Beijing Consumer Association: 2022 Beijing Tourism Consumption Experience Survey

In order to further protect the legitimate rights and interests of consumers, regulate the order of the tourism consumption market, and promote the healthy development of the tourism industry, the Beijing Consumers Association has conducted an experiential survey of the Beijing tourism consumption market for seven consecutive years since 2016. Most of the relevant experience indicators have remained consistent, especially in terms of contract signing, corporate qualifications, and compulsory consumption. Key indicators are basically retained, so that the characteristics of tourism consumption in each year are relatively accurate. This year, the "Consumer Protection Law of the People's Republic of China" and the "Beijing Tourism Regulations" are used as the basis for the investigation, focusing on industry issues and consumption trends, actively innovating in the content and methods of the investigation, and effectively playing the role of social supervision organized by the Consumer Association. In addition, combined with the characteristics of this year's epidemic prevention and control, the Beijing Consumers Association communicated closely with the Beijing Municipal Market Supervision Administration and the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism in this investigation, further enhancing the pertinence of the investigation content and forming a joint force of administrative supervision and social supervision.

This survey will start in May 2022 and end in August . Focusing on the survey content, this year we will further enrich the survey methods and improve the pertinence of the survey results. Specifically, we will conduct: (1 ) Experiential surveys, including 10 Beijing one-day tour consumption experience surveys, 10 Beijing local characteristic tourism consumption experience surveys, and 10 Beijing surrounding self-driving tour experience surveys, totaling 30 experiential survey routes. ( 2 ) Consumer questionnaire survey, to understand the tourism consumption experience in the first half of this year, future tourism consumption demand and influencing factors. Through multiple channels such as the Beijing Consumer Association’s official WeChat public account, Tencent Questionnaire, Questionnaire Star, and WeChat Moments, a total of 3,513 valid samples were completed. ( 3 ) Beijing tourism consumption reputation big data survey, to understand multiple topics such as local tourism consumption, Beijing’s popular attractions, and night economy, by collecting information from media and government websites, forums, Weibo, WeChat and other sources, the total amount of data is 353,719 . ( 4 ) Online travel platform questionnaire survey, to understand the business operation problems of platform enterprises and platform merchants, the recovery of enterprise market, and the tourism consumption confidence index. A total of 7 samples of domestic mainstream online travel platforms and 214 samples of platform merchants were completed. ( 5 ) Enterprise qualification survey, from the 8 online travel platforms selected for this survey, 100 merchants were sampled on each platform to inquire about their business licenses and travel agency business licenses published on the platform.

1. Conclusion

1. In recent years, the key indicators of experience surveys have steadily increased, and the quality of Beijing's tourism consumption environment has remained relatively good.

( 1 ) In the 2022 experience survey, compulsory consumption items have not been found in the survey for two consecutive years.

When the tourism consumption experience survey of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei was first conducted in 2016 , some people in the tourism industry said that "a one-day tour in Beijing cannot be called a tourism project" because the high proportion of compulsory consumption projects damaged the image of Beijing tourism and made consumers lose confidence in it. It is also based on this background that in 2017 , the Beijing Consumer Association conducted a separate one-day tour experience survey in Beijing, in which compulsory consumption was the key indicator of key experience. The results of surveys for many consecutive years show that with the joint efforts of all parties, the proportion of routes with compulsory consumption in the experience routes that year has decreased year by year from 75% in 2017 , including 55% in 2018 , 26.67% in 2019 , 5% in 2020 , and 0% for two consecutive years in 2021 and 2022. The phenomenon of compulsory consumption has been basically eliminated, and Beijing's tourism image and consumption environment have been effectively improved.

( 2 ) The results of the 2022 experience survey show that due to the impact of the epidemic in recent years, travel agencies’ safety awareness has significantly increased.

In this year's one-day tour experience survey, travel agencies scored 100 points for "safety reminders" before departure, which is a significant improvement over previous years. This means that in the 10 one-day tour experiences, travel agencies can maintain safety awareness and take care of tourists in terms of "safety reminders" and "epidemic safety reminders". This also shows that due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in recent years, especially in the face of the Omicron virus, travel agencies have always been on the alert for safety and have done a lot of meticulous work in tourism safety, which is worthy of recognition.

( 3 ) Since the corporate qualification survey began in 2020, the proportion of travel agencies displaying business licenses and travel agency operating licenses on tourism platforms has increased year by year in recent years.

Articles 48 and 49 of the Beijing Tourism Regulations both state that travel agencies should clearly display their business licenses and travel agency business licenses on online platforms and publish them through relevant qualification documents to protect consumers' right to know. This year's survey results show that among the 800 enterprise qualification survey routes, 82.73% of the routes can display business licenses on the platform, and 86.48% of the routes can display travel agency business licenses on the platform, which has continued to rise for two consecutive years.

2. Due to the continued impact of the epidemic, this year's one-day tour experience survey showed that online travel platforms, travel agencies, and scenic spots have weakened in standardized management.

( 1 ) The contract signing rate of online travel platforms and travel agencies continues to decline.

Since the 2016 Beijing One-Day Tour Experience Survey, the contract signing rate has continued to rise, reaching a peak of 80% in 2020 , but fell to 70% in 2021 due to the epidemic, and continued to fall to 60% in 2022 ; moreover, in the survey of the withdrawal experience, the route selected was also a Beijing One-Day Tour, and its signing rate was only 50% . It can be said that the low signing rate of Beijing One-Day Tour contracts this year is a fact. In addition, in terms of contract details, such as "completeness of detailed itinerary in the contract" and "completeness of traffic information" are also relatively low.

Combined with the survey results of tourism enterprises, it can be seen that 71.43% of platform enterprises believe that their performance in 2022 is lower than expected, and 84.11% of platform merchants believe that their performance in 2022 is lower than expected. From a specific analysis, it is related to operating difficulties, reduced operating income, reduced tourism consumption demand, and insufficient production capacity caused by the impact of the epidemic on the supply chain. The superposition of factors has had a serious impact on tourism enterprises, and the standardized management capabilities of enterprises have continued to weaken. This is significantly reflected in the continued decline in the contract signing rate this year compared with last year, which has dropped to the pre-epidemic level.

However, in the Beijing Tourism Regulations, Article 52 clearly stipulates that "travel agencies should sign a one-day package tour contract with tourists." As an important legal document to protect consumer rights, the lack of a travel contract brings hidden dangers to consumers' travel experience, easily leads to consumer disputes, and also creates difficulties for consumer rights protection. Therefore, it requires the joint efforts of relevant departments and practitioners to strengthen standardized management and promote the sustainable development of the industry.

( 2 ) The score of the scenic spot has declined, and the main reason is the untimely garbage removal.

The scenic spot experience survey score in 2022 was 85.00 , and 92.50 in 2021. The decline in scores was mainly due to the failure to clean trash bins in a timely manner and hygiene problems in public toilets during the tour.

3. The self-driving tour experience was relatively less affected by the epidemic, and the overall score was basically the same as in previous years, but there is still room for improvement in transportation and accommodation.

The results of this year's self-driving tour survey in Beijing's surrounding areas show that the overall score in 2021 is basically the same as last year. Compared with one-day tours (group tours), self-driving tours involve a relatively short tourism industry chain and are therefore relatively less affected by the epidemic.

Compared with last year, the self-driving tour experience has declined in terms of accommodation hygiene and scenic area hygiene. The main problem with accommodation is that bedding and towels are not clean enough, and foreign objects such as hair are found; the problem with scenic area hygiene is that there are not enough trash cans and garbage is littered in the scenic area.

4. Various survey results show that local characteristic tour routes are popular, and the overall experience survey results are relatively good, but the supporting details need to be improved.

( 1 ) A big data survey on the reputation of tourism consumption at popular check-in spots shows that the three themes of cultural landscape, natural landscape and street parks are the most popular.

At the end of 2021 , under the joint guidance of the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism, Beijing Municipal Bureau of Commerce, Beijing Municipal Cyberspace Administration, and Beijing Radio and Television Station, and co-organized by the Beijing Tourism Industry Association, Beijing Performance Industry Association, and Beijing Animation and Game Industry Association, the " 2021 Beijing Internet Celebrity Check-in Destinations Recommended List" was released, covering 10 major themes including natural landscapes, cultural landscapes, culture and arts, block parks, new consumption scenarios, night economy, scientific and technological innovation and digital economy, reading spaces, hotels and boutique homestays, catering and innovative retail, and a total of 100 cultural and tourism destinations.

According to the big data survey of tourism consumption reputation across the Internet from January 2021 to June 2022 , the cultural landscape category has the largest online communication volume, accounting for 60.57% , followed by natural landscape category and block park category, indicating that from the perspective of cyberspace, the cultural landscape category has the highest attention from the Internet celebrity check-in place. Specifically for scenic spots, the most popular cultural landscape category is Beijing Universal Studios, the most popular natural landscape category is Miaofeng Mountain Scenic Area, and the most popular block park category is 798 Art District.

( 2 ) Among the online dissemination of the three types of night economy, the proportions of characteristic landmarks and characteristic business districts exceeded 40% , which is relatively high; the proportion of characteristic living circles is relatively small.

The night economy is mainly divided into three types: "characteristic landmarks", "characteristic business districts" and "characteristic life circles". Among them, the "characteristic landmarks" type accounts for the highest proportion, which is 49.04% , and the top ones are "Sanlitun - Gongti", "Qianmen - Dashilan" and Hua Xi Wukesong. The "characteristic business district" accounts for the second largest proportion, which is 42.80% , and the top ones are Happy Valley, Guijie, and COFCO Xiangyun Town. The "characteristic life circle" accounts for a relatively small proportion, which is 8.16% , and the top ones are Wudaoying Hutong, Changyang, and Wudaokou.

( 3 ) We conducted a survey on 10 experience routes selected from the above-mentioned popular check-in spots . The results showed that the overall performance was relatively good, but some details still needed to be improved.

The experience survey of local characteristic tours was based on the " 2021 Beijing Internet Celebrity Check-in Place Recommended List" issued by the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism and other units, and 10 characteristic consumption places were selected for experience surveys. Since most of these places are located in bustling areas, they perform relatively well in terms of service elements such as shopping and consumption, catering, and transportation. In consumption places, the overall performance of venue hygiene and epidemic safety prevention and control is also relatively good. However, in the experience of some routes, the investigators also found that there was a phenomenon of failure to clearly mark prices, among which cultural and creative products were more obvious. In consumption places, the garbage bins in some places were not cleaned in time, and the clerks did not wear masks in a standardized manner. In addition, when taking a taxi in the evening during the night economy, the waiting time for taxis for individual line investigators exceeded 1 hour, showing that the night economy still needs to be improved in related supporting details.

( 4 ) Consumer questionnaire surveys show that this year's tourism consumption market presents a significant "local and surrounding travel" consumption feature, but inflated consumer prices, poor hygiene of public toilets, and false advertising on social media platforms are the top three problem types in the first half of this year.

The survey shows that this year, local residents mainly visit the suburbs and the six districts in the city, and the Beijing tourism market presents a significant "local surrounding tour" consumption feature; among the travel methods, families and friends form groups on their own, and group tours account for only 14.01% . In terms of specific projects, consumers prefer leisure and relaxation projects, and the proportion of demand for surrounding natural scenery, special food, rural tourism, and business travel, culture and sports integration experience consumption is relatively higher. In the second half of the year, 56.00% of the respondents chose to travel during the National Day, which is the highest proportion. The National Day holiday has become the golden time window for tourism consumption this year.

Regarding tourism consumption issues in the first half of this year, this survey shows that inflated prices, poor public toilet hygiene, and false advertising on social media platforms are the top three types of problems. Among the respondents who purchased tourism products through live streaming or social media, nearly one-third had consumption problems. This new form of tourism consumption urgently needs to be regulated.

5. According to the survey results of platform enterprises and consumers, the platform enterprises' tourism consumption confidence index for the next year has made a V -shaped reversal, and consumers plan to increase their tourism consumption budgets. Tourism enterprises should boost the industry's own confidence, strengthen the details in tourism service reception, turn crises into opportunities, and optimize consumer experience.

According to the tourism consumption confidence index and the actual development of the industry in the past three years, the confidence index of platform enterprises is closer to the actual situation, which also shows that platform enterprises, as a resource integration platform for the entire industry chain, have a more objective and comprehensive assessment of the development of the industry. According to the survey, the confidence index of platform enterprises for 2021 is 77.14 , the confidence index for 2022 is 68.89 , and the confidence index for 2023 is 74.29 , which has gone out of the V -shaped reversal. In addition, according to the results of the consumer survey, consumers' planned travel budget has increased, indicating that the demand for tourism still exists.

Therefore, in the face of problems such as industry standard management exposed in this year's survey, tourism companies must pay more attention to contract management and detail management of all aspects of the tourism industry chain, strengthen and enhance service reception capabilities, build corporate core competitive advantages, actively turn crises into opportunities, and effectively optimize consumer experience.

6. For tourism companies, the effects of industry recovery policies are concentrated on reducing taxes and fees and lowering corporate operating costs.

Regarding the difficulties faced by business operations at this stage, nearly half or more of the platform companies and platform merchants chose "reduced demand for tourism consumption", "reduced operating income", and "insufficient production capacity due to the impact of the epidemic on the industrial chain." It can be seen that with the care of relevant government departments and industry self-rescue measures, short-term liquidity pressure has been effectively alleviated, but the medium- and long-term operating pressure brought about by the impact of the epidemic has already emerged.

In terms of industry recovery policies, including the support measures for merchants on online travel platforms and the government's industry recovery policies, from the feedback of enterprise surveys, among these support recovery policies, measures that directly reduce costs in the short term are the most popular, such as the government's tax and fee reductions and increased financial support, followed by measures to improve corporate sales performance, such as marketing and publicity. Therefore, the short-term "cost-saving policies" and the long-term "open source policies" form a combination of industry recovery punches to help the industry recover.

(II) Countermeasures and Suggestions

In response to the results of this survey, the Beijing Consumer Association makes the following suggestions to help the tourism industry recover, create a good tourism consumption environment, and enhance consumers' tourism service experience.

1. Focusing on key issues in the industry, relevant government departments should further increase the implementation of tourism-related laws and regulations such as the Beijing Tourism Regulations and strengthen market supervision.

The results of this year's experience survey show that since the release of the Beijing Tourism Regulations, it has played a positive role in improving the quality of Beijing's tourism services. The key indicators of the survey have continued to improve for many years, indicating that Beijing's tourism market supervision has achieved remarkable results in law-based governance and has made good progress.

However, some results of this year's experience survey show that even though the laws are relatively complete, some problems still arise. For example, in the corporate qualification survey, the display ratios of travel agency business licenses and operating licenses on online travel platforms were 82.73% and 86.48% respectively; and the contract signing rate even declined to only 60% .

Therefore, relevant government departments should further strengthen the implementation of laws and regulations. For example, the requirements for the publicity of travel agency licenses on online travel platforms are clearly stipulated in Articles 48 and 49 of the Beijing Tourism Regulations; and the one-day package tour contracts are clearly stipulated in Article 52 of the Beijing Tourism Regulations. However, these two aspects are still not 100% strictly followed, and the contract signing rate has even declined this year. In addition, there are omissions in the details of the contract, which is more likely to induce consumer disputes.

Faced with the repeated impact of the epidemic on the tourism industry, relevant government departments should further strengthen the implementation of relevant laws, regulations and policies, promote the standardized operation and refined management of enterprises, and deepen their internal strength in the crisis, optimize the tourism consumption service experience, enhance consumer confidence, and ensure healthy and sustainable development of the industry.

2. To promote the recovery of the tourism industry, the government and tourism companies should work together to boost tourism consumption demand, innovate and develop new local tourism consumption scenarios, and coordinate from both the market and policy aspects.

In this enterprise survey, 100% of platform enterprises and 70.56% of platform merchants chose "reduced demand for tourism consumption" as the main difficulty faced by enterprises. It can be said that reduced demand is the primary factor that leads to reduced operating income and causes difficulties for enterprises. Therefore, enterprises should first actively play the role of the market, make full use of Beijing's rich cultural and natural landscape resources, develop in-depth one-day tour routes, and ensure the company's cash flow.

Secondly, relevant government departments further understand the needs of enterprises, fully investigate the effects of specific policies, and continue to improve them. For example, in this enterprise survey, tourism enterprises are more concerned about the policy effects of reducing costs, including tax and fee reductions, increased financial support, reduced enterprise operating costs, rent reductions, etc. These policies focus on helping enterprises save costs; in addition, there are also strengthening tourism marketing publicity, supporting tourism enterprise product innovation, etc., which focus on helping enterprises expand the market. Therefore, the policy of increasing revenue and reducing expenditure takes into account both, and forms a synergy with the market behavior of enterprises to jointly promote the recovery of the tourism industry.

3. Online travel platforms have the advantage of industrial integration. Faced with the reality of weakened industry regulatory management after the impact of the epidemic, they should upgrade platform technology and management models, improve the management of contract and corporate qualification details, optimize the tourism consumption experience, and further enhance their core competitiveness.

As an Internet company, online travel platforms have advantages in terms of industrial chain, capital and product innovation, and their ability to resist epidemic risks is stronger than that of platform merchants. According to the results of this year's one-day tour experience survey, the contract signing rate has declined for two consecutive years. One-day tour package tour contracts are important consumer vouchers, and the lack of travel contracts can easily cause consumer disputes. Considering that tourism consumption experience surveys are basically ordered and executed through online travel platforms, online travel platforms should supervise and review the standardization of merchant services on their own platforms, and improve the management of details such as contracts and corporate qualifications through technical means and management model upgrades, thereby optimizing consumers' travel experience, which in turn will promote the improvement of the company's own core competitiveness and achieve a win-win situation for all parties.

4. Tourism enterprises should focus on local consumption scenarios, deepen product innovation in theme scenic spots such as cultural landscapes, natural landscapes, and block parks, and make full use of nighttime economic demand to stimulate tourism consumption vitality.

This year, we conducted a network text data analysis on 100 cultural and tourism destinations with 10 major themes in the " 2021 Beijing Internet Celebrity Check-in Spot Recommendation List". The results show that the amount of online attention to cultural landscapes, natural landscapes, and block parks is relatively the highest. Therefore, tourism companies should actively expand local consumption scenarios, deepen product innovation around Internet celebrity cultural and tourism destinations, and carry out in-depth one-day tours, night economic tours, characteristic hutong tours, Beijing suburbs RV camping, picking and leisure, parent-child study and other micro-tourism and micro-vacation tourism product research and development, which not only meets the cash flow needs of enterprises, but also stimulates the vitality of tourism consumption through the high-frequency interaction of micro-tourism.

However, according to the results of this year's local characteristic tour experience survey, some local characteristic tour routes still have some details such as failure to clearly mark prices, untimely garbage collection, improper wearing of masks by store clerks, and long waiting times for taxis in night economic venues. Relevant government departments and enterprises are required to further improve and perfect supporting details and management standards to promote the healthy and sustainable development of the local tourism consumption market.

5. Consumers should travel in a civilized manner, comply with epidemic prevention and control requirements, and have awareness of protecting their rights during the consumption process.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic is completely over, consumers should consciously follow the code of civilized tourism and refer to similar regulations in the "China Tourism Scenic Spots Epidemic Prevention Self-Discipline Convention" during their travels, and consciously implement online real-name reservations and offline contactless ticket purchases by scanning codes; enter in different time periods and intervals, and it is recommended to keep a distance of more than 1-2 meters from others; do not carry out related activities that involve gatherings of people; wear masks and cooperate with temperature testing when entering open cultural and tourism venues; at the same time, bring disinfection items and more masks when traveling, and protect yourself; conduct nucleic acid testing in accordance with relevant epidemic prevention requirements.

In addition, in this experience survey, some consumption links are prone to cause consumption disputes. Consumers need to have a sense of rights protection and pay more attention to the following aspects: ( 1 ) Pay attention to contract signing . The contract signing rate of travel agencies in one-day tours is not 100%, especially this year. Therefore, if consumers choose to travel with a group, they should pay attention to choosing a regular travel agency to sign a relatively comprehensive travel contract. They should read the contract terms carefully before placing an order. A regular contract contains a relatively comprehensive and detailed description of the travel itinerary and contains clear responsibilities of both parties. If the travel agency cannot provide a travel contract or the content of the travel contract is vague, it is necessary to carefully choose the travel agency. ( 2 ) In the surrounding self-driving tour, some scenic spots or folk merchants may not have clear price tags. Be sure to ask the price in advance before deciding to buy, and try to avoid the possibility of consumer fraud. ( 3 ) When consumers' legitimate rights and interests are infringed during travel activities , they should pay attention to retaining evidence materials . If they fail to reach an agreement with the travel operator, they should promptly apply for mediation to the local tourism complaint acceptance agency or relevant mediation organization. If necessary, they can use legal channels to effectively protect their rights and interests.