Dragon Travel Interactive: China Customized Travel Industry Report

In recent years, the development of customized travel has benefited from the ever-expanding tourism market, the number of tourists, tourism consumption, and the tourism market's pursuit of personalized itineraries. More and more Chinese tourists choose to travel in the form of customized travel. As customized travel gradually enters the public's perspective, higher requirements are placed on the supply chain, technical control, and experience of customized travel agencies. In 2020 , affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, the market will usher in new changes, requiring practitioners to have more efficient output response strategies.

As the epidemic situation in China eases, the domestic tourism industry is recovering. Compared with before the epidemic, tourists' safety awareness has changed, and they prefer self-driving tours, boutique small groups and other highly private travel methods, which will bring unique opportunities and challenges to customized tours.

The "China Customized Travel Industry Report" recently released by Longtu Interactive, a digital marketing agency in the tourism industry, explores the new and enhanced role of customized travel. Based on the survey feedback of 427 customized travel consumers and interviews with six executives of customized travel-related companies in the industry, it explores the driving factors of customized travel and the changes in demand for customized services, and sorts out the challenges and opportunities of customized travel in the current epidemic.

The market still has a vague understanding of the concept of customized travel

The survey shows that most customized travel companies are limited in scale and cannot use large-scale marketing to let the general public have a deep understanding of customized travel services. Tourists who know about customized travel services often learn about them through direct contact with customized travel agencies or customizers. In the process of developing the overall tourism market, in order to let more tourists understand and try customized travel, customized travel has evolved into various fragmented customized services. Some customized travel agencies provide B2B itinerary customization services for traditional travel agencies, which are packaged as packages and sold to terminal tourists, while others only provide itinerary customization services for tourists before their trip. This phenomenon has led to a general ambiguity in the definition and understanding of customized travel among the general public and even practitioners.

77% of customized travel tourists have only known about customized travel services in the past two years

Customized travel is still a new way of traveling in 2020. In the past, it mainly served the high-end customized market. For the mass tourism market, customized travel has just started. The survey found that 77% of customized travel tourists have only learned about customized travel services in recent years.

Tourists who are new to customized tours are unable to quantify their budgets

The survey shows that some tourists believe that customized tours are exclusive to the high-end tourism market, and that the mass tourism market cannot enjoy similar services within its budget range. Another group of tourists believe that the price of customized tours is not much different from that of theme tours and boutique small groups, ignoring the value of the core services of customized tours and finding it difficult to accept the actual price of customized tour services.

The survey shows that the customized travel expenses of tourists range from RMB 20,000 to RMB 40,000 per trip, 35% of tourists spend RMB 10,000 to RMB 20,000 , and 18% of tourists spend more than RMB 40,000 . Compared with the high-end market, the mass market does not understand the value of services well enough, so when they first come into contact with customized travel, they are unable to quantify the service value of customized travel in their budgets.

Four key points to improve market awareness: itinerary design, travel consultants, balance between technology and personalization, and price matching

Improving market awareness of customized tours is a long process. The report puts forward thoughts and suggestions around four key points: itinerary design, service, balance between technology and personalization, and price matching.

Itinerary Design

The survey shows that most of the tourists who take customized tours have travel experience. 61% of the tourists who take customized tours have had self-guided tours in the past three years, 51% of the tourists have had group tours, and among the tourists who take group tours, 20% have had experience in small boutique groups (less than 10 people).

Tourists who travel independently believe that customized tours can not only provide in-depth travel, but also save time and energy in planning itineraries. At the same time, the flexibility of customized tours has room for improvement. For tourists who travel with a group, customized tours can bring greater flexibility and opportunities for in-depth travel.

Executives of customized travel companies interviewed revealed that many customized travel agencies can design unique itineraries for tourists through the support of resources and technology when making itineraries, while saving tourists time and effort. However, many tourists who choose customized travel are still looking for more added value, including detailed design of itineraries, the intake of local culture, and diversified itineraries, which will become a reference for segmenting tourists and service value.

Travel Advisor

The survey found that travel consultants are the core demand for customized tours, whether it is pre-trip customization or in-trip services. Data shows that most tourists only contact the customizer in the early stage of customized tours to obtain itinerary customization services. In the early stage of tourists' contact with customized tours, 56% of tourists will contact travel consultants to learn more about customized tours. Among the current customized tour services, travel consultants' services in the early stage of the trip are more common, while in-trip services need to be developed.

Whether it is pre-trip customization or in-trip service, experienced tailors can enhance the experience of customized tours. In addition, based on the fragmented service status of common customized tours, to a certain extent, it is due to the lack of experienced tailors. For tourists, they need to focus on caring services to bring them a sense of peace of mind.

Balance between technology and personalization

The survey shows that the personalization that tourists seek for customized tours is not only the unique itinerary design, but also people-oriented services. The use of technology often cannot fully meet the detailed needs of each tourist, and customized tour agencies still need to find a balance between automation and personalization. In areas that cannot be replaced by technology, in-depth understanding of tourists' needs can fully customize personalized itineraries for tourists and provide considerate services.

Li Yan, vice president of 6renyou.com , mentioned in an interview for the report, " Application software is just a tool. Machines are definitely better than humans at calculating formulas, but we need to personally understand the actual needs of customers so that we can use machines to efficiently complete the work on a technical level. Travel is very subjective, and customized travel is essentially about people. Only when you communicate with customers can you clearly understand them, such as whether they prefer to stay in international chain hotels or unique hotels, whether they like easy itinerary arrangements, etc. "

Price Match

The report believes that for tourists who travel on customized tours, the high price of customized tours is a common doubt, and the industry needs to continue to guide tourists to understand the difference between the services provided by customized tours and group tours or theme tours. In addition, customized tour agencies can also improve the trust of first-time tourists in the target market by improving the transparency and consistency of quotations.

Under the epidemic, the target market has increased its demand for security, privacy, and full-service

Customized tours during the pandemic also have room for improvement. For example, there are stricter requirements in terms of safety, privacy, and 24- hour service. After the pandemic, tourists believe that these aspects have become particularly important. 79% of customized tour tourists believe that security will become more important than before the pandemic.

The gradual opening of inter-provincial tourism under the epidemic is a unique opportunity for the customized travel industry. Use existing resources to maintain relationships and communication with suppliers, and keep abreast of local epidemic prevention methods and policies. When encountering changes, you can provide better suggestions to tourists in a timely manner.

From the perspective of long-term development, only by spreading the value of customized services, continuously guiding tourists, and understanding the importance of human and intellectual costs can we increase the target market's awareness of customized services, recognition of prices, and demand for professional travel consultants.

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