When will tourism resume after the epidemic?

The spread of novel coronavirus in Wuhan began very quickly, so strict measures were taken to control the flow of people, which is also the best way to prevent the outbreak of the epidemic. Tourism has almost stopped in the last month, so when will tourism be affected by the epidemic?

Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic, in order to effectively cut off the transmission route of the virus and resolutely curb the spread of the epidemic, the General Office of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism issued the "Emergency Notice on Doing a Good Job in the Prevention and Control of Pneumonia Infection in novel coronavirus" on June 26, 65438, requiring national travel agencies and online travel enterprises to suspend the operation of group travel and "air ticket+hotel" tourism products.

Temporary withdrawal of travel deposit is a short-term effective measure.

After the announcement, the tourism industry entered a state of stagnation. Mr. Hao is a practitioner in the tourism industry. After the outbreak, all travel agencies in China closed down. In an interview with China Economic Times, he said that this period was equivalent to unemployment.

In previous years, the Spring Festival was the busiest time. He said, "This year's epidemic has cost me nearly 5 million business." In order to make a living, he sells disinfection products in a circle of friends. He told reporters that many of his friends in this industry have switched to e-commerce.

The life of the travel company is also very sad. A person in charge of a travel company in Beijing told the reporter that due to the epidemic, all the business of their company has stopped and is basically in a state of suspension, but they still have to pay rent, employee salaries and other expenses, and the cost accounts for the main expenditure.

"I don't know how long the epidemic will last, and the company's cash flow is now tight." He said worriedly.

The epidemic has come, which has a great impact on all walks of life. The government introduced some support measures in time to help enterprises tide over the difficulties. For the tourism industry that has the most serious impact, we are waiting for support policies recently.

On February 5th, the General Office of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism issued a notice, and decided to temporarily refund part of the tourism service quality deposit (hereinafter referred to as the "deposit") to the travel agency. It is understood that the deposit is a certain amount of money paid by the travel agency in the designated bank or guaranteed by the bank for the compensation payment of tourism service quality and the personal safety of group tourists according to the provisions of the Tourism Law of the People's Republic of China and the Regulations on Travel Agencies.

The scope of this suspension is all travel agencies in China that have paid the deposit according to law and obtained the travel agency business license. The standard for stopping delivery is 80% of the existing payment. It also requires local cultural and tourism administrative departments to organize and implement in accordance with relevant regulations, and complete the temporary withdrawal of the deposit within one month from the date of issuance of this notice.

As soon as this policy was introduced, local governments responded in succession. On February 6th, Beijing issued "16" measures to promote the development of small and medium-sized enterprises. One of them suggested that the travel agencies with standardized operation and good reputation should return the travel agency's quality deposit in full in accordance with the relevant regulations, and then pay it back in time after the epidemic is over. In addition, Beijing extended the collection period of social insurance premiums due during the epidemic to the end of July.

On February 7, according to the application of travel agencies, Shanghai began to temporarily refund part of the tourism service quality deposit. The suspension scope * * * involves Shanghai 1782 travel agencies. At present, the deposit is about 720 million yuan, and the stop payment standard is 80% of the existing payment. It is estimated that the burden will be reduced by about 576 million yuan.

Be prepared for long-term difficulties.

In an interview with China Economic Times, Wei, dean of the Cultural and Economic Research Institute of the Central University of Finance and Economics, said that refunding the deposit is a flexible support method in the short term, which can alleviate the problem of insufficient cash flow of enterprises.

He believes that in response to the impact of the epidemic, policy measures should be divided into short-term and long-term. At present, the shortage of funds is the biggest difficulty for tourism enterprises, so the focus of short-term measures should be on financing subsidies.

"Now the tourism industry is in a period of survival and transformation, and the costs of personnel salaries and channel maintenance fees are still being spent. The pressure on cash flow is relatively high, and some encouragement and subsidies need to be given in financing. " Wei believes.

Therefore, he suggested that the government risk compensation fund should be used to compensate the financing cost now, so that these enterprises can reduce the pressure of capital liquidity during the transition period.

In the long run, Wei believes that the period and complexity of repairing the cultural tourism market affected by the epidemic should be longer and more complicated than that during the SARS period, given that the domestic economic upgrading and transformation pressure is increasing, the growth trend is slowing down and the export pressure continues. So be prepared for long-term difficulties.

He believes that the rescue measures to deal with long-term difficulties need systematic and special arrangements, such as reducing the income tax of enterprises that have been hit hard this year to reduce the pressure of subsequent operations. But the key is to find ways to stimulate consumption. "Whether tourism enterprises can survive after the epidemic and survive better depends on the consumer market." He said.

However, in Wei's view, after the epidemic, people's fears will still exist in the short term, and densely populated industries will not be eliminated at once. Therefore, he believes that after the outbreak, from the perspective of tourism enterprises themselves, they should vigorously develop smart tourism and use AR experiential projects to alleviate the impact of the epidemic.

In addition, he also suggested actively promoting the international development of China's cultural and tourism industries, expanding the global industrial chain and market space, and increasing the possible pressure risks of industries and markets that are highly dependent on domestic demand.

Affected by the COVID-19 epidemic, domestic tourism almost stopped during the Spring Festival. As the national and local governments have successively issued plans and assistance measures for cultural tourism enterprises to resume production, some scenic spots have been reopened one after another, which means that the tourism industry has resumed recovery. However, in the face of the crisis, the road of tourism transformation has just begun.

A sudden outbreak made the Spring Festival tourism market, which should have been hot, press the "pause button". China tourism academy recently published the "Blue Book of China Tourism Economy No.1 12" on the Internet, pointing out that "affected by the epidemic, highly market-oriented tourism is one of the industries with the largest decline in income."

With the introduction of plans and assistance measures for cultural tourism enterprises to resume work and production in various provinces, some outdoor scenic spots have been reopened one after another, which means that tourism has begun to restart the road of recovery. Dai Bin, president of china tourism academy, said that the confidence of the tourism industry is slowly thawing, but it will face new challenges and changes.

Frozen market

"Around New Year's Day, we made a wave of promotion and marketing for the winter vacation and the Spring Festival Golden Week." Zhao Chunwei, head of the marketing department of Wansheng Ordovician scenic spot in Chongqing, lamented that the whole scenic spot was closed due to the epidemic. This year's busy Spring Festival has turned into leisure.

Ma Dejun and Zhao Chunwei, marketing staff of Nanchuan Jinfo Mountain Scenic Area, feel the same way. He bluntly said that this year's Spring Festival is his longest holiday.

With the closure of scenic spots, the cancellation of activities, the closure of hotels, and the stop of travel agencies and online travel companies, domestic tourism was completely suspended and the market was forced to freeze.

China tourism academy calculated the impact of the epidemic on domestic tourism, and predicted that the number of domestic tourists would decrease by 56% and 15.5% respectively in the first quarter and the whole year of 2020, a year-on-year decrease of 932 million. Domestic tourism revenue decreased by 69% and 20.6% respectively, and the annual income decreased by 1. 1.8 trillion yuan.

"I panicked and was at a loss." Jun Chen, the tour guide, also spoke out the voices of people in the tourism industry. Jun Chen has been taking a tour group in Chongqing for a long time. 65438+1early October, the group list in hand has been placed on the fifth day of the first month. I wanted to increase my income during the Spring Festival, but I didn't expect the sudden outbreak to upset the whole plan.

"The tour guide must be greatly affected." Zhao Chunwei said that most tour guides do not have a basic salary, and their income mainly depends on tour guide service fees. As soon as the tourism market stopped, many people confiscated it.

Zhou, an expert in Phoenix Tourism Think Tank, believes that the daily operation and maintenance costs are low after the closure of traditional famous scenic spots, and the impact is not too great. Even worse are B-side channel providers, agents and offline travel agencies.

According to statistics, during the Spring Festival holiday in 20 19, the total number of tourists in China was 4150,000, and the tourism income was 51390 million yuan. It was originally expected that the total number and income of national tourist receptions during the Spring Festival holiday this year would reach a new high, and all of them could not be realized.

Self-help and mutual assistance

In the face of the sudden freezing period, "what to do" has become the primary proposition in the hearts of tourists.

During the interview, the reporter learned that in order to survive, the tourism industry has taken some measures to "stop bleeding and make blood" through self-help and mutual rescue.

With a flick of your finger, you can walk into the museum, visit all the scenic spots in the network celebrities and listen to the gold medal explanation. This is the online travel service "Traveling in Chongqing" recently launched by Chongqing Cultural Tourism Commission on WeChat official account. The reporter experienced it personally. Click on the "Online Museum" in the column of "Fighting Epidemic", and through the QR code, you can go to the official micro-exhibitions of Chongqing China Three Gorges Museum, Chongqing Natural History Museum, Chongqing Three Gorges Immigrants Memorial Hall, Chongqing Hongyan Revolutionary History Museum and other venues, and you can watch the exhibition online for 24 hours.

"Yunyou Chongqing is an online service launched during the epidemic, which allows people to satisfy their travel wishes without leaving home, and at the same time keeps the scenic spots concerned." The relevant person in charge of the Chongqing Cultural Tourism Commission said that famous scenic spots in Chongqing can be searched from this platform.

It is reported that "cloud tourism" is a new attempt to travel during the epidemic. At present, at least 20 cities and more than 1000 scenic spots in China have opened online travel services, providing different experiences for many people who are eager to travel.

"Fully demonstrating its tourism image and resource advantages through VR, high-definition video and graphic materials can provide rich cultural tourism content for people who have been looking forward to staying at home for a long time during the epidemic, and on the other hand, help the tourist destination to prepare for the recovery and development of tourism after the epidemic." Wang Kai, vice president of Tongcheng Yilong, said. According to reports, Tongcheng Yilong also initiated the establishment of the city's "Ark Alliance" to provide free tourism promotion services, including VR and high-definition video materials, to all tourist destinations that have joined the alliance.

"In the face of the current situation, enterprises should help each other in the same boat, share weal and woe and tide over the difficulties together." People in the tourism industry pointed out that some enterprises in the industry have begun to pick up. For example, Ctrip Group launched the "Store Care Plan", including the management fee for a temporary immunization period of three months, and extended the quota of signing tasks for each store for three months to ease the pressure on store operation. Flying Pig announced the launch of a tourism business assistance plan, including traffic support, free annual fee and commission, preferential loan interest rate, transformation support and insurance escort.

Opportunities behind the crisis

Although the epidemic has caused a crisis to the tourism industry, with the slow thawing of the frozen market, many people in the industry have expressed their views that they should see the opportunities behind the crisis and predict the new pattern and opportunities after the epidemic.

Hong Qinghua, the founder of Donkey Mama and the chairman of Jingyu Donkey Mama Group, said that the tourism industry that was pressed the pause button actually won a rare "meditation period".

Not long ago, Chongqing Cultural Tourism Commission held a "learning on the cloud". Nearly 300 people from more than 200 tourism enterprises learned the ideas and methods of withdrawing and booking under the influence of the epidemic through online lectures, so as to effectively deal with tourism disputes under special circumstances, reduce the losses of consumers and tourists, and make positive preparations for revitalizing the tourism industry.

"This lecture is too timely, clearing our minds to solve the problems we are currently encountering, and also letting us see the hope of returning to work." Liu Jin, vice president of Chongqing CYTS co., ltd. said.

The reporter found that learning during this period is also a keen way for many practitioners in the industry. The "Commodity Operation College" launched by Ma Honeycomb Tourism has been welcomed by cooperative merchants and peers in the industry. "In the downturn, we will continue to learn and improve our online business capabilities and content asset building capabilities to better meet the recovery after the epidemic." A participant said.

"We can't wait, we should take this opportunity to adjust the traditional business model." Liu Fang, president of Chongqing Tourism Chamber of Commerce, called on enterprises in the industry to establish a sense of transformation. Some insiders pointed out that the "cloud tourism" launched this time can become the normal way in the future. "Although the essence of the offline experience is irreplaceable, online can be used as a solution in an extraordinary period or off-season to make up for the incompleteness of the offline industry chain."

Ma Dejun said in an interview that in the field of online tourism, scenic spots plan to focus on development and seize new consumption opportunities after the epidemic.

"Although the flow of people is now under control, future-oriented tourism trading activities will not affect epidemic prevention and can be completely migrated. For example, an appointment service can be considered. " Liu Feng, a travel expert, can't be trapped in restrictions. Enterprises and scenic spots in the industry can launch post-epidemic tourism products with greater discounts under the guidance of relevant departments to enhance market vitality through insurance.

Ctrip. A survey recently released by www.com shows that 85% of users will continue their travel plans this year after the epidemic. According to Ctrip ticket data, the current search volume of Ctrip May Day holiday tickets has been higher than last year. "After the epidemic, people need to breathe more urgently." Liao Wei, general manager of Chongqing China Travel Service Group, said that although the epidemic has had a great impact on the tourism market, the enthusiasm for mass tourism still exists, which indicates that the tourism industry will not be depressed for a long time after the epidemic, which also gives practitioners a "reassurance".