China Tourism Academy: 2022 China Tourism Group Development Report

Guangdong, Jiangsu, Shandong, Henan, Sichuan, Hunan, Hubei, Hebei, Zhejiang and Anhui are traditional source areas of tourists and populous provinces. They are supported by local tourists and endogenous consumption, and they receive the largest number of tourists. They also provide a stable market foundation for market recovery and industrial revitalization.

The tourism industry is still in a downward channel. The integration of culture and tourism, technological innovation and more precise policies to help enterprises and alleviate difficulties have built the basic foundation for the recovery of the tourism industry. Since the beginning of this year, the tourism market is still in a downward channel, the confidence of entrepreneurs continues to be hit, and the tourism investment and operation index has not yet come out of the low consolidation period. Although the confidence index of tourism enterprises in the first three quarters is still below the boom-bust line, it has increased year-on-year. Among them, the sense of gain of private enterprises and small and medium-sized enterprises is still generally insufficient.

More and more innovative market players have begun to become suppliers in the local market, and more and more tourism companies are seeking asset-light operations and have made gratifying progress. Leisure space and tourism formats are being integrated and reborn, and technological innovation and modern manufacturing are directly or indirectly involved in the process of product research and development and scene creation. Art creation and performance groups are deeply involved in the tourism economic system. While enriching the supply of excellent literary and artistic works and high-quality tourism products, they have greatly expanded the real space for tourism investment and format innovation, and vividly interpreted the contemporary tourism development of "from theaters to vegetable markets, rediscovering the beauty of travel" and the new space for hosts and guests to share a better life.

Faced with the current predicament of employee loss and insufficient liquidity, product innovation and flexible employment have become new ways for the tourism industry to save itself. 2022 is the year with the most serious losses for tourism companies since the epidemic. Tourism groups have begun to pay attention to cultural leadership, technological innovation, and integrated development, and use incremental investment to drive stock optimization. Through the renovation of equipment and facilities and the iterative upgrading of tourism products, we will accumulate strength for the comprehensive recovery of the subsequent tourism market. The number of employees in China's tourism enterprises has declined significantly, and the loss of tourism talents is serious. New employment forms such as platform employment, crowdsourcing employment, community economy employment, and shared employment are also providing the main way for tourists to provide flexible employment.

The confidence of entrepreneurs in adversity continues to transform into a determination to meet challenges and a driving force for the innovative development of the tourism industry, demonstrating their heroic qualities in the midst of the turbulent sea. Judging from the current tourism willingness, corporate confidence, industry prosperity monitoring indicators and interview reports, a series of comprehensive risks, including insufficient investment, resumption of work but not resumption of business, business closures and employee unemployment, are still accumulating. The tourism industry is an industry with strong economic attributes and high market level. Faced with unprecedented challenges, only by anchoring new tourism demands and cultivating new momentum in the industry can we promote the resilience and sustainable development of tourism through product research and development, business innovation and systematic reform. Based on the current gradually open epidemic prevention and control policy, domestic tourism is currently entering an upward channel, and inbound and outbound tourism is expected to enter a gradual and structural recovery process. The business, study abroad, science and technology, education and visiting relatives and friends markets will be the first to restart.

II. Policy promotion and corporate relief

Over the past three years, national policies have been supporting the bottom line, maintaining stability and promoting recovery. From January 2020 to October 2022, the state issued a total of 110 relevant documents, and the number of documents issued this year far exceeds that of the previous two years. Stabilizing market entities is the key goal of the 2020 policy bottom line, and maintaining employment is the main goal of policy stability in 2021. The words such as stabilizing jobs, expanding jobs, social insurance, and personnel training frequently appear in policy documents. Expanding consumption is an important support for policy support in 2022. Hopeful words such as consumer vouchers, consumer formats, marketing and promotion, retail, industrial chains, and technological empowerment have injected strong confidence into the transformation and high-quality development of the tourism industry.

Local systems are constantly innovating and optimizing the environment to promote new empowerment for the tourism industry. The China Tourism Academy conducted in-depth research and policy evaluation among enterprises on policies to help enterprises alleviate difficulties. According to the survey results, the more the government introduces supporting measures and the departments and bureaus guide specific regions, the stronger the sense of gain of local tourism enterprises. For example, Guangdong Province uniformly interprets and guides the relief policy, which has received good feedback from tourism enterprises. The policy of free tickets for scenic spots in many places has received positive feedback from many tourism enterprises. At the same time, local governments have a series of pragmatic measures, such as carrying out major regional activities and expanding investment in tourism infrastructure and public services. These are pragmatic measures for local governments to help market entities. Recently, Hunan Province held the first Tourism Development Conference and released investment and financing projects for the cultural and tourism industry. The key projects were 600 billion yuan, the major projects exceeded 100 billion yuan, and the loan signing amount for investment and financing in the cultural and tourism industry reached nearly 35 billion yuan.

The administrative actions of the cultural and tourism departments are also promoting recovery. Since the outbreak of the epidemic, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism has insisted on coordinating epidemic prevention and control and resumption of work and production to minimize the impact of the epidemic on the cultural and tourism industry. At the same time, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism has also worked with various state ministries to formulate relief policies and make top-level designs for the implementation of policies. Since the beginning of this year, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism's 2022 Cultural and Tourism Enterprise Service Month has provided key support for gathering corporate momentum by optimizing services to help and benefit enterprises. The Ministry of Culture and Tourism has also successively carried out activities such as Happy Spring Festival, China Tourism Day, and Beautiful China, and has introduced policies and optimization measures in tourism and leisure districts, ice and snow tourism, red tourism, rural tourism, and camp tourism to ensure market supply and stimulate consumer vitality.

3. Industrial Innovation and Tourism Recovery

Innovating in adversity and moving forward with heavy burdens, the tourism industry, tourism enterprises and tourism groups have always grasped the people's needs for a better life as the direction of innovation. Since the outbreak of the epidemic, tourism enterprises and tourism groups have lived up to the expectations of the country and the people and actively fulfilled their social responsibilities. For example, Ctrip Group has set up an emergency working group led by the group's CEO, and OCT Group donated to the disaster area during the earthquake. Facing new market demands, major tourism groups have made innovative efforts in product research and development, content creation and scene creation, and launched a number of new formats, new products and new models with industry demonstration significance. In the new stage of high-quality development of tourism, tourism groups are more courageous in self-innovation and fully empower enterprises with smart management and governance capabilities with modern technology. Through the realization of these cases, business thinking is linked to the people's needs for a better life, and business logic returns to the service itself. More and more of our tourism enterprises and tourism groups are aware of this, and only in the future can enterprises and groups be invincible.

Tourism groups and tourism enterprises actively discover new demands, adapt to new changes, and embrace a more open tourism market. Urban leisure and rural micro-vacation have become the market foundation for entrepreneurship and innovation of tourism market players. Rural tourism, night economy, Shanghai-style urban archaeology, camping and other cultural tourism formats are frequently on the hot search, and returning home tourism has also become a new trend to drive the development of emerging tourist destinations. Light outdoor activities such as climbing, hiking, cycling, and frisbee are also sought after by young people and have become the hottest new consumption fashion. A series of industry practices fully demonstrate that the current tourism industry is defined by tourists, not the tourism industry defining tourists. Wherever tourists go, there will be demand for tourists, and there will be industrial boundaries.

Open up new markets, cultivate new momentum, and actively adapt to the new trend of time and space contraction. Mafengwo's "Weekend Please Get on the Bus" event, China Travel Group's "Foreigners in China Tour China Event", Ctrip's holiday farm and other projects, Spring Airlines' "Spring Field Autumn Dream" exquisite camping brand, "Spring Xiaoqiu Walking Classroom", and parent-child study projects are all pulling the focus of the market back from the destination to the source of tourists. At the same time, in terms of opening up new markets, some market players are actively shifting from heavy asset project construction to light asset operation. Haichang Ocean Park expands business channels for new IP consumption, Huaqiang Fantawild uses new technology to begin exporting amusement products and operation indexes to third- and fourth-tier cities, Anta Group joins hands with Hyatt Hotels Group to create Fila brand lifestyle hotels, and Chengdu Cultural Tourism Group and Chengdu Public Transport Group jointly create hot pot theme buses and other projects. They are all actively adapting to the new trend of time and space contraction and are new momentum for industrial development. This year, tourism groups pay close attention to talent training and release the momentum for sustainable development within the enterprise.

Focus on talent cultivation, drive innovation platforms, and release the internal momentum of sustainable development of enterprises. This year's Central Talent Work Conference called for the creation of a group of leading talents and innovative teams, so as to play the role of the national team of leading enterprises. Most state-owned and central enterprises, provincial tourism groups and large OTA platforms have established industrial research institutes earlier. In recent years, more and more municipal cultural tourism groups and small and medium-sized cultural tourism enterprises are also actively exploring the establishment of professional research institutions. At the same time, many tourism enterprises are also actively exploring the construction of innovative talent teams, including school-enterprise cooperation projects and projects with busy work and off-peak study. China Tourism Academy has taken many actions to promote enterprise development and enhance the voice of enterprises.

Accelerate resource integration, inject new forces, and jointly promote industrial innovation and tourism recovery. 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities, 70% of prefecture-level cities, and 50% of county-level cities, districts, counties and cities have established state-owned tourism groups, and the main players in the tourism market continue to grow and develop. This year, more than 30 newly established and reorganized municipal and county-level cultural and tourism enterprises were counted, which are also new forces in the cultural and tourism market. The vast number of small, medium and micro private enterprises and cross-border cultural and tourism projects have also taken innovative steps to integrate new forces across borders. New products such as the Jinge Hotel, Panda Street, and Tea Manor, and the growing main forces of industrial development are accumulating energy for the future strong recovery of the tourism industry.

The past is gone, but the future is here. The future tourism market will be more open and more diversified. The majority of tourism enterprises and tourism groups must always be supporters and executors of national strategies. Thousands of tourism enterprises should work together to promote the resilient recovery and high-quality development of the tourism industry.

Editor | Liu Xin

Proofreading | Yang Liqiong

Source | China Tourism Academy (Data Center of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism)