In the new era of consumption,Hobbies have become the core grasp of insight into the consumer needs of young people, from co-branded coffee, milk tea, to co-branded limited edition clothes, to organizing a ** festival, concert, comic exhibition, adding interest elements to the regular consumption scene can attract young people to pay time and money.
Returning to the tourism scene, the way of planning a trip with a serious strategy has also quietly changed in young tourists, who hope to gain not only the visual enjoyment of the scenery through travel, but also the emotional value of creating a pleasant body and mind with like-minded playmates. As a result, new ways to travel based on interest are constantly emerging, which seem to be niche but are actually leading the consumption trend and becoming a new trend that cannot be ignored in the tourism market.
Chen Gang, founder and CEO of Mafengwo, mentioned in his speech at the "2023 Earth Discoverers Conference".Standing at the intersection of the first ten years of new free travel, who can accurately understand the needs of user segmentation and provide personalized gameplay products, who will be able to take the lead in the next era of tourism industry development.
What new ways of playing are fickle young people more enthusiastic about?
User rejuvenation is one of the most distinctive labels of Mafengwo, and insight into the needs of user segmentation is also its most advantageous and what it has been doing. Especially in the past three years, with the help of the new brand "Please get on the bus on weekends", with the help of the new brand "Please get on the car on the weekend", the way of the manager has excavated a lot of new ways to play that young people are keen on.
At the site of the "2023 Earth Discoverers Conference", Mafengwo, together with the China Tourism Academy, bound the latest research results into a book"New Ways to Play Global Travel Research Report 2023".The format of the Global Travel Gameplay Guide will show the most popular and representative new ways of travel to the industry and more tourists at one time, and become the most practical reference for industry partners to create more attractive travel products.
It is reported that this "Gameplay Book" is strictly selected through the strict selection of tens of thousands of gameplay methods in 130 travel destination countries around the world, and finally compiled and finally compiled"Top 100 New Ways to Play Domestic Tourism" and "Top 100 New Ways to Play Foreign Tourism". The criteria for Mafengwo's selection of new ways to play are not based on "unusual" or "unprecedented", but more important is whether a certain game is a new content created in combination with destination resources, whether it is for new users, provides new supply to the market, and brings new travel and entertainment experience to tourists.
Under such a standard, whether it is a popular tourist city or a niche destination, it can continue to explore new ways to play, and use this to update the destination label, increase the appeal to young customers, and "circle" the new generation of travelers.
Cliff Coffee - Courtesy of Zhu Xiaoqian, Shanhai Project.
Taking the "Top 10 Cases in the Inventory of Top 100 New Gameplay in China" as an example, the first "Cliff Coffee" is located in Libo Cool Play Forest in Libo County, Guizhou Province, this destination is not a popular tourist city in the traditional sense, but climbing a 200-meter-high cliff, under the guidance of a professional teacher, first experience rappelling, and then drink coffee with your feet off the ground and overlook the beautiful scenery, the experience is irresistible for adventurous young peopleThe fourth-ranked "Overnight Whale Shark Aquarium" is in the Chimelong Ocean Kingdom of Zhuhai, which is popular among families with children in Guangdong Province, this project allows tourists to lie in tents all night with marine animals, and can charter a jellyfish wall to see whale sharks and manta rays swimming in front of them, a unique and in-depth experience that attracts many parent-child families to go to Zhuhai to check in.
Similar projects, such as mineral water rime rafting in Changbai Mountain, Jilin, "village super" viewing in southeast Guizhou, intangible cultural heritage hairpin flower enclosure experience in Quanzhou, Fujian, Chongqing cave rock descent and the same frame as the Big Buddha, etc., are all niche but full of fresh and interesting projects. According to Mafengwo's interpretation of the top 100 new ways to play in China,The gameplay experience with elements such as culture, leisure, outdoor, science and technology, and travel photography is more popular among young people. Among them, culture-related humanistic experience projects account for 39% of the top 100 new ways to play, which also shows that the new generation of young people is a more literate and confident generation.
Catch and eat in an aquatic restaurant - Photo courtesy of Tourism Australia.
On the list of the top 100 new ways to play in overseas destinations, more romantic elements have been added, and young people have the courage and love to go to the mountains and seas and live up to their youth. For example, to watch the sunrise at Mount Bromo in Indonesia, to participate in the "Full Moon Party" on Koh Phangan, Thailand, and to Seogwipo on Jeju Island to take a submarine to go deep into the seabed, etc., discovering the ultimate scenery and unlocking the ultimate experience are the needs and pursuits of young people for new ways to play after going abroad. Among the top 100 new foreign plays, outdoor challenges account for 27%, leisure and entertainment accounts for 21%, and unique local cultural experiences account for 18%.
What new opportunities does supply-side innovation bring to travel companies?
It is understood that Mafengwo will continue to explore new ways to play global tourism, which will be regularly included in the "Gameplay Book", and will be shared with users in the form of guides, communities, and local entertainment products, so as to become a "power station" for young people's play inspiration. Paying attention to the changes in young people's preferences to adjust product offerings and service methods has become the key to different types of tourism companies and destination marketing and drainage.
Chen Gang's interpretation of this is that the "day" of tourism has changed, as a tourism enterprise needs to understand who the products and services they make are aimed at, whether they are attractive, and whether they have core competitiveness, which is a problem that the whole industry should think about. In his view, the new tourism era needs new tourism products, and the standard of new tourism products is to meet“asa”
The cave rock descends in the same frame as the Big Buddha - Mafengwo user @Shan provided a picture.
The first of these "a" is:"Aesthetics" means aestheticsFrom the perspective of user needs, it is necessary to be able to produce films, so that they have the desire to take out their mobile phones to take pictures and share;The "s" stands for "service".The next ten years are the first decade of free travel, young people prefer to travel freely, to play, how to play the choice is up to them, the company's service should be to provide inspiration and assistance, so that they can complete the travel experience freely and safely;The last "a" is "activity", which is the activityIt is necessary to have a community to find playmates and share feelings, and travel as a way to socialize is also one of the characteristics of young people's needs.
Such judgments and new product measurement standards are not utopian, but based on the most real user data insights of the Mafengwo community. Judging from the data, in 2023, the proportion of Mafengwo users who have searched for the intended destination gameplay will exceed 76%, the search popularity of customized tours will increase by 245% year-on-year, the demand for high-quality products will continue to rise, and the booking of cost-effective products will also increase significantly, and products based on interest and in-depth experience will be more likely to be selected by tourists.
In order to meet the new travel needs of young people, Mafengwo has also made a lot of service updates and iterations around the core issue of "new gameplay", such as strengthening the "new gameplay" content in the core positions such as Polaris Raiders and Raiders Group. And based on the new ** chain, it matches the corresponding services and products for the gameplay map, and truly opens up the closed-loop of one-stop travel service of "planting and pulling".
2023 Earth Discoverers Conference" site.
According to Ni Jia, the person in charge of Mafengwo content and community, as of December 8, 2023, there have been 8,790 activities based on different interests and hobbies launched in the Mafengwo community.
It is worth noting that every time a new way of playing is excavated, Mafengwo will establish a "play file", which is equivalent to the release of a play patent, and then there will only be one unique merchant on the platform to provide products and services for this game, and this merchant must be selected to ensure the quality of products and services. It is hoped that in this way, businesses can focus more on serving tourists and product innovation, without worrying about vicious competition caused by excessive homogenization.
In the face of the different personalized needs, in fact, you can also find a dismantling formula, and the combination of "segmenting people, destinations, interests, and experiences of massive travelers" can become a solution to meet different needs. Mafengwo is a content platform, which uses content to promote tourism products and services, and connects demand and supply more accurately, which is where the value lies. Ni Jia said.
Deeply cultivating the industrial chain is the foundation to meet the diverse needs of tourists
As for how to connect demand and supply more accurately, Mafengwo has also made a lot of explorations and attempts. From penetrating the destination and deeply cultivating the ** chain to empowering the industry with technology, it is the premise of everything to be deeply rooted in the tourism market and do a good job in service and transaction guarantee.
At the 2023 China Tourism Group Development Forum just held in Shanghai, Mafengwo's "Youyun" industry platform was selected as a selected case of digital transformation. This platform is a SaaS system that has been independently innovated and developed by Mafengwo for a year to empower small and medium-sized travel agencies, covering all aspects of the functions from the first chain to content creation, product design, itinerary management, sales customer service, order management, financial management, etc., in this system, travel agencies can realize all the operations of "product design - order generation - group order arrangement - contract signing - fund receipt and payment".
The essence of tourism is still the service industry, the biggest problem of the service industry is heavy labor, human efficiency is the core problem that restricts the development of the industry, through the use of the 'tour cloud' system of travel agencies research found that this system can help it improve nearly three times the efficiency of people, so as to help small and medium-sized travel agencies more quickly adapt to the increasingly fierce market competition. Chen Gang shared.
One of the disadvantages of personalization is that it is difficult to scale, and it is difficult for businesses that provide personalized services to improve service efficiency through digitalization, and in Mafengwo's "content + transaction" ecosystem, with the help of technology platforms to achieve the improvement of their own products and service capabilities, it is what small and medium-sized businesses urgently need.
Look at a passionate village super - Peng Xixi, honorary vice chairman of the Rongjiang Football Association and head of Guizhou village super technology.
In addition to the support of the system, Mafengwo is also cooperating with the destination to help the destination sort out and explore new ways to play to achieve the goal of deepening the industrial chain. Taking its new marketing exploration in Guiyang City as an example, it helps Guiyang City to explore product highlights by creating gameplay scenes, strengthens the city tour label suitable for young people's personalized travel, and forms a new product supply of "global + characteristics", "attractions + experience", "gameplay + (food, folk customs, culture)", etc., so that Guiyang can find a starting point for marketing and promoting tourism, and retell its own tourism story.
It is reported that since Mafengwo's new brand activity "Please Get on the Weekend" landed in Guiyang in May 2022, it has successfully linked to 150+ new gameplay managers in May 2023, and absorbed and cultivated 1000+ Guiyang super players to continuously experience and share the new gameplay travel experience in Guiyang, and held more than 60 new gameplay activities, making Guiyang the preferred destination city for weekend leisure and vacation in surrounding cities, and activating Guiyang's new consumer market for weekend travel.
When talking about the experience of helping destinations do new marketing, Liu Tingting, head of commercial marketing of Mafengwo, said, "The core of Mafengwo marketing is to help destinations and brands find the right people, do the right content, and then spread to more right people. This process is long and requires professional and accurate judgment, but if it can be done well, it is like finding the key to a new tourism marketing door, which can rejuvenate traditional destinations, take mature destinations to a new level, and allow brands to find new scenarios for tourism marketing. ”
For Mafengwo, although it is a "veteran" who has been in the tourism market for many years, it still requires great energy and hard work to complete the deep cultivation of the industrial chain. For the upcoming 2024, Chen Gang said that in addition to continuously launching new products and services, he will continue to give full play to the advantages of content and encourage outstanding creators, and will also look forward to strategic cooperation with destinations, so that there will be more opportunities to put Mafengwo's new products, new ideas and new marketing experience into practice, and jointly welcome the next new decade of independent travel in the tourism market.