Despite the start of 2021 with "staying local for the New Year," people's enthusiasm for travel is already irrepressible. Data from the China Tourism Academy shows that during the recent Qingming Festival, domestic tourism trips reached 102 million, which is 94.5% of the same period before the epidemic. On the BAIDU platform, users' travel demands also exploded before Qingming. In March 2021, BAIDU's search volume for the tourism industry vertical has recovered to 83% of the same period before the epidemic. Data from multiple OTAs shows that the booking volume of air tickets, hotels, and scenic spot tickets for this year's May Day holiday has significantly exceeded the same period in 2019. It is foreseeable that in the coming months, tourism demand will continue to grow strongly.
Under the wave of recovery, what characteristics do consumers exhibit in the three major sectors of travel, accommodation, and leisure? How can advertisers ride the wave of recovery? Let us explain one by one~
Consumer Behavior Insights - Travel Edition
In 2020, travel traffic steadily recovered, with peaks during the summer vacation and New Year's Eve. In 2021, guided by policies, the growth rate of the Spring Festival travel season did not meet expectations, but entering the second half of March, travel demand began to explode. Compared to train tickets and bus tickets, air tickets and car rentals are recovering faster, reaching 80% and 78% of the same period in 2019 in March 2021, respectively.
- Air Tickets:
In the destination ranking, Beijing's top position has been replaced by Shanghai, with Chengdu and Sanya becoming new favorites.
In terms of brand selection, China Southern, China Eastern, and Air China remain in the top three, with increased attention rankings for Spring Airlines, Juneyao Airlines, and Shandong Airlines.
- Train Tickets:
The position of hub cities is stable.
The popularity of the Beijing-Shanghai line has decreased, and newly opened railway lines (such as the Shanghai-Nantong Railway and the Xi'an-Yinchuan High-Speed Railway) have received widespread attention.
Long-distance destinations are concentrated in the southwest (such as Kunming, Chengdu, Lhasa, etc.).
- Bus Tickets:
Automobile tickets are mainly for short-distance round trips within the province or to neighboring provinces (such as Jinan-Dongying, Huai'an-Nanjing, Shanghai-Yancheng, etc.). Zhengzhou and Nanjing are experiencing an increase in popularity, while Hefei and Jinan are entering the top 5 destinations.
The primary channels for purchasing train and automobile tickets are the official 12306/12308 platforms, followed by OTAs such as Trip.com. In addition, users still inquire about information on offline ticket sales points.
- Car rental:
Car rental demand is concentrated in first-tier and emerging first-tier cities, with a significant increase in the proportion of local car rentals.
Different travel modes have different decision-making times, resulting in different traffic fluctuation trends. Air travel has a longer decision chain and tends to show an earlier increase in popularity, while train and automobile travel have shorter decision chains, with popularity peaking closer to the holiday week. In addition, the first day of train ticket sales before a holiday is also a high-traffic peak worth capturing.
Consumer Behavior Insights - Accommodation
As of March 2021, search volume in the accommodation industry has recovered to 79% of the same period in 2019. Among them, hotels are recovering faster than homestays, reaching a peak during the summer of 2020. Driven by high-quality service and affordable prices, more and more travelers are choosing luxury hotels check-in as a new vacation style. In addition to a clean environment, value-added services such as catering have become tools to attract consumers.
In terms of accommodation destination distribution, hotel destinations are concentrated in first-tier business cities and popular tourist cities, while homestay destinations are more leisure-oriented. Sanya ranks among the top 3 on both the hotel and homestay lists. From the perspective of search source analysis, homestay demand has stronger surrounding tourism attributes. Among the top 6 homestay source locations, the proportion of users searching for homestays in their own province or neighboring provinces is the highest.
Consumer Behavior Insights - Vacation
Domestic travel demand has gradually rebounded since March of last year, reaching a peak during the summer. As of March 2021, search volume has recovered to 90% of the same period in 2019. Among them, local and surrounding tours have recovered first, and scenic areas have seen the most rapid growth, with search volume now slightly exceeding the same period in 2019. With the opening up of policies and the recovery of long-distance travel, growth in destinations can be expected during and after the May Day holiday.
Yunnan, Jiangsu, Sichuan, Guangdong, Hainan, Zhejiang, Hunan, Shandong, Guizhou, and Guangxi were the most popular destination provinces in 2020. Different types of destinations exhibited different recovery rhythms.
The first category is short-distance travel destinations represented by Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Guangdong. These provinces saw a peak in search volume during the Qingming Festival, steady growth during the summer, and then an explosive growth during the National Day holiday. From the search volume trend in 2021, a rapid increase has already begun in the upper half of March. In addition to short holidays this year, it is also recommended to continue to pay attention to the popularity of weekdays and weekends.
The second category is long-distance travel destinations represented by Yunnan, Guizhou, and Guangxi. In 2020, growth began in May, reaching a peak in the summer, and gradually declined from September. In 2021, from April, the search volume has already risen to the level of the May Day holiday last year, and continued growth is expected after the holiday.
The third category is "shopping-oriented" destinations represented by Hainan. In July of last year, Hainan's new duty-free shopping policy was introduced, and Hainan's search volume rose rapidly. Except for a short-term decline in November, it has remained stable at the same level as the summer and has continued to rise since January of this year. Compared with the obvious seasonal fluctuations in previous years, it can be predicted that Hainan's search volume this year will remain stable with an upward trend.
In terms of scenic areas, even during the darkest moments brought by the epidemic, many scenic areas still grew against the trend, becoming unexpected "dark horses." Short-distance tours in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shanghai became the top choices for Qingming and National Day travel. Mount Putuo, Jiming Temple, and Qiandao Lake all held a place during various holidays. A number of scenic spots have become new "internet sensations"—Laojun Mountain became a popular scenic spot in the second half of 2020 due to the success of short video marketing; Cocoa Sea Scenic Area in Xinjiang also became popular throughout the country with the song "The Shepherd of Cocoa Sea."
In 2021, with the accelerated recovery of the tourism industry, consumers' preferences for destinations and scenic areas are also showing new trends different from last year.
