2021-02-11
Cui Li
Co-founder of Qiongyou.com
Abstract: Healthy tourism means heartwarming, valuable and responsible travel. Based on this concept, Qiongyou is committed to creating high-quality ways of traveling through excellent travel products, in-depth tourism experiences, and cultural and creative environment for better quality and more inclusive travel.
The tourism industry has brought great changes to our lives and environment, and has affected the scenic spots and surrounding residents to a large extent. Although there are good and bad aspects, no pervasive conclusion can be made. People also often mired in dilemmas during their journeys. They do not want to repeat the routes others have taken, but do not have the courage to find new routes either; they want to experience traditional culture, but they don’t wish to experience hardship; when they see traditional villages, transportation and clothing are becoming modern, we may feel at a loss. But in fact, similar changes happen to ourselves all the time, but we are not aware of them.
Everyone in the world has the right to escape poverty and become economically well-off. Residents of tourist destinations are so too. Therefore, it is necessary to understand the local economic development and the pursuit of material life. Although the sanitary condition, infrastructure and reception capacity of the tourist destination may not be enough to support the arrival of a large number of tourists for the original appearance of the local landscape to be changed. However, this is also an important reason for developing healthy tourism and adhering to sustainable development.
Back to the original intention, as a C-end user sharing platform, Qiongyou has been paying attention to nature and ecological protection, and is practicing inclusive journey through hard work. The concept of inclusiveness is to deliver valuable travel service to travelers. Meanwhile, through high-quality healthy tourism products, tourists can feel the true connotation and core meaning of travel. When it comes to the core, all conclusions are inseparable from the insight into the traveler’s inner heart.
Therefore, in terms of the value of “travel with temperature”, Qiongyou proposes the concept of “responsible travel”, advocating that everyone should be respectful and travel in a way that is beneficial to the residents and the environment of the destination. The concept includes three aspects: social responsibility, cultural responsibility and environmental responsibility. Among them, cultural responsibility and environmental responsibility mean encouraging tourists to understand local culture and history, and to protect the local environment. And social responsibility is more about how to let the subject and the guest share and how to let more people participate in the sharing.
In May 2017, Qiongyou officially released the first “Responsible Travel” charity kit. In June of the same year, the “Responsible Travel Alliance” was established, which currently has more than 20 partners. After the release of the first guidebook and the establishment of the alliance, Qiongyou has received support from international organizations and companies such as WFF and the World Animal Protection Association. Qiongyou joined the Elephant Friendly Enterprise and Wildlife Civilized Tourism Alliance in 2018. It is the first Chinese company to join the Wildlife Civilized Tourism Alliance, and the only one so far.
The second guidebook was released in 2019. As of May 2020, many cases of Qiongyou have been included in the annual report of the World Animal Protection Association. This reflects also our attitude towards responsible travel.
Qinyou has done three things in launching high-quality travel products: The first is to design high-quality travel routes. The second is to include in-depth special experiences during travel. In the process of nature and ecological protection, travelers and locals can benefit together. The third is to make cultural and creative surroundings independently. Cultural and creative surroundings with content and culture can also promote the sustainable development of the destination.
Qiongyou is very attentive in perceiving users’ insights, and makes many research reports every year. In May, Qiongyou conducted a survey report on tourism after surveying nearly 100 million registered users, including the destinations of interest and travel methods, and consumption habits after the epidemic. In fact, the dimensions of the season, characteristics, and interest of tourists to destinations have gradually become themed. Regarding traveler insights, outbound tourists are very reluctant to travel singularly, and they also refuse to travel with too many tourists. What they like and what they don’t like are all insights. Self-guided tourists are very fond of themed tours and some fresh and in-depth surrounding tours.
The epidemic this year has brought the tourism industry to a freezing point. The United Nations World Tourism Organization predicted in a document released in June that the output value of the global tourism industry was expected to plummet by 70% in 2020. However, from the data in August, it can be seen that the epidemic in China has been well prevented and controlled. Sanya, Chengdu, Hangzhou, and Dali have become hot search terms for travel destinations.
But there are still three points that we need to convert from passive changes to active thinking.
The first is that the 155 million outbound tourists cannot leave the country. This group of people will turn to domestic travelers in large quantities in the next year. So how should they travel in China? How to choose a destination? The first is that the economy drives the consumption of destinations. The second is verbal communication. What kind of language can be used and what kind of language can be used to better communicate with C-end users? The third is the balance of seasons, there are relatively few places suitable for travel throughout the year. It is a very big problem for many destinations in China.
The second is that the scenic spots have less business hours and more time to recuperate. In the process, should we think about how to eradicate the past pain points and optimize our industrial structure?
The third is about the online and offline parts. Offline innovation is less, but online innovation has increased.
We put forward the concept of “quality”, believing that the word will create a unique virtuous circle in the tourism industry. From the high-net-worth travelers’ understanding of the concept of quality to local residents’ view of the concept of quality. I believe that local residents hope to have a harmonious and shared tourism environment with tourists, so that all products can be more quality, the experience of tourists can be more comfortable, and the locals can get more economic income without more damage to the local environment. Finally, we return to corporate social responsibility. In this case, can we better produce sustainable economic benefits and protect sustainable, harmonious nature?
Qinyou has proposed its own quality co-creation plan, hoping to bring all the past experience, foreign destinations and more foreign enterprise cooperation experience back to China, whether it is quality content, products, services or word of mouth.
First, quality content.
In fact, I believe that each destination has its own travel guide and destination introduction. How to stand on the C side and share such content with everyone from the perspective of true free travel and travelers. We think that the Qiongyou is like a textbook that there is no personally emotional content in the strategy, but it will introduce the destination in different ways, as well as many cases. The development of the destination is at different stages. It is a structured, diverse and thematic strategy book.
Taking New Zealand as an example, Qiongyou and Tourism New Zealand have worked together for seven or eight years to create a total of seventeen or eight kits. From the initial city kits to the regional kits, the current stage is to create animal-themed tours, movie-themed tours and more. The Qinghai-Tibet Railway tour in cooperation with the Ministry of Culture and Tourism has made some columns with quality content. In fact, this is also more of a touching point.
Through the “Three Days and Two Nights Selection”, we can see that if there is no impact of the epidemic on the domestic tourism industry, everyone will travel more and more frequently. Regardless of destination or travel method, three days and two nights are suitable for everyone. Secondly, driven by the economy of night travel, night clubs have become a better night travel way for everyone to discover their destinations.
The creation of such a column originates from my own inner touch and careful thinking, because many of us are staying in Beijing and going to Shenzhen or destinations far away from ourselves. The development of the entire Chinese tourism industry, including the rapid development of the city is fast. Many years later, when you return to your own city and destination, you will hope to share it with everyone in this way.
Second, quality products.
Traveling to destinations requires deep research. In fact, the products are diverse and many locals will participate in the experience frequently. For example, Wukang Road, the old street in Shanghai, has many former residences of celebrities and long history, and is a popular route.
Third, quality service.
The Internet can make people connect quickly, but offline connections cannot be replaced. The Internet allows everyone to connect quickly, but offline connections cannot be replaced. Qiongyou has done a lot of offline content overseas. Currently, there is an offline experience store in Shanghai. It hopes that through Internet and media, more people can connect and provide more travel services to one another. At present, the tourism industry we are talking about is actually a service-oriented industry. For these independent travelers as first-line consumers, how can we serve them and create more connections with them? Qiongyou has become a gathering place for many travelers, where they obtain real and effective information and meet more interesting people to communicate with.
Fourth, quality word of mouth.
As a co-creation platform for users, Qiongyou cares about every content creator very much. Every year Qiongyou holds an annual traveler festival. Because their travel methods and attitudes represent the most pioneering travelers in China. Therefore, I hope to bring Top 50 pioneer travelers back to domestic destinations and provide more high-quality tourism in China so as to contribute to development of tourism.