The state of travel in China beyond the first wave.

The light of the V-shaped tourism recovery seen on the continent An important hint after the coronal convergence?

Starting the new serial online!
 
How do you do all, thank you for your checking HOTERES ONLINE.
I'm NANA, COO and producer of the travel agency for foreign tourist【TARO】, is supporting overseas for both "HOTEL'S RESTAURANT" and "HOTERES ONLINE".
 
TARO was born as a travel concierge company that offers a personalised service that provides a thrilling experience for affluent inbound clients who have high expectations for Japan, as well as providing and arranging services that are unparalleled by ordinary travel agencies. Due to diversifying travel needs, the company now offers a wide range of travel and tourism services, including travel product development for tourist destinations and consultancy for tourism city planning.
 
TARO deals with the foreign tourists for offering extraordinary experiences in Japan. Every day receiving hot and colorful news from hotels all around the world and local travel agencies, and we're sharing the part of these news for the magazine "HOTERES".  We have just started updating these kind of information sources esp no time lag for the viewers online as the new article "VOICES from the WORLD".
Don't miss it!

Now, commemorable first article is from my friend in London, Andrew Thacker, the founder and managing director of cool consulting company ' Katana Creative Media '.
Enjoy the excerpt a quote from his report, "Traveling circumstances of wealthy Chinese after CORONA shock."
 
【Katana Creative Media】http://www.katanalondon.com
【Taro】http://www.katanalondon.com/work/taro/




Incomparable shock with SARS
Impact of CORONA on China
 
The report by Andrew about Chinese circumstances has began such these sentences.
"Effect of COVID-19 evoke a drastic decline in traveling motivation of Chinese, that comparable to September 11. As reported the worsening of infection status in across the globe, concerns about overseas trip of Chinese is growing day by day, and it had an even more profound effect than SARS in 2013."
Usually, Andrew has macro and cool-headed perspective, but the impact of this present circumstances was immeasurable for him.


"Disappeared 450 million plans"
"Unrecoverable huge loss"

Andrew continues.
"In China, CORONA crisis has happened during the holidays of Chinese New Year. Therefore, more than 450 million travelers had no choice but to cancel their travel plans. According to the interview on the travel media, 'Travel Daily' , it is estimated that the recovery of Chinese hotel industry would be taken three to six months at the earliest. Internationally, it is estimated the travel industry may begin to recover in July, but it depend on the infection status in the first half of 2020.  But considering the current conditions, it is unlikely realized."





"Sense of ending and rekindling the trip desire"

Seems like appearing the darkness shrouds the world, Andrew tells that there will be a small ray of hope in China.
"In China, the country is beginning to recover from CORONA, showing a trend that many people stream through the domestic trip. Since the beginning of March, many of the tourists spots across the country has opened to the public. According to Ctrip.com, which is the travel giant in China, 40 percent of the top-level scenic spots has restarted receiving booking on platform of traveling online.
One of the major internet travel service providers, Qunar.com started providing package tours in advance though apps and websites.
As a result, 52 percent of people are planning domestic trips, in addition that 35 percent of people would like to plan foreign tours.
Of them, Japan, south-eastern Asia, US and Europe are the running for as travel destinations."
※This data likely of changing depend on the circumstances for each candidate countries, because it collected ahead of the lockdown in US and Europe.

These repressed months  bring down
'revenge spend' and 'revenge travel'

'Revenge spend', this word has been increased among online talking in China. In the world of post CORONA, people who has been tied up in home for few weeks and few months are waiting for release to spend their money impulsively. This is called 'revenge travel' in the travel industry."
Andrew said. It means that it has been increased calling for recover, and it leads to a proportional increase in going on a spending spree.





The key to recovery for both China and Japan is
"Hygiene" and "domestic travel."
 
However, Andrew says that the same common sense may not apply the world of post CORONA.
"Well, the booking style of post CORONA will be in order the value of 'health', 'easily changing plans' and 'good price'.
We just see the new buds of recovery and redirect our attention to travel, but the focus is on the domestic travels. The recovery of the foreign travel will be influenced not just access to the destinations but the recovery of infrastructure.
But, even the domestic travels are in an early phase of warming-up. After easing lockdown, as so-called 'revenge travels' are often held, the recovery itself might be accelerated over several weeks. However, as still closed the border of China and still concerns remain about infection from overseas, the fever of domestic travels might be goes down with the course of time.
It is therefore, destinations and tourism bureaus require the handling of the concerns which the domestic travelers have, run again a promotion for the tourist areas, flexible style of booking and should make a public appeal to make hygienic and healthy travels."


Corona shock has added a big factor of "hygiene" to our New Normal. And the first is a return to domestic travel.
How will the travel industry take advantage of these two most important factors?　
China's measures should be of great help to us in Japan.
With the influence of clusters once again visible in China, it's time to keep a close eye on our big neighbour's tourism policies and results.


※VOICES from the WORLD is scheduled to be updated every other week.
 

PROFILE : Andrew Thacker
He is the founder and managing director of Katana Creative Media, an independent creative brand consultancy founded in London in 2005.
Katana provides branding and communications services to high-end hospitality and lifestyle brands around the world, working with business owners to create, develop and launch new brands. Its services include advertising, branding, communications, digital, e-commerce, marketing, and social media. Their strategic services include brand strategy, creative strategy, marketing strategy, market entry strategy, and more.