Although "it will rise every holiday" is the law of the market, the sky-high return ticket price in Sanya during the Spring Festival holiday still makes consumers feel uneasy.
In time for the big dive of air tickets after the holiday, people who have "prepared for a rainy day" began to arrange their travel plans for the 2024 small and long holidays, and began to book travel tickets early, and some even planned to book tickets for overseas travel at the end of the year.
How cheap are airfares these days?
According to the data released by Qunar, after the Lantern Festival (February 24), air tickets from big cities** dropped by nearly 4% compared with the Spring Festival, and hotels in popular cities** decreased by more than 3% compared with the Spring Festival. Or take Sanya as an example, during the Spring Festival to ridiculously expensive air tickets have now begun to fall, although the ticket from Sanya is still tight recently, but the ticket to Sanya sells "cabbage price", Shanghai to Sanya direct flight only 149 yuan.
The same is true for international flights** diving, according to data released by Tongcheng Travel, the average price of international air tickets in the first week after the Spring Festival holiday fell by about 10% month-on-month. "Shanghai to Osaka air ticket is only 8 yuan" such an attractive topic also rushed to the Weibo hot search list, although some platforms later stood up to explain, this is not tax**, tax included 410 yuan, but compared with the previous travel season of seven or eight thousand or even more than 10,000**, it is still "outrageously cheap".
Some netizens said that a bowl of Malatang is more than 8 yuan, plus more than 400 taxes and fees, and it is indeed very cost-effective to have a trip that can be walked. More netizens went directly to the platform to search.
Five. 1. Eleventh air tickets**, some airlines have been released to cover small long holidays, and the current ** is also very cost-effective.
Taking April 30-May from Beijing to Bangkok, Thailand round-trip air tickets** as an example, at present (February 23) the lowest query ** is less than 3,800 yuan, Beijing to Seoul, South Korea round-trip ** is less than 2,300 yuan, Beijing to Singapore round-trip total price is about 6,200 yuan, Beijing to London on-demand transfer, the lowest round-trip ** is only about 4,500 yuan.
There are not a few consumers who have taken action, and recently shared similar practices with many people under the hot topic of "women spend 10,006 to buy annual holiday travel tickets", even if it is not a whole year.
Booking air tickets in advance has become the choice of more and more consumers.
Tongcheng travel data also shows that the number of bookings for outbound travel tickets for the May Day holiday in the week after the holiday has increased by nearly 2 times compared with before the holiday, among which domestic air tickets to Thailand, South Korea, Malaysia and other outbound travel destination countries have the highest number of bookings; Shanghai, Guangzhou, Beijing, Hangzhou, and Qingdao have the highest number of bookings for May Day outbound tours.
In addition, some tourists have begun to book outbound travel tickets for the Spring Festival holiday in 2025, and among the Spring Festival outbound travel ticket orders booked one year in advance, orders from Shanghai account for nearly 7 percent, and air tickets from Shanghai to Spain, Italy, France, Iceland, and Switzerland have been sold.
Is it worth "learning" to buy a year's ticket in advance?
Some analysts believe that the fancy activities of airlines are also an important reason for consumers to buy air tickets for a long time in advance. As early as last year's Double 11, the "fly as you like" products launched by major airlines became the "hot goods" in the tourism category, and more consumers "stocked" all the tourism products in 2024 at the event last year, including hotels, cruises, independent travel products and even airport VIP services.
However, some netizens said that the premise of being able to plan their year-round travel in advance is free time, which is not suitable for most "workers". At the same time, how to fluctuate uncontrollably, last year at 11 o'clock also appeared close to the holiday but price reduction, early booking but was "backstabbed", look at the May Day product is reasonable, now book eleven or even the end of the year of the ticket, the risk is a bit big.
In this regard, some people in the industry have given advice that from the perspective of air ticket booking, the logic of buying tickets in advance is no problem, but it should not be too much in advance, domestic air tickets are generally purchased 1 2 months in advance is the most cost-effective, and international air tickets can be ordered 3-6 months in advance, especially in Europe, North America and other major regions, ** will be more cost-effective.
But this is not absolute, the ticket ** itself has a relatively large floating rate, so there will be surprises from time to time, if you want to "pick up" low-cost tickets, you still have to pay more attention to the dynamic information of airlines and ticketing platforms.
The cost of annual outbound travel may be difficult to come down
From the perspective of travel costs, transportation and accommodation are undoubtedly the most important expenses, as the first year of market restart, some popular tourist cities and outbound destination countries in China, especially in the European market, the increase in aircraft and wine products is visible to the naked eye, and because of the lack of manpower, resources are in short supply, and outbound travel products are generally higher than before the epidemic.
This situation is likely to continue in 2024, especially in the outbound travel market, despite the rapid recovery of international air capacity, according to data released by the International Air Transport Association, the total air passenger traffic in 2023 will increase by 36% compared to 20229%, and global air passenger traffic recovered to 94 of pre-pandemic (2019) levels1%, but other costs such as hotels, local transportation, etc. are difficult to reduce in the short term.
For consumers, because they travel more professionally, their expectations for the travel experience will be higher. In the face of high expectations of Chinese tourists, the pressure on travel companies and destinations will also be greaterAdjusting product offerings and services will become an important issue for the outbound travel market in the future.
However, it is certain that the speed of Chinese tourists going abroad will be further increased in 2024. During the Spring Festival holiday, according to the data center of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the number of Chinese tourists leaving the country was about 3.6 million, which is close to the level of the same period in 2019. With the facilitation arrangements such as mutual visa exemption between China and more countries, as well as the further increase in air transport capacity, the volume of outbound tourists will further expand.
In addition, according to the World Travel Mart Global Report recently released at the World Travel Mart, the growth rate of China's outbound tourism value will reach 131% from 2024 to 2033. In terms of spending, China could become twice as large as the U.S. tourist** market in 2033. This also means that the potential of China's outbound tourism market is long-term and worth cultivating.
The fundamental way to undertake the dividends of China's outbound tourism market is to come up with good products and provide good experiences. Whether it is a Chinese travel company or an overseas destination, onlyKeep innovating, keep iterating,It is possible to get a piece of the pie.
The cover ** and part of the text *** are on the photo network.