Although the year of 2021 starts with "spending New Year wherever you are", people are now expressing desire to travel again soon. According to the China Tourism Research Institute, total number of domestic travels during Qingming Festival has reached 102 million, which equals 94.5% of the total number of travels at the same time period before the pandemic. According to Baidu, users have demonstrated strong travel desire during Qingming as well. Search volume related to travel has recovered to 83% of the same period before the pandemic in March, 2021. The booking volume of airline tickets, hotels and tickets for tourism attractions during Labour Day holiday period has significantly exceeded that of the same period in 2019. It is foreseeable that travel demand will continue to grow remarkably in the next few months.
As economic recovery continues, business owners are generally interested in consumer behaviour in terms of transportation, accommodation and entertainment. This article will discuss the above sectors and explain how advertisers can take advantage of the recovery.
Consumer Behaviour - Transportation
We saw a strengthening in the travel industry toward pre-pandemic levels in 2020, peaking during the summer and New Year's Eve. Due to new restrictions, the growth rate of travel during Spring Festival did not meet our expectations in 2021, but travel demand began to show in late March. Compared to train and bus tickets, airline tickets and car rentals in 2021 recovered more quickly, having reached 80% and 78% of the same period in 2019, respectively.
- Air:
In the destination city ranking, Beijing's no.1 position was replaced by Shanghai, while Chengdu and Sanya became customer's new favourites.
In terms of customers' favourite brands, China Southern Airlines, China Eastern Airlines and Air China still rank in the top three, while Spring Airlines, Juneyao Airlines and Shandong Airlines have improved their ranking.
- Train:
Transportation hub cities have demonstrated their importance.
Beijing-Shanghai line has shown decreased attention from the public, whereas the newer railway lines (such as Shanghai-Nantong train, Xi'an-Yinchuan high-speed rail, etc.) are gaining more attention.
Long-term travel destinations focused around the southwest (such as Kunming, Chengdu, Lhasa, etc.)
- Bus:
Bus tickets are mainly for short round trips within the province or neighboring provinces (such as Jinan-Dongying, Huai'an-Nanjing, Shanghai-Yancheng, etc.). Zhengzhou and Nanjing rose in popularity, Hefei and Jinan entered the TOP5 destinations.
Train tickets and bus tickets are usually purchased through the official 12306/12308 channel. However, there are still users consulting offline ticketing outlets for information.
- Car Rentals:
Car rental demand is concentrated in first-tier and new first-tier cities, and the proportion of local car rentals has increased significantly.
Different modes of transportation affects travellers' consideration stage and time, which results in different web traffic fluctuations. The decision-making for air travel is obviously longer and the search volume peaks earlier, while the decision-making for trains and automobiles is shorter and therefore the peak is closer to the actual holiday week. In addition, the first day of pre-holiday train ticket sales is also a traffic peak worth noticing.
Consumer Behaviour - Accommodation
As of March 2021, accommodation searches have recovered to 79% of the same period in 2019. Among all accommodation types, hotels recovered faster than Airbnb, peaking in the summer of 2020. Stimulated by both quality services and affordable prices, more and more travellers are choosing internet-famous hotels for their photogenic nature for social media. In addition to neat and tidy environment, additional value-added services, such as food and beverages, have become a powerful tool to attract consumers.
In terms of destination distribution, hotel destinations are concentrated in first-tier business cities and popular tourist cities, while Airbnb destinations are more leisurely. Sanya was ranked among the Top 3 in both hotel and Airbnb, and the demand for Airbnb is more peripheral in nature, with the highest percentage of users in the Top 6 Airbnb destinations searching for Airbnb in their own province or neighboring provinces.
Consumer Behaviour - Vacation Fun
Domestic travel demand has been gradually picking up since March last year, peaking in the summer months, and by March 2021, search volumes had recovered to 90% of the same period in 2019. Thanks to the first recovery of local and peripheral tours, scenic spots have grown the most rapidly, and the retrieval volume has now slightly surpassed the same period of 2019. With the new policy lifting up, and the recovery of long-haul tours, we may expect tremendous growth on May 1 (Labour Day) and beyond.
Yunnan, Jiangsu, Sichuan, Guangdong, Hainan, Zhejiang, Hunan, Shandong, Guizhou and Guangxi are the most popular destination provinces in 2020. Different types of destinations show a different pace of recovery.
The first category is the short-haul destinations represented by Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Guangdong. These provinces were the first to see a peak in search volume at the Qingming Festival, with steady growth over the summer, followed by explosive growth in November. Based on search volume over the year of 2021, it started to rise rapidly in early March. It is suggested that weekdays and weekends are also worthy of attention besides long weekends.
The second category is the long-haul destinations represented by Yunnan, Guizhou and Guangxi. We saw a growth from May 2020, culminating in the summer and gradually falling back after September. Since April 2021, search volume has risen to last year's May/Labour Day level, and is expected to continue growing after the holidays.
The third category is the "shopping" destinations represented by Hainan. With the introduction of Hainan's new duty-free shopping policy in July last year, search volume of Hainan rose rapidly. Except for a short-term decline in November, the number of total searches has remained stable as in the summer, and has continued to rise since January 2021. Compared to the obvious seasonal fluctuations of previous years, it is expected that Hainan's search volume will remain steady and up this year.
As of tourism attractions, there are still many "dark horse" scenic spots growing surprisingly well even in the darkest moments during the pandemic. The short trip to Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai became the first choice for Qingming Festival and National Holiday travel, so are Putuo Mountain, Jiming Temple, Qiandao Lake, etc. A number of attractions have become the new hot spots due to the success of short video marketing, such as Laojun Mountain. Xinjiang Cocotuohai region becomes famous across the country with the popular song "Shepherd of Cocotuohai".
In 2021, as travel industry recovers rapidly, consumers are bringing new trends in destination and scenic preferences that are different from last year.
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