Young people waiting for the holidays began to frantically "stock up on tickets"

In the new year, young people who have recovered from their physical condition have started to spend money, mainly in three types of experiential consumption: travel, performances and fitness. This article shares the stories of these three types of young people who spend money on these things. Young people who have recovered from their physical condition have created a new consumption concept. Let's take a look at their stories.

The young people in "Yangkang" started spending money.

But it is neither shopping nor investing that makes them willing to overdraw their wallets and pay in advance. What they want is mainly three kinds of experiential consumption - travel, performances and fitness.

With the domestic tourism market recovering and outbound travel about to open, some people have spent 35,000 yuan to stock up on 12 tickets to the United States and Southeast Asia and resort hotels in seven domestic destinations; with live performances restarting and large-scale concerts beginning preparations, some people have prepared a "special fund" early on to make up for three years of happiness; after experiencing the epidemic infection and resuming exercise becoming a rigid need, some people have prepared their wallets for the gym, and some have already spent tens of thousands of yuan to buy 30 Pilates classes.

In short, the triple buff of "relaxation" of the epidemic, recovery from infection, and the beginning of the new year has caused another "sharp turn" in the consumption track of young people.

In the new year, more business opportunities may emerge in the tourism, offline entertainment and health industries. Young people who support these three major consumer sectors are stockpiling tickets, applying for cards, and buying courses, just wanting to "live in the present" and "be happy".

1. Going on a trip: "Spending 35,000 yuan, stocking up on 12 overseas tickets and 7 resort hotels"

On the 10th day of "Yang Kang", Zhang Yue took the high-speed train from Beijing to Weihai.

This is her first trip out of Beijing in 2022. Although the New Year's Day holiday is only three days and the destination is not very popular, it is enough to make her excited. "I just want to go to the beach, eat delicious food, and stroll around a strange city."

Ruoruo from Guangzhou also made an appointment with several friends who are also from Yangkang to spend the New Year's Eve in Quanzhou. "In fact, we live in the same city and get together often, but we haven't traveled together for a long time. Now we must fulfill this wish as soon as possible."

At the same time, she also booked tickets and hotels for a trip to Guangxi during the Spring Festival. "I plan to go to Liuzhou and stay in a newly opened luxury hotel in a third-tier city. The room rate is 500 yuan a night, less than half of that in Guangzhou. I feel like I've made a profit."

Media research shows that when asked what they would do to "have a good time" after getting healthy, about 58% of young people chose "traveling", ranking first.

Even if there are no travel opportunities for the time being, they are willing to "retaliate" with spending. Bingqing from Chongqing has stocked up on almost all the resort hotels in popular tourist destinations in the southwest, "such as Dali, Lijiang, Xichang, Sichuan, Guizhou and Hainan, spending a total of 11,775 yuan."

Domestic resort hotels to be used

Photo provided by the interviewee

What makes young people even more excited is that they can finally travel abroad.

Recently, news such as "Starting from January 8, 2023, all nucleic acid testing and centralized quarantine after entry will be cancelled", "the acceptance and approval of applications for ordinary passports by Chinese citizens for traveling abroad and visiting friends will be resumed in an orderly manner", and "the processing of visas for mainland residents to travel and business to Hong Kong will be resumed".

During the Double 11 and Double 12 periods in 2022, a travel platform joined hands with several airlines to launch the "Future Flight" program, where users can purchase a round-trip card to a designated foreign destination and redeem the ticket within 6 months from the date of returning to China without quarantine.

"At that time, I was just stockpiling tickets out of hope, wondering if we would be able to return to the free travel status before the epidemic soon." Bingqing told Kaibo Finance that the overseas tickets she stockpiled were mainly round-trip flights to Southeast Asia and the United States, which were destinations she had always wanted to visit or had been to before and wanted to visit again.

She spent nearly 20,000 yuan just to stock up on air tickets, "including two Cambodia Airlines round-trip tickets for 1,999 yuan, Sichuan Airlines' Southeast Asia round-trip package for two people for 3,998 yuan, and two Etihad Airlines' round-trip tickets for the United States for 5,400 yuan."

Outbound travel tickets to be redeemed

Photo provided by the interviewee

Bingqing estimated that she currently has about 35,000 yuan in domestic and international air tickets and hotel expenses, but she will probably choose to use part of it, and the actual consumption amount is expected to be one-third . "Moreover, if you pay with Huabei, you can wait until the verification is completed before repaying the money, which does not occupy your own savings and is more flexible," she explained.

At the end of December, China Southern Airlines also launched the "International Early Bird Tour", which includes tax-free round-trip tickets from Guangzhou to Phu Quoc Island, Nha Trang, Chiang Mai, Phuket, Bali, Maldives, etc., with prices ranging from 840 yuan to 2,240 yuan. Currently, there are more than 80 days left before the purchase deadline, but all these early bird tickets have been sold out.

After receiving the push notification, Li Ang, who lives in Guangzhou, did not hesitate to buy a round-trip package to Phu Quoc Island, Nha Trang, Phuket and Maldives, with a total cost of 5,560 yuan . "I may not redeem all of them, but it's always a good idea to prepare a few while there are discounts. I have to go to a foreign island this year."

2. Watching performances: "Prepare 20,000 yuan to make up for the concerts I haven't seen in three years"

In addition to traveling, the joy of watching performances is also returning to young people.

In addition to air tickets and hotels, Bingqing also stocked up on beer packages from multiple livehouses, including Chongqing S53 Super Live, DUI, and Dream Field Music. "You can go there whether there are performances or not, but I'm sure there will be many opportunities to go to livehouses this year."

In Beijing, the livehouse, which had very few performances in the past year, is now packed with young people from "Yangkang".

The performance ticketing platform "Xiudong" APP shows that nearly 30 live performances have been officially announced in Beijing in January, and most of the tickets have been sold out. Livehouse performances were originally scheduled in the evening, but now, in order to meet the explosive performance schedule, some venues have added afternoon performances on weekends.

Tickets for many performances in Beijing in January are sold out

Image source/ ShowDong APP

"The pre-sale tickets are sold out as soon as they are released, and tickets for popular bands in the circle are even harder to get." Rock fan Zhang Xu told Kaibo Finance that he has been closely following the developments of major livehouses in Beijing, such as MAO, Xinjiang Jinjiu, and Le Space, since last month, and has made preparations to grab tickets.

In early January alone, he stocked up on tickets for five shows , "No. 3 Spring Rose, No. 6 Brain Fatigue, No. 8 Zuo Xiao Zu Zhou, No. 9 Lost Train, and No. 11 Island Mood. The total cost of the tickets was 980 yuan." In Zhang Xu's opinion, tickets for rock band live shows are not expensive, but performance opportunities are rare. "Go see them now if you can."

Zhou Zhou was a ticket hoarder in 2021. She bought a lot of tickets for plays and live shows, but most of them were cancelled due to the epidemic, so she is now conservative about stockpiling tickets. "Of course, if I encounter a big event, I will still grab the tickets on time and go no matter what."

In comparison, she is more determined to stock up on annual passes for Universal Studios Beijing and Shanghai Disneyland. "The Universal Annual Pass is 2,288 yuan, and the Disney Starlight Gem Card is 2,399 yuan. You can make your money back after a few visits, and you can also enjoy shopping discounts, early admission and other benefits."

Universal Studios Beijing launches first annual pass

Image source: Beijing Universal Studios mini program

For the larger-scale concerts, there is no official announcement of shows and ticket sales yet, but young people who have their hearts set on the concerts have already prepared their wallets.

Xiaohan, who works in Guangzhou, prepared 15,000 yuan to go to an idol's concert overseas this year . "I have been planning for more than half a year since the tour started. The regular price of the ticket is 5,000 to 6,000 yuan, but if I can't get it, the scalper ticket is estimated to be tens of thousands, but I still feel that I must go to see it."

"My favorite Taiwanese band hasn't held a concert in mainland China for three years. Every time fans asked about the mainland concert on Weibo, the lead singer would avoid the question. But at the end of last year, he clearly replied for the first time, 'arrange.'" Dou Dou from Beijing said that when she saw these two words, she was so excited that she cried.

In the new year, she set up a "performance fund" for herself . "I'll save 20,000 first. In addition to tickets, there may also be travel expenses and food and accommodation expenses for going to other cities to watch performances." Dou Dou vowed that in 2023, she must watch all her favorite performances.

3. To exercise: "Recharge 12,000 yuan and stock up on 30 sessions of Pilates, which is the most suitable for 'rehabilitation'"

After experiencing the first direct "war" with the virus, many young people have put fitness on their agenda. Although most of them are still in the recovery period and have not yet returned to high-intensity exercise, they are still relentless in applying for membership cards and stocking up on classes.

As a fitness enthusiast, Zhou Zhou has a habit of exercising and attends at least three Super Monkey group classes every week. "I recharged 2,000 yuan on Double 11 last year, and will continue to recharge 500 yuan each time afterwards."

Gym card balance

Photo provided by the interviewee

In the new year, she also plans to set aside some money for the "iron gym" . "Unlike commercial gyms, the iron gym does not have private training promotions. After you get a membership card, you can go in and exercise with the equipment freely." Zhou Zhou explained, the purpose of "lifting weights" is to sculpt lines and improve athletic performance, which is different from group classes that train muscle endurance and cardiopulmonary and gain emotional value. Both dimensions are carried out simultaneously.

However, since the annual membership fee for the gym starts at 10,000 yuan, and given the many precedents of gyms running away, she plans to find one that allows her to pay on a monthly basis.

Xiaohan resolutely chose a dance studio with the most favorable reviews near her home and spent 2,280 yuan to buy a six-month membership card with unlimited classes . "Compared to fitness, dancing is more interesting and gives me a greater sense of accomplishment of 'learning a skill'."

Some people choose Pilates as their first rehabilitation program after recovery.

Pilates is an exercise that involves muscle control and stretching, coordinated with breathing, and was originally designed for the rehabilitation of injured people and athletes. Many Pilates centers claim that Pilates does not raise the heart rate too much, is most effective in improving the lymphatic and respiratory systems, and generally has one-on-one guidance from professional coaches, who can effectively monitor physical conditions and adjust intensity in a timely manner.

This is exactly what people want for those who want to improve their physical fitness after "Yang Kang" but are worried about exercise safety.

Shanshan, who lives in Changsha, recently took advantage of the year-end promotion and bought 30 private lessons at a Pilates studio near her workplace for RMB 12,000 . "Since I can't get my money back, I'm more motivated to go to class," she joked.

However, in first-tier cities like Beijing and Shanghai, a private Pilates class can cost 500-800 yuan, which is not affordable for ordinary workers. But this generation of young people has a hidden skill, which is to take advantage of information gaps and space gaps to "take advantage of the situation".

Doudou got into Pilates in the second half of last year. Her experience is that she can take advantage of opportunities to travel or go on business trips to other cities to find a local regular Pilates studio to take a trial class. “The price is basically less than 200 yuan.”

Recently, she discovered that a new Pilates studio had opened in her hometown’s third-tier city, so she purchased a few classes in a group and planned to attend them during the Spring Festival. The average price of the classes was less than half of that in Beijing.

4. Why do young people who claim not to spend money start to spend in advance?

Before the time to travel comes, stock up on plane tickets; before concert tickets go on sale, prepare the funds; if fitness becomes a necessity, get a membership card before attending class.

In 2023, young people are enthusiastic about offline experience-based consumption, which is in stark contrast to the low-desire consumption trend of "consumption downgrade" and "buy less or not" in the past year.

In terms of material consumption, they continued to be rational and pragmatic as in the previous year.

In stark contrast to spending big bucks on air tickets and hotels, Bingqing is more frugal and cautious in her daily consumption compared to before the pandemic. "Before buying something now, I will think twice whether it is suitable for me and whether it is necessary. If something is not suitable, I will return it even if it is only a few dozen yuan."

"In the past three years, it was difficult to travel far and there were no performances to watch, so shopping was more like a way to find joy in suffering. But things will be different in the future. There are more ways to get happiness, and the importance of shopping will have to be put on the back burner." Zhou Zhou said that she always reminds herself not to fall into the trap of false needs and following trends.

The reason why they are willing to spend money on travel, entertainment, and fitness, and even prepay the consumption amount that has not yet been incurred, is due to the factor of "revenge consumption". But in the final analysis, it is the three major opportunities of the "relaxation" of the epidemic, recovery from infection, and the beginning of the new year that make them look forward to life in the new year and create a new consumption concept.

"If I buy one less piece of clothing, I may save the money for a travel plane ticket; if I buy one less piece of makeup, I may be one step closer to the performance. My heart tells me that going to the beach, which I haven't seen for a long time, makes me more excited than buying a new lululemon vest." Zhou Zhou said.

Behind the payment for experiential consumption, almost every young person interviewed also gave their answers on how they view life after experiencing the special three years: "Live in the present", "Enjoy life while you can", "Pick the flowers when they are ready", and "Happiness is the most important thing".

*At the request of the interviewees, all the characters in the article are pseudonyms.

Author: Wu Jiaoying; Editor: Jin Yufan

Source public account: Kaiboluo Finance (ID: kaiboluocaijing), focusing on live streaming e-commerce, new consumption, and focusing on in-depth content.