Before the wind came, OTAs raised their marketing

Text | Smart Relators & Mantis Observation

Author | Tu Lin

It was another summer, and the tourism industry came to the spotlight again.

From "half of the circle of friends in Chongqing in Chongqing in Changsha" to "Xinjiang has been crowded by tourists across the country", the domestic tourism market is ushered in a wave of climax. Especially in popular tourist destinations, the enthusiasm of people's tourism consumption has risen significantly.

In TOP10, the hottest cities in the summer of "Tujia", Changsha, which is nicknamed "New York, China" by netizens, ranked third. According to data recently released by the Culture and Tourism Department of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, since July this year, the average daily reception volume of 5A tourist attractions in Xinjiang has exceeded 110,000, and the month -on -month increase in June has reached 201.08%.

Although it takes time to fully recover from the tourism industry, from the signal disclosed by the market, the pace of recovery has accelerated.

01. Create a new travel outlet

The hope of a comprehensive recovery of the tourism industry is first derived from the loosening of the policy side. Among them, the two news at the end of June was an iconic event.

On June 28, the Comprehensive Group of the State Council's joint prevention and control mechanism released the "New Coronatte Virus Pneumonia Prevention and Control Plan (Ninth Edition)". There are two important policies adjustment: the time of entry and control of entry personnel is shortened. "7+3"; the downgrade downgrade cycle of mid -to -high risk areas can be reduced, and those with high risk zones can be reduced to medium -risk zone without new infections for 7 consecutive days. Essence

Immediately after June 29, the news of the cancellation of the "Star" mark of the communication itinerary card has received widespread attention.

The essence of these two news points to the relaxation of the restrictions on the flow of tourism, which is naturally very good for the tourism industry. After the announcement of the policy on the 28th, the stock price of tourism -related companies was the most intuitive proof.

The favorable policy side is far more than relaxing the restrictions on population flow, and it is also an important manifestation of the support of cultural tourism enterprises at the financial level.

Even though the industry recovery signal is obvious, it has continued to repeatedly make cultural tourism companies weak. Among the 21 listed destination operating companies statistics from the Global Travel News, only an ACS A company has achieved profitability, and the remaining companies' single losses ranging from 5 million yuan to 2.50 million yuan.

For these companies, they need to "return blood" quickly before the tourism industry's comprehensive recovery, in order to carry surge in demand.

On July 26, the two departments issued the "Notice on the Restoration and Development of Financial Support Culture and Tourism Industry". The "Notice" pointed out that the total amount and structural dual function of monetary policy tools are used to maintain reasonable liquidity and adequate liquidity, and use monetary policy instruments such as re -payment and discounting to guide banking financial institutions to improve and strengthen credit services for cultural and tourism enterprises. Essence

Undoubtedly, this pair of "return blood" cycles of cultural tourism companies and boosting the development of the tourism industry will bring positive incentives.

The local policy side is also very powerful. In the first quarter of this year, Yunnan issued 33 policies and measures for the cultural tourism industry. Later, at the time of the summer tour, 28 measures were introduced to promote the development of consumption, which specifically mentioned "promoting cultural and tourism consumption to accelerate the recovery."

The same is true of Chongqing. In the spring of this year, under the premise of strict prevention and control of the epidemic, more than 40 measures such as discounts, travel subsidies, and ticket -free ticket exemptions, and more than 100 customized tourism routes, the purpose is to stimulate tourism consumption.

It is worth noting that social media has enlarged the influence of popular tourist destinations.

Previously, because of the "how to become a brand spokesperson" series of bloggers, the blogger "bottom spicy child", recently launched a new series called "Challenge to shoot a group of urban propaganda blockbusters", which focuses on showing the tourism characteristics of different cities. Big wave heat. The latest Beijing theme is widely praised, and it will be on the Douyin hot list in one fell swoop.

A more representative example is a Douyin video called "Xiang Girl in the First Day of New York". By pointing out the commonality of the New York Times Plaza and Changsha May, it enhances the urban influence of Changsha in disguise. #In the topic of Douyin, Times Square#, Changsha New York, there are both local people in Changsha and foreign tourists who have come to.

From the perspective of "Observation of Mantis", the policy side and the media are working hard to build a new air outlet for the tourism industry that is still restored to promote the comprehensive recovery of the industry.

Good news has become more and more. On June 26, Huangshan received more than 10,000 tourists in a single day, a record high since early March. At the end of June, Beijing Universal Studios and Shanghai Disney also resumed operations.

It is foreseeable that the new outlet of the tourism industry will not let us wait too long.

02. The outlet is approaching, marketing first

The industry released a favorable signal, and the low -key OTAs have also acted and started working in marketing.

On July 20, Ctrip's latest super IP "Ctrip Super Holiday" appeared. Immediately after July 21, the three major airports in the United Nations of Tongcheng Travel launched the "Summer First Flight Plan". Although there are differences in the theme of the activity of the two, they obviously have the same purpose -marketing expansion needs.

"Ctrip Super Holiday" aims at people who need high cost -effective travel products. In the Ctrip live room, all travel products that do not increase the price in the summer vacation will be recommended by separate categories. According to the relevant person in charge of Ctrip, these discounts are not limited to summer vacation, and will cover various types of holiday holidays such as Mid -Autumn Festival, Eleventh, Shuangdan, Spring Festival, Qingming, May Day, Dragon Boat Festival. In fact, Ctrip's "Ctrip Wednesday", which was launched in mid -June, also belongs to similar marketing. Each Wednesday, Ctrip is recommended by the BOSS live broadcast, and the content of the product and product output with the list, to achieve the purpose of planting grass for users. Compared with "Ctrip Super holiday", the marketing nodes of "Ctrip Wednesday" are more widely covered and more daily.

The "Summer First Flight Plan" traveling in Tongcheng will focus on the platform business. The plan is mainly to provide exclusive opportunity benefits for users who book air tickets on Tongcheng Travel Platform for the first time. At the same time, the plan will be used as a "novice" popular science common sense to alleviate their anxiety about unknown experience.

In addition to the two recent activities, earlier, Ctrip also advanced the "student certification" entrance to the first screen of the ticket booking interface, and launched the "Free Retirement" upgrade service for 2 days in advance. The effect is also very significant: In the first quarter, Ctrip realized the number of air ticket student certifications by nearly double the month; the label of "2 days in advance" label with Tuanyou products has exceeded 20 million yuan a week.

Compared with the "Blind Blind Box Tide" set off by Tongcheng Travel last year, "Mantis Observation" believes that while the marketing of OTAs is retaining interest, it is more focused on the consumer needs of different groups, and they are entering more mature and more mature and more. New stage of subdivision.

Tongcheng travel last year's ticket blind box is undoubtedly an excellent paradigm for OTA's post -epidemic era marketing. This event brings unprecedented high popularity for Tongcheng travel. Data show that on April 3 last year, the Search heat of the WeChat index "Traveling in the same trip" increased by more than 318%month -on -month. On the same day, in the APPSTORE free APP ranking, the ranking of Tongcheng Travel APP successfully jumped to the second list and the first travel list.

However, whether it is a similar blind box activity in succession, or the gradual numbness of the marketing gameplay of the consumer market, it implies that the marketing method has a life cycle. To further open consumer needs, you need to cut into more segmented people. Such as Ctrip's "crowd pursuing cost -effective people", "student groups", and "first opportunities" that are concerned about.

Judging from the results, more segmented marketing has also achieved significant results. The Ctrip's "Super Holiday" activity was launched for about a week, and the traffic doubled. The recommended summer explosive sales of the event increased by more than 30%month -on -month.

Not only activity marketing, but also at the content marketing level, Ctrip also handed over a good transcript. In the first quarter of this year, the average daily user creation content on the Ctrip platform increased by 140%month -on -month, the number of KOL increased by 10%month -on -month, and the average user viewing volume increased by about 40%year -on -year.

The marketing effect of Tongcheng travel is mainly reflected in the growth of the platform. Data show that in the first quarter of 2022, the average monthly use households in Tongcheng travel reached 240 million, an increase of 4.5%year -on -year; the average monthly paid users reached 31.7 million, an increase of 16.1%year -on -year; The year of the same period of 170 million increased by 21.4%.

Of course, marketing is not limited to event marketing and content marketing. The deep cultivation of the platform at the level of social value is actually another form of "marketing".

Since the beginning of this year, Tongcheng Travel has continued to help industrial chain partners to improve operating efficiency through technological innovation. At the same time, in order to help small and medium -sized tourism companies to resist the cold winter, Tongcheng Travel invited the operation management experts in the field of 7 hotels to share online, providing 7 different ideas for the development of small and medium -sized hotels under the influence of the epidemic, which attracted more than 78,000 hotels. Watch the practitioners.

Not only that, in order to practice social responsibility, Tongcheng Travel also launched a series of public welfare activities such as the "Rebellion escort plan" and "Spring Festival Public Welfare Line" to provide free accommodation and travel services for special groups.

As for why these OTA players choose to tilt the short -term center of gravity to marketing, "Mantis Observation" believes that it is more time based on the industry's comprehensive recovery. Base.

From the perspective of the environment, not only domestic, the global tourism environment is good. The World Tourism Rigid Witches released by the United Nations World Tourism Organization shows that in the first quarter of 2022, the number of international entry in global tourism destinations was almost three times the same period of 2021.

However, the major environment is well transmitted to the consumption terminal, and there is both a variable that the epidemic is required in the middle. Judging from the latest performance of the OTAs, they can be recovered, but it is difficult to get high growth in a short time before the epidemic.

In terms of Ctrip, due to the influence of the epidemic fluctuations since the beginning of the year and mid -March, the operating income of Ctrip Group in the first quarter of 2022 was 4.1 billion yuan, which was basically the same year -on -year. 96.3%of the same period in 2019 before the epidemic; the transaction volume of 32.4 billion yuan in the first quarter, 90.3%of the same period before the epidemic.

Therefore, for the OTAs, before the arrival of the comprehensive recovery of the tourism industry, it is not a good thing to strengthen the market cognition and the strength of the precipitation platform through marketing.

In addition, under the influence of the epidemic, consumers have higher expectations for the quality of tourism products, which actually means that OTAs need to sink their hearts during this time, polish more explosive products, and attract more high -quality users.It is the key to the platform standing in the market.Conclusion

In any case, the burst of the wave of tourism in the summer, laid a good foreshadowing for the recovery of the tourism market in the second half of the year.Under the background of favorable policies, with the enlarged influence of social media on destinations, the enthusiasm of people's tourism will be further stimulated.

For the OTAs, compared with the high growth of performance, it is better to keep the light and work hard on the basic skills.Marketing tests the innovation capabilities of the platform, but behind the marketing, the comprehensive strength of the platform is considered.

The road is long, but at least it has a good start.

*The pictures of this article are from the Internet

- END -