back on the past two years, the business of inbound and outbound travel agencies has almost come to a standstill. A large number of employees have resigned. Some travel agency bosses have even been listed as dishonest. Forced transformation has become a difficult problem that these travel agencies have to face. However, the industry still hopes that the inbound and outbound tourism market will rebound after the epidemic, and also hopes that the travel agency market will recover as soon as possible.

Inbound tourism has experienced 40 years of depression

In the past two years, my country's inbound and outbound tourism has hit rock bottom, and is even experiencing a long cold winter.

According to the " China Outbound Tourism Development Annual Report 2021" recently released by the China Tourism Academy, under the impact of the new coronavirus epidemic, the number of outbound tourists in 2020 was 20.334 million, a year-on-year decrease of 86.9%. In 2021, the number of outbound tourists is forecast to be 25.62 million, a year-on-year recovery of 17% compared with 2019, and a year-on-year increase of 27% compared with 2020. Compared with the scale of over 100 million people traveling before the epidemic, outbound tourism is still basically at a standstill. The

report also shows that starting from January 24, 2020, my country’s outbound tourism supply and demand, both industry and market, have experienced a cliff-like decline. In February 2020, the number of Chinese outbound tourists dropped sharply from tens of millions in January to less than 600,000. Since group outbound tourism was completely stopped, only scattered tourists traveled in subsequent months, and the overall number of outbound tourists has always hovered at a very low level.

Not only outbound tourism, but also the situation of my country’s inbound tourism in the past two years is not optimistic. The "China Inbound Tourism Development Report 2021" released by the China Tourism Academy also shows that due to the impact of the epidemic, my country's inbound tourism market has experienced a cliff-like decline since the Spring Festival in 2020. According to statistics released by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, my country received a total of 27.47 million inbound tourists in 2020, a year-on-year decrease of 81%. Among them, 7.97 million were inbound overnight tourists, 4.12 million were foreign tourists, and 1.84 million were foreign overnight tourists, a decrease of 88%, 87%, and 93% respectively. Inbound tourism has experienced an unprecedented depression in the past 40 years.

Employees resigned and performance suffered losses

In the past two years, travel agencies that were once proud of their inbound and outbound tourism business have also been making changes, changing marketing methods, being forced to switch to peripheral tours, and leaving a large number of employees...

Industry sources pointed out that, Due to the impact of the changes in the epidemic, an international travel agency in Beijing, which specializes in outbound travel wholesale business, had about 80 of its approximately 120 employees at the headquarters being forced to leave, accounting for more than 60% of the company's total number of employees. It can be seen that the industry in the tourism industry that is most severely affected by the changes in the epidemic must be travel agencies whose main business is inbound and outbound tourism.

In fact, in the past three quarters, many travel agencies were also at a loss. Former "leading" travel agencies, including , Us Travel, , and Caesars Travel, continued to show losses in the third quarter of this year, and some travel agencies in distribution channels also closed a large number of stores.

As early as the outbreak of the epidemic last year, when Baicheng Travel Network closed the company and started liquidation, the industry predicted that Baicheng would be the first tourism company to fall due to the epidemic, but it would never be the last. In October this year, Guangdong Peace International Travel Service Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Guangdong Peace International Travel Service") issued an announcement declaring bankruptcy and liquidation, and this became another large travel agency in the industry that fell. "In fact, in the past two years, many large companies that once operated outbound tourism were on the verge of bankruptcy." An industry insider revealed.

In April this year, according to the "2020 National Travel Agency Statistical Survey Report" released by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism , the operating income of national travel agencies in 2020 was 238.969 billion yuan, the operating cost was 228.086 billion yuan, the operating profit was a loss of 6.915 billion yuan, and the total profit was a loss 7.177 billion yuan.

According to the above-mentioned industry insiders, in the past, travel agencies that mainly focused on inbound and outbound tourism business suffered serious losses. How travel agency companies can "survive" in the context of normalized epidemic prevention and control is the primary task to be considered at the moment.

The industry is still looking forward to embracing spring

With the improvement of epidemic prevention and control and the steady recovery of the entire tourism industry, inbound and outbound tourism is also expected to gradually recover in the next few years, embracing "spring". The

report also pointed out that despite facing great difficulties, the industry has never given up confidence and has not waited passively. Entrepreneurship and innovation have always been carried out, and outbound tourism destinations have also taken positive actions to express their firm confidence in China's outbound tourism market. . Looking forward to 2022, the pace of recovery of the outbound tourism market depends on the global epidemic prevention and control situation. Some destinations with improved epidemic prevention and control situations and smoother coordination of epidemic prevention and control policies are expected to be the first to recover.

Regarding travel agencies, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism recently released the "National Travel Agency Statistical Survey Report for the Third Quarter of 2021" (hereinafter referred to as the "Survey Report"). The "Survey Report" shows that as of September 30, 2021, the total number of travel agencies nationwide was 42,152 in the third quarter, and a total of 31,482 travel agencies have passed the review of the provincial culture and tourism administrative departments. In the second quarter, the total number of travel agencies nationwide was 41,779. It is not difficult to see from the data that as the epidemic continues to change, the number of travel agencies is also increasing, achieving growth despite the trend.

However, there is still great uncertainty in the development of outbound tourism. The "China Outbound Tourism Development Report 2021" also pointed out that the current haze of the epidemic around the world has not yet dissipated, and the epidemic situation in different regions and countries has been ups and downs, and even continues to be difficult to stop. In the process of global COVID-19 prevention and control, imbalances remain prominent. Prevention and control requirements, including border control and flight arrangements, among different destinations are sometimes tight and sometimes loose, and the efficiency of mutual policy coordination needs to be improved. The safety needs of cross-border tourism cannot be fully guaranteed in the short term. At present, the development of outbound tourism The environment we face is severe and complex, with outstanding uncertainties. Wang Xingbin, a senior tourism expert at

, also believes that in the past 2-3 years, inbound and outbound tourism, leisure and vacation travel has basically remained stagnant. Wang Xingbin also said that among tourism companies, especially those that engage in inbound tourism, it is very difficult. However, these tourism companies can consider doing some work in inbound and outbound business tourism and domestic tourism to gain some market share and overcome the difficulties. Going through hard times.

"It is difficult to predict how inbound and outbound tourism will develop after the epidemic. Because the epidemic situation is constantly changing, the prevention and control of the epidemic will not be relaxed and must be strictly controlled. For tourism, epidemic prevention and control will be It is a long-term task, and for tourism companies, how to carry out tourism at the same time under the background of normalized epidemic prevention and control is a brand-new topic that requires in-depth study." Wang Xingbin said.

Beijing Business Daily reporter Guan Zichen Wu Qiyun