Spend the night in 30 yuan in Internet cafes, bring your own dry food to eat, punch in many scenic spots a day, like to travel alone but prefer to socialize with strangers … … These are the characteristics of "special forces tourism" which are very popular at present.
CBN recently launched ‘ Special forces tourism ’ Will you attend? After more than a week, we received about 800 valid questionnaires. The results show that the people of "Special Forces Tourism" are concentrated in the age of 20-22, that is, college students are the main ones. Two days’ weekend outing is the choice time period for these "Special Forces Tourism" people, and the per capita spending is controlled below that of 500 yuan, that is, the per capita spending is more than 100 yuan to 200 yuan per day. Interestingly, in order to save costs, about 80% of the respondents chose not to stay in hotels, but to spend the night in Internet cafes, bath centers and even restaurants.
With such a low-cost consumption pattern, some tourism enterprises and sales platforms still extend an olive branch to the "special forces tourism" crowd, and even give subsidies and concessions on the basis of low prices. Some tourism enterprises said in the survey that they value the future business opportunities of young customers and the exploration of new consumption patterns. But will these college students really become loyal customers? Everything seems to be unknown.
nineThose who become "special forces tourists" are men, and 80% are between 20 and 22 years old.
China Business News ‘ Special forces tourism ’ Will you attend? According to the survey results, 90.51% of the respondents who participated in the "special forces tourism" were men, which shows that relatively speaking, there are very few female participants who need great physical effort.
Similarly, because the "special forces tourism" which needs to punch in multiple or even dozens of scenic spots in one day and takes a lot of physical strength in order to save costs, it is concentrated in young people. The survey results show that 82.18% of the respondents are aged 20-22, which shows that college students are the main force interested in and participating in "special forces tourism".
When asked why they are interested in participating in "special forces tourism", 75.94% of the respondents said that it is because this kind of tourism is efficient, and 12.61% of the respondents are interested in high cost performance, while the reasons for exercising and broadening their horizons account for about 3% ~ 4%. It can be seen that price and efficiency are the fundamental reasons for attracting young people to carry out "special forces tourism".
"It is very important for me to broaden my horizons, so I choose ‘ Special forces tourism ’ Going to some places with high efficiency, of course, financial constraints are definitely a big reason, and college students still have to control costs. " Meng Wei, a sophomore majoring in tourism management at Shandong University of Finance and Economics, told the First Financial Reporter that he had been to the "special forces tour" many times and would make various raiders himself, which made him quite famous in the classmate circle.
Wang Shuo, a classmate of Meng Wei, also put forward a similar reason, that is, he had limited funds, but he wanted to go out and have a look, so he chose "special forces tourism".
In terms of travel time and distance, short-distance travel is the choice of most "special forces travel" people. According to the results of the First Financial Survey, 86.09% of the respondents chose to leave on Friday night, 78.54% chose to travel to Zhou Bianyou for three hours, and 85.96% chose to travel for two days.
"We usually travel on weekends, which will not affect the courses from Monday to Friday. Depart on Friday and return on Sunday. It takes 2 ~ 3 days to travel around. " Cao Yan, a college student, told the First Financial Reporter.
It is precisely because most of the respondents choose short trips around, so high-speed rail has become the most convenient and affordable means of transportation, and 80% of the respondents choose high-speed rail as their travel tool.
Peng Han, director of the Strategic Research Center of Ctrip Research Institute, told the First Financial Reporter that "special forces tourism" is a very popular way of travel among young travelers, especially college students. Generally speaking, this kind of travel mode is characterized by visiting the most scenic spots in the shortest possible time, completing the sharing of punching in and social platforms, and spending less on tourism.
“‘ Special forces tourism ’ Most of the travel modes chosen are trains. On the one hand, because of the continuous improvement of China’s high-speed rail network and the construction of a comprehensive three-dimensional transportation network system, the convenience of residents traveling by train has been continuously improved; On the other hand, with the continuous upgrading of China’s high-speed rail technology and the improvement of railway ride experience, more passengers will be attracted to the railway. The railway data since this year can also confirm this. From April 27th to May 4th, the 8-day railway transportation during the May 1st Golden Week ended, and the national railways sent 133 million passengers, an increase of 26.7% compared with 2019. Among them, on April 29, 19.661 million passengers were sent, setting a new record for the number of passengers sent by the railway in a single day. According to the data of the Ministry of Communications, if we compare the data of other modes of transportation (civil aviation, highways and waterways) during the May Day period, we can see that the daily average traffic volume of railways and civil aviation is higher than that before the epidemic — — However, the recovery rate of railways is 122.1%, far exceeding 104.2% of civil aviation. " According to Peng Han’s analysis, there are data showing that the passenger source structure of "May 1" has changed significantly. Taking Shanghai Hongqiao, Beijing Capital and Shenzhen Baoan Airport as examples, the proportion of passengers aged 18-24 (college students) has decreased, while the proportion of passengers aged 3-17 and 35-44 has increased significantly. This may mean that parent-child tourists choose civil aviation more.College students prefer to travel by train.
In this survey of CBN, when asked whether the "special forces tour" would continue, about 80% of the respondents said "yes", but some respondents thought that they were too tired to continue. As for the tourist destination, Huangshan is the destination that the "special forces tourists" ranked first in the survey results yearn for.
eightCheng respondents don’t stay in hotels to save money
"Cost saving must be my participation ‘ Special forces tourism ’ A major feature of. I remember one time I left Jinan for Weihai at 1 am, took a hard seat for 8 hours, got up early the next day, traveled by bike all day, ate fast food, and went to free hotels. I figured it would cost less than 100 yuan in about one day. " Wang Shuo calculated an account for the first financial reporter.
Wang Zihao, a junior at Yancheng Teachers College in Jiangsu Province, is also a fan of "special forces tourism". His hometown is Suqian, Jiangsu Province. He once spent three days punching in Suzhou’s "Special Forces Tour", which cost about 500 yuan, that is, one day spent more than 100 yuan.
If the big transportation fee is high-speed rail, the cost is basically fixed, and some tourist attractions are free and controllable, but accommodation is the basic demand. How do these "special forces tourists" achieve such low accommodation costs?
According to the survey results of CBN, 82.57% of the respondents hope that the overall cost will be controlled within 500 yuan, which means that the per capita cost tomorrow will be more than 100 yuan to 200 yuan.
In terms of dining, 81.27% of the respondents chose to bring their own dry food, accounting for 6.5% of the daily meals in 100 yuan, and less than 5% in 200 yuan and 300 yuan. It can be seen that in terms of catering, such tourists can save money and don’t mind simple meals.
Of course, sometimes there are exceptions. Cao Yan told the First Financial Reporter that after May Day, he and his friends went to Zibo, and the local area was still crowded with people. Because going to Zibo is for a barbecue, it is essential to have a barbecue, but we can control the cost in other aspects, such as accommodation or free scenic spots, and control the overall price. "I will pay attention to a lot of travel information on the Internet, know where there are discounts or free, and there are many places with special discounts for students, so I can control the overall cost. I calculated this barbecue trip to Zibo, and it is acceptable to spend around 200 yuan a day. " Cao Yan told the First Financial Reporter.
Compared with the control of catering, the respondents are more "varied" in controlling the cost of accommodation. According to the survey results, 83.49% of the respondents chose not to stay in a hotel, and about 7% of the respondents were able to accept one-night hotel accommodation in 200 yuan and one-night hotel accommodation in 300 yuan.
Then, if you don’t live in a hotel, where do these "special forces tourists" live at night?
"In fact, there are many solutions, such as living in an Internet cafe, probably staying overnight in 30 yuan, preparing some instant noodles or ordering a cheap takeaway; You can also go to some restaurants like Haidilao, which are open all night, to solve the problem of eating and living, and the price is cheap; You can also choose a bath center for the night, including eating and living. One night is about 100 yuan, which is definitely cheaper than staying in a hotel. Of course, you can also spend some time on your travel design, buy evening train tickets and spend the night in the car, which can also save accommodation costs. " Meng Wei introduced a variety of low-cost ways to spend the night without staying in a hotel to the first financial reporter.
Wang Zihao is a student majoring in physical education, but he chose to give full play to his physical advantage. He once rode his bicycle to punch in the night scene one night, and went to the convenience store to rest and rectify at dawn before leaving. This also saves accommodation expenses.
Xiao He, a girl, once participated in a similar trip, but as a girl, she was still worried about potential safety hazards when staying out for the night, so Xiao He contacted local friends in advance and stayed at friends’ homes. This also saves the cost of staying over. "A few of our friends who often travel have circles, and everyone can share resources and save various costs."
Of course, such a low-cost way is to pay physical strength, and some non-hotel accommodation methods also have an impact on the quality of sleep. According to the results of the First Financial Survey, 72.56% of the respondents said that they only slept for 2-4 hours every day during the "special forces tour".
What are the future business opportunities that enterprises see?
According to the above data, the consumption of "special forces tourism" is very low, but now the same-way tourism, spring and autumn tourism, etc. are still very optimistic about this business, and Tongcheng Tourism even takes out marketing expenses to reimburse some qualified "special forces tourism" passengers for large transportation expenses.
Cheng Chaogong, the chief researcher of Tongcheng Research Institute, said in an interview with the First Financial Reporter that the current cost of "special forces tourism" is very low, and it is a newly emerging tourism model. In fact, it is very limited for the overall revenue of tourism enterprises, but for tourism enterprises, it is more important to seize future consumer business opportunities.
"Now these participants ‘ Special forces tourism ’ College students, they will grow up, they are our important customers in the future, so when they are still on the university campus, they will pass ‘ Special forces tourism ’ This point is to catch them and let them develop consumption habits and consumption stickiness, so they may be our core customers and loyal customers in the future. " Cheng Chaogong said that enterprises can collect user information, save their consumption habits, observe their consumption trends, and even establish a full-cycle user management thinking, and study the future travel modes of consumers through research and interaction.
The first financial reporter learned from many interviews that many tourism enterprises are facing challenges due to the three-year epidemic. How to find new customers and expand their business is a top priority. Therefore, for many tourism enterprises, young customers have high growth, and if these customers can be turned into loyal users, it will be very conducive to future development. Nowadays, the cost of obtaining customers for tourism enterprises is getting higher and higher. In the past, the cost of obtaining a new customer may be tens of yuan, but now it is more than 200 yuan. And even if they become users, there are not many real active users. Among them, there may be only more than 10% users who will spend, and the proportion will generally not exceed 20%. Users who can spend more than 4 times in a quarter are very good, but such users are very few.
"So if you can pass ‘ Special forces tourism ’ This entry point has gained some college students. As they grow up, if they gradually become middle and high-end users, business users, and family users after marriage, our products can run through their entire life cycle and form sustainable consumption. " Cheng Chaogong’s analysis of the first financial reporter.
So, in fact, will these "special forces tourists" college students become long-term users as the tourism enterprises wish?
Several college students who have participated in "special forces tourism" all said that they will still be interested in "special forces tourism" or other ways in the future, but it is hard to say whether they will become long-term loyal users of the platform because of this. It depends on their future income and whether the products provided by the tourism enterprise meet their own needs.
"Actually ‘ Special forces tourism ’ It is also the realization of self-worth, such as punching in now, and other factors may be in the future. If you can provide users with cost-effective products and high-quality emotional value, then users will choose such tourism enterprises and products. For example ‘ Special forces tourism ’ The online sharing is to realize some sense of accomplishment and value of college students. " Cheng Chaogong told the First Financial Reporter.
According to the survey of CBN, 87.26% of the respondents tend to travel alone, and they prefer to meet like-minded "special forces tourists" at random during the trip, and then go together. Most of them will publish their travel experiences on platforms such as Tik Tok and bilibili, and even Meng Wei and Wang Zihao have their own video numbers and a certain number of fans. "Special forces tourists" are more willing to socialize and share the relationship with strangers and maintain a high degree of independence. These characteristics can be used as a reference for enterprises to develop products and channels in the future.
In Peng Han’s view, it is hard to say how long "special forces tourism" will last in the future, but for now, there is an interesting point — — "Special forces tourism" may play the role of "rectifying the tourism market". "The typical case is the popularity of Zibo, which is related to the reception of many college students’ travel users at the beginning of this year. Because such young users love punching in and sharing, the barbecue in Zibo has spread all over the country overnight. According to public data, on March 5th this year, # College Students organized a group to eat barbecue in Zibo, and the number of broadcasts on the short video platform exceeded 180 million. ‘ Zibo barbecue ’ The first hot search was contributed by Shandong college students, and the number of passengers sent by Zibo Railway Station on the same day was the highest in a single day in three years. Similarly, if the price of a tourist destination is abnormally high, it is short of weight, poorly managed, the merchants lack service awareness or the safety is flawed, then the college students who are keen on sharing ‘ Special forces tourism ’ Visitors can also make this destination fast ‘ Black out of the circle ’ . The word word of mouth will become more and more important for tourist destinations. If we don’t pay attention to the management and promotion of this piece, then this year’s guests will be full, and next year may be empty. "