“Tourism Special Forces” surged during the May Day holiday: 120,000 people “entered Zibo”, but Beijing suburban homestays became unpopular?

During the first May Day holiday after the epidemic, everyone wanted to make up for the three years of missing, so "special forces-style tourism" broke out, visiting more than a dozen scenic spots in one day, and Zibo became popular during this period. However, when the tourism market was booming, Beijing suburban homestays were cold. What is the reason? Let's take a look with the author.

"This year's May Day, the main theme is madness."

During the first May Day holiday after the three-year epidemic, men, women, young and old from all over the country came out in droves. The "special forces-style tourism" of visiting more than a dozen scenic spots and walking tens of thousands of steps in a day became popular on social media.

The crazy degree of overcrowding had been foreshadowed before the holiday: some homestays forced tourists to cancel their reservations, and "May 1st homestay price increases and contract cancellations" topped the Weibo hot search list; a large number of hotels doubled their prices and were fully booked, and some even increased their prices by 7 times. A hotel in Taizhou, Zhejiang, launched the "sleeping on the sofa in the lobby" room type.

The situation was even more exaggerated during the holidays: on the 28th, Shanghai Hongqiao Station showed that tickets to all parts of the country were sold out, tickets to the Old Summer Palace were sold out for the first time in a hundred years, overnight stays at Haidilao, "tourists in the Huangshan Scenic Area sleeping in the toilet", and "camels blocking the way" at Mingsha Mountain and Crescent Lake caused heated discussions.

As the holiday came to an end, a wave of return trips hit. According to calculations by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism Data Center, the total number of domestic tourists in China reached 274 million, a year-on-year increase of 70.83%, and recovered to 119.09% of the same period in 2019 on a comparable basis ; domestic tourism revenue reached 148.056 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 128.90%, and recovered to 100.66% of the same period in 2019 on a comparable basis.

Domestic travel orders hit a five-year high. The number of people traveling even exceeded that of the Spring Festival. Fliggy reported that domestic travel bookings for the May Day holiday doubled compared to the Spring Festival, setting a historical peak for the May Day holiday. Among them, domestic tickets increased by 127% compared to the Spring Festival, domestic hotels increased by 95% compared to the Spring Festival, and train tickets increased by 117% compared to the Spring Festival.

The unprecedented desire for offline travel indirectly diverted the audience of May Day movies. The "most crowded May Day" with 17 new films did not make much noise. At 21:00 on May 3, the total box office of the May Day period exceeded 1.51 billion yuan, with "Unfamiliar Life", "King of the Sky" and "So Many Years" ranking the top three.

Transforming into an "Internet celebrity city" has become a shortcut to boost the development of local tourism. Facing the "May Day test", cultural and tourism bureau directors from all over the country have come up with a series of unique ideas, and the city's business cards are also rolling up again and again. Internet celebrity buildings, natural scenery, historical attractions, food, film and television cultural tourism linkage, music festivals... Who can replicate Zibo's path to becoming popular on the Internet?

1. 120,000 people "come to Zibo to catch up with the roast", who can copy Zibo's homework?

Zibo BBQ, which features small pancakes, grill ovens and green onions, became an overnight sensation and became the new hottest top tourist destination during this holiday. This indirectly led to many Shandong people being unable to buy tickets and complaining in their circle of friends that they "couldn't go home during the May Day holiday."

Paopao, one of the "barbecuers", shared his personal experience: after many twists and turns, he failed to buy a ticket, and finally chose to drive himself despite the traffic jam, and finally arrived in Zibo. There was already a long queue at 9 am, and the restaurant closed at 4 am. It is reported that there are barbecue chefs in Zibo with a monthly salary of over 10,000 yuan, and many new Zibo barbecues have opened in Beijing, becoming a substitute for those who failed to go there.

In order to welcome the national tourist army, Zibo has gone all out to upgrade the infrastructure , open a barbecue train, pick up male college students at the station, and open a number of special barbecue bus lines and a "barbecue license application window."

Increasing police force and severely punishing those who raise prices and rip off customers, including recently launching an investigation into a hotel that increased its prices by 1.5 times, have all added points to the diners' experience and helped Zibo stabilize its traffic and reputation. Cases such as Hongxing Erke have proven that the biggest fear in creating a myth is the collapse of its image and a movement to destroy the god.

Nuomi, who went to Yantai, Shandong, said that "Zibo barbecue" can be seen everywhere in Yantai. Even in the local traditional Mouping barbecue restaurant, the soul two-piece set of small pancakes and green onions are placed on the table. When asked, the boss replied, "Isn't this Zibo barbecue hot?" It can be said to be "Zibo's full-scale invasion."

On Weibo, the topic of Zibo barbecue has been read more than 700 million times. On Douyin and Kuaishou, videos related to Zibo barbecue have been played more than 10.58 billion times, and there are more than 670,000 notes on Xiaohongshu. After the May Day holiday, the search for Zibo train tickets increased by 988% month-on-month.

Behind the popularity of Zibo barbecue is the determination of the traditional industrial cities in the north to transform. To some extent, Shandong is similar to the Northeast, facing the problems of mineral resource depletion and economic development not as good as Jiangsu and Zhejiang. It is also the main battlefield for those who are obsessed with "working within the system" to take the civil service examination.

When the People's Republic of China was first founded, Zibo was one of the first industrial cities with independent industrial and mining areas and old industrial bases. Similar to Hegang, it became the third batch of resource-depleted cities, and the old industrial cities were in urgent need of transformation.

The music festival was once another business card that Shandong focused on , and its geographical location is also conducive to radiating to Beijing.

The "Shandong Province Cultural and Tourism Integration Development Plan (2020-2025)" released in July 2020 clearly identified music festivals as the main cultural products for the prosperity and development of night tourism. Three years ago, Zibo and the Wheatfield Music Festival signed a "ten-year agreement". In the first half of 21 alone, about 20 music festivals were officially announced.

This year's May Day Midi Music Festival in Yantai Huangbohai New Area was the first music festival in China with over 100,000 people attending. In addition, there was the Pingyin Rose Music Festival and the first Grand Canal Music Festival in Dezhou. In the first half of the year, there were also the Zaozhuang Whale Music Carnival, the HELOY Music Festival, the Linyi Langya Skylark Music Festival, the New Youth Music Festivals in Tai'an, Jining and Weifang, etc.

The popularity of barbecue is undoubtedly a pleasant surprise. In April alone, Zibo's consumption income soared by 1.62 billion yuan. During the "May Day" holiday, Zibo's tourism orders increased by more than 2,000% year-on-year. During the May Day holiday, local estimates show that 120,000 people went there. According to a rough calculation based on the average consumption of thousands of yuan per tourist, this means a revenue of over 100 million yuan. Cha Yan Yue Se and Wen He You have helped Changsha become an Internet celebrity city, proving that a city's popularity can not only rely on tourism resources, but also on food.

So, who can become the next Zibo? The many "barbecue towns" mentioned in "A String of Life", such as Jinzhou and Xichang, actually have food that is not inferior to Zibo. The Northeast, where the barbecue culture is the most developed and its own conditions are similar, should take advantage of the spillover effect of Zibo and learn from Zibo's infrastructure construction and supporting service upgrades.

It is exciting to see whether Northeast China, which has Qiqihar's freshly cut beef and mutton, Hegang's small skewers, Yanbian's Korean barbecue, Zhaodong's flatbreads, Shenyang's grilled chicken racks, Yitong's roasted pigeon, Dandong's grilled seafood, and Jinzhou, where "everything can be grilled", can form a group to export its brands.

What needs to be considered is how the local area should maintain traffic and discussion when Zibo barbecue is no longer at the center of public opinion. The resurgence of a city may be similar to the resurgence of an Internet celebrity: it requires opportunities such as the environment and the times, a large amount of methodological summaries, and a comprehensive "Internet-based" mindset to find a point that can trigger discussions across the entire network.

2. When the epidemic bonus recedes: Beijing suburbs homestay, camping, and frisbee are out of fashion

Since the May Day holiday this year is only five days long, most people choose to travel domestically. Hotel services and scenic spot tours are becoming more and more popular, evolving into a complex of multiple experience elements such as performances, entertainment, e-sports, catering, Hanfu, travel photography, exhibitions, etc. The number of bookings for "scenic spot/park + X" products has increased by more than 10 times year-on-year.

According to a Ctrip report, cross-provincial hotel bookings account for more than 70%. Popular ancient capitals such as Xi'an and Luoyang are extremely popular. Driven by the Peony Festival and the Chinese style craze, Hanfu check-in photos continue to flood the screen . Luoyi Ancient City alone has brought more than 300 Hanfu stores around it. Meituan data shows that since April, Luoyang has ranked second in the country in terms of the number of Hanfu experience orders. The number of merchants providing Hanfu experience has increased by 375% over the same period last year, and the number of orders has increased by 530% month-on-month.

Even some niche and unpopular tourist destinations have become popular, creating a grand scene of "no unpopular destination". Tongcheng Travel data shows that during the May Day holiday, the search popularity of "niche" related tourism increased by 172% month-on-month, and the search popularity of "unpopular" related tourism increased by 113% month-on-month. During the May Day holiday, hotel bookings in third-tier and lower cities in China increased by more than 150% compared with the same period in 2019.

However, many young people have also restarted their journey of "exploring the world". Ctrip released the "2023 May Day Travel Data Report", which shows that in terms of overall order volume, the overall order volume of mainland outbound travel has increased by nearly 700% compared with the same period last year, and the order volume of outbound air tickets and hotels has increased by nearly 900% and nearly 450% respectively compared with the same period in 2022.

"Kidnapping", "telecom fraud" and "rumors of kidney cutting" have not deterred many tourists from loving Thailand. The Songkran Festival and the arrival of Rolling Loud have attracted a large number of Chinese people. But Momo, who just went to Thailand, also admitted: "Compared to a few years ago, Thailand is no longer so cheap and good. Many fees have increased by more than two times. The boat ride was originally 1,000 baht, but later it became 5,000 baht. It took a long time to reduce part of it."

Dubai and Maldives, which offer visa-free or on-arrival visa to domestic tourists, as well as Japan, South Korea, Southeast Asia and other relatively close places are popular. San San, who loves traveling, chose Jordan, which is less popular but also has a visa-on-arrival policy. She said that the exotic customs and unique culture of the Middle East are very attractive to her, and there are indeed "few Chinese tourists" in the local area, so she had a more in-depth experience.

Whether it is the bustling cross-provincial tours or the gradually resuming outbound tours, it means that the situation in the past two years where people could not leave Beijing due to the city lockdown and could only choose to travel in the suburbs is no longer there. The homestays, camping, frisbee, and even cycling and paddleboarding in the suburbs of Beijing that once benefited from the epidemic are no longer popular.

Like all niche things that must go through a decline, "the general audience that flooded in in the past two years has disappeared, and the ones left are those of us who have been playing for many years." Peng Peng, a veteran camping enthusiast, said. Some camp organizers also mentioned that the situation of being full at any time is gone, and now the campsites are often empty.

In March this year, the professional camping platform Miye stopped its service. According to reports, Shi Jianqing, the founder of Miye Camp, said that the reasons for stopping the service were that the platform was not profitable and the financing was unsuccessful. There are many cases on Xiaohongshu and Douyin complaining about the difficulty of operating and taking over.

In the past two years, the price of Beijing suburban homestays has easily exceeded 6,000 yuan per night, which has become history. Tujia Homestay data shows that the average price of Beijing suburban homestays during the May Day holiday fell by nearly 40% year-on-year. Some homestays even had a 50% discount.

The relevant person in charge of Beijing Yipiao Inn admitted that in March and April this year, the weekend traffic of B&Bs dropped by 40% to 50% compared with previous years, or even higher. The manager of Beijing Hefu B&B believes that "it would be very good if the occupancy rate could reach 15% to 20% on weekdays."

The reshuffle back to quality and the survival of the fittest seem to be the inevitable stage for every industry after saying goodbye to wild growth. As the tide recedes, camping sites and Beijing suburban homestays that were once popular will need to endure a difficult period and develop more competitiveness to survive.

For office workers, heading to "poetry and distant places" can be regarded as a temporary break from the tiring life, and also a revenge consumption for the stay-at-home life in the past few years. In "The Fourth Consumer Age", Hidetoshi Miura, a well-known Japanese consumer society researcher, mentioned the four eras of consumer culture experienced by Japanese residents. The third consumer age emphasized more on the individual, and China is currently in this era.

There is a voice that believes that Chinese people's consumption concept is becoming more and more like that of Japan and South Korea - they are not interested in buying houses, but are more and more interested in experiential consumption travel. With the mentality of enjoying life in the moment, this year's tourism economy will usher in a further explosion. Who will be the next lucky person to capture the hot spots and business opportunities?

Author: Mia Editor: Ba Qing

Source: WeChat public account "Entertainment Unicorn (ID: yuledujiaoshou)"