Wanderlust in the Internet Era
By staff reporter LI YUAN
WU Yu, 37, is an English teacher and avid globetrotter. He first became a backpacker in 2003, after finding companions online to journey with him to a domestic destination. Later he traveled the world as a couch surfer, and also played host to fellow wayfarers at his home. Over the past decade, Wu Yu has visited more than 20 countries and regions. He attributes the wider areas he has covered to the progress China has made in the Internet and all its computations.
Internet Emboldens Travel Buffs
Wu Yu is from Hunan Province. He looked for fellow backpackers on his first trip to a mountain through a local BBS. At that time, soliciting travel partners online in China took some nerve. Wu still recalls how anxious he felt about the trip. But he was determined to carry it through, having never relished being part of a tour group. His impression was that, rather than interacting with people at places on the itinerary, most group tourists simply “sleep on the way and take photos of attractions.” Wu far preferred to “take the risk” of finding travel buddies online. Fortunately, he found fellows of his own age. A large part of their enjoyment of the trip was being able to please themselves as to the route they took and their schedule.
At that time future founder of qyer.com Xiao Yi was studying in Germany. Standing in a square in Berlin one day, he noticed that most Chinese tourists in Germany were part of business tour groups. Westerners consequently often assumed that an Asian student such as him traveling alone was from Japan, Hong Kong, or Taiwan.
Back at the turn of the 21st century, travel was to many Chinese people a luxury leisure pursuit requiring ample time and money. The term backpacker was barely known. Those who could afford the time and money usually joined tour groups organized by travel agencies to both domestic and overseas destinations. Such non-customized products meant that others decided the travel routes and schedules, and that travellers were often compelled to purchase goods that were of no interest to them at all.
Xiao Yi was greatly encouraged at the news in 2003 that China’s leading online travel service provider ctrip.com had been listed on NASDAQ. The next year he founded qyer.com, which took the lead in providing Chinese people with practical overseas travel information. At the same time, Chinese tourism was witnessing a revolution driven by rapid economic development and progress in Internet technology.
The Internet has become increasingly popular among common people. It provides them with the convenience of booking flight tickets and accommodation and also the chance to share their travel experiences online and discover more appealing destinations. This has aroused far wider interest in travel.
Official statistics show that China’s domestic tourist attractions received visits of 1.1 billion person times in 2004, a figure which by 2013 had skyrocketed to 3.26 billion. Meanwhile, the number of outbound tourists grew from 28.85 million person times in 2004 to 120 million in 2014.
China’s immense body of consumers and their massive demand have made tourism the optimum driving force stimulating the country’s domestic demand and adjusting its industrial structure. In the foreseeable future, the common people’s ever-increasing travel demands will be the main impetus of China’s tourism market.
From the global perspective, tourism has become one of the largest industries. BI Intelligence reveals that the overall journey mileage of global tourism is rising steadily, while the cost of providing relevant services is dropping, when measured by expenditure of actual currency. More first-time flyers from the growing middle classes are from emerging economies. China, with its immense pool of potential tourists, is so appealing to the world tourism industry that a wide range of countries and regions have launched visa waiver programs for Chinese tourists and also spectacular tourism campaigns.
The Internet for Better Trips
Wu Yu learned a lot from his domestic trips. Language is never a problem for this English teacher. In 2010, therefore, Wu planned his first outbound trip. India, the destination he chose, with its ancient and mysterious culture, had always fascinated him. To contain his budget and, more importantly, to gain authentic local experience, Wu decided to be a couch surfer.
The expression “couch surfer” originates in couchsurfing.com. Registered in 2003 by Casey Fenton in the U.S., the website offers a platform for members to stay as guests at hosts’ homes. A couch surfer might sleep in whatever space is available, but for free. On the other hand, a couch surfer is obliged to provide a similar service to other members. This interesting and economical mode soon became popular among backpackers worldwide. By the end of 2010, its membership stood at more than 2.4 million and covered 245 countries and regions. More than 50,000 members are from China, which has a No. 10 ranking in the couch surfer population. At present, the membership is growing at a rate of around 10,000 a week.
In India, Wu stayed with a family with two children. The host told him: “We might never get a chance to travel to China. But I hope my kids can learn about people from different countries with different cultures by talking to couch surfers.”
Wu shares this sentiment. “Over the years, I have stayed overnight in various places – from a decent private room in Amsterdam to a worn couch next to my host in Vienna. You couldn’t have seen a colorful world like this staying in a hotel,” Wu said. “Nothing is better than becoming immersed in local life if you want to experience the true joy of travel.”
Wu holds the belief that freedom is the essence of travel. Though he enjoys talking with strangers without reservation during his trips, he sometimes likes to feel utterly alone in a strange place. Websites like airbnb.com and tujia.com meet his demands. Compared to conventional hotels, such online platforms provide more diversified and customized service. From homestay apartments in local styles to common vacation rentals, these platforms aim to help tourists find homes away from home.
HomeAway, a partner of tujia.com, is the world leader in vacation rentals whose business has reached 145 countries. Senior HomeAway executive Greg Grant points out that vacation rental is a trend in the U.S. and Europe replacing conventional hotels. In recent years, the total quantity of real estate purchases in the U.S. has been declining, but the ratio of holiday homes purchases is rising year by year.
The development of Internet technology is changing people’s perceptions of travel as well as their overall travel experience. The Internet is now closely associated with every detail of a trip – from searching out destination information beforehand to planning a route; from booking accommodation to looking for local cuisine…
In a sense, smartphones embody the best use of Internet technology and so make trips much easier. For instance, Wu Yu uses a series of apps to plan his trips, look for available cabs, find his way in strange cities, choose restaurants, share pictures with his family and friends, as well as jot down his feelings. The huge varieties of apps are reliable tourism aids. Moreover, video-chat apps enable Wu to keep touch with his students and answer their questions at all times. He was also most impressed during one of his overseas trips that through WeChat’s Location Based Services (LBS) he managed to find a Chinese resident in his neighborhood willing to lend him a hair dryer.
The connotations of “tourism” are constantly expanding. This traditional industry has become one of the businesses closely linked to the Internet.
According to China National Tourism Administration, in 2014, only 3.6 percent of the total tourists to domestic destinations were organized by travel agencies, while 65 percent of outbound tourists arranged their own trips. Dai Bin, president of China Tourism Academy, recently remarked that with the able help of the Internet, the era of personalized tourism has arrived.
Internet Transforms Business Modes
Changes have happened not only as regards tourists’ notions and experience, but to the business operation mode of tourism industry. On March 25, 2015, China’s tourism social media mafengwo.com finished its series C round of financing, after which the company raised a total of US $100 million. In late April 2014, ctrip.com announced that the company had entered into an investment agreement with Tongcheng Network Technology Share Co., Ltd., a leading local attraction ticket service provider that operates LY.com. In early May 2014, another popular Chinese online travel company, tuniu.com, was listed on NASDAQ.
According to Wei Changren, CEO of ctcnn.com, the impact on the traditional tourism market of emerging online travel services is a process of market evolution that requires travel websites to keep innovating and traditional travel agencies to combine online and offline services.
On March 20, 2015, China CYTS Tours launched its Aoyou+ strategic project which embraces a new tourism O2O mode. The project aims at integrating Internet technology into traditional travel agencies’ services, so revitalizing more than 20,000 travel agencies throughout China, along with their wide range of local services, and hundreds of millions of potential tourists. It thus optimally stimulates potential consumer demands. Insiders appreciate the project as a proactive revitalizer of traditional travel agencies.
The latest impact on tourism marketing channels comes from fast-developing mobile apps. Travel industry research agency PhoCusWright estimates that the tourism industry will grow at a modest rate. The growth of mobile apps will nevertheless surpass that of the industry as a whole. Mobile online business, meanwhile, will take up more than 25 percent of all online travel reservations in the U.S. in 2015, equal to a market value of US $40 billion.
“The competition between mobile apps among online travel services is much sharper than that between online travel services and their old-fashioned counterparts,” Liu Simin, deputy secretary-general of the Beijing Tourism Association, observed. The profit model for an online travel company is clear. However, in the Internet era, to survive and edge out rivals, the practice of price war by sacrificing profits will continue to prevail among some online travel companies.
CEO of ctrip.com Liang Jianzhang reveals that the company is set on earmarking RMB one billion to cope with a challenging price war. Competing for market shares is their goal. At the same time, Zhuang Chenchao, CEO of another popular online travel service, qunar.com, is driving his company towards expanding the clientele of its mobile app while encouraging more frequent usage.
As regards the current situation, experts stress that products are more important than channels. When expanding the market, travel companies should attach greater importance to improving product quality. Internet technology, rather than a tool to occupy more channels via a price war of low-quality products, is intended to refine products. “There is an essential difference between an online travel company and a shopping website,” Liu Simin said. “For the tourism industry, online sales are merely a prelude. The core lies in the service during trips. It is essential for online travel companies to establish offline service systems and vice versa.” Liu calls for the two sides’ integration, and believes unbridled competition should be avoided.
Looking back, the development of tourism over the past decade is inextricable from Internet technology. Travel industry reforms by virtue of the Internet epitomize how the Internet is transforming human society.
