Research, Report, image by : Gan Yung Chyan, KUCINTA SETIA
Image of busy Haikou Meilan Airport : Researcher's Picture
According to the "Hainan Airport" WeChat public account, during New Year's Day holidays of China (31 December 2022 to 2 January 2023), the three airports on Hainan island under Hainan Airport management are expected to carry out more than 2,300 flights and transport nearly 320,000 passengers.
Among them, Meilan Airport of Haikou is expected to execute 1,163 flights and transport 137,000 passengers
Phoenix Airport of Sanya is expected to execute 1,090 flights and transport 177,000 passengers.
It is expected to reach the peak of arrivals and departures on 3 January 2023, and the daily passenger throughput of the three airports on the island will exceed 110,000.
"In the past we were afraid of not having orders, but now we are afraid of not having cars, houses and boats!" Zhou Yi, who is in charge of one-stop service projects such as hotels and yachts in Sanya, expressed emotion.
On 7 December 2022, the Comprehensive Team of the Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism of the State Council issued the "New Ten Rules" to optimize the implementation of the prevention and control of the covid (novel coronavirus pneumonia) epidemic. Cross-regional movement no longer requires cumbersome inspection procedures and home isolation.
In just over half a month, great achievements have been made in social promotion and implementation. In the last month of 2022, Sanya, a tourist city known as a winter resort, has also ushered in its peak season. The reporter learned that many "covi-positive and healthy people" have already boarded the planes for Sanya. Breathing the warm air of Sanya, local tourism practitioners also ushered in their own "spring".
According to a tourist, "the plane was full of people, and the prepared medicine was useless".
After the adjustment of the epidemic policy, Ms. Jia in Luoyang found that she was also "covi-positive". After recovering, she decided it was time to get out and about, given the antibody protection. After two days of consideration, on 25 December 2022, Ms. Jia flew to Sanya with her boyfriend. It has been three years since her last trip.
"The plane to Sanya was almost full of people." What impressed Ms. Jia was that many of the passengers were parents with children, and there were few coughing sounds on the plane. People who just came out."
Ms. He from Chengdu also embarked on a trip to Sanya after infected with covid but she is asymptomatic. Unlike the previous trips, this journey, although rushed, was smoother than before. Ms. He recalled that before traveling, she had to do nucleic acid in advance, and she had to find a nucleic acid point when she landed, and sometimes she was still draining nucleic acid in the hospital at one o'clock in the morning. "Now you can book the air ticket and hotel. You don't need to do nucleic acid, you don't need to scan the code, it's very convenient to travel, and you can leave as soon as you say it. It's been a long time since I have such a silky feeling."
Ms. Jia observed that there was no fever or discomfort in the tour group she was in, and everyone consciously wore masks. "They all hope to have fun and return happily." Local staff will also remind tourists to wear masks, and each restroom is equipped with anti-epidemic supplies such as disinfectant water and disinfectant gel. Worried about re-infection, Ms. Jia also brought cold medicine, anti-fever medicine, and a thermometer in her luggage. Fortunately, until the end of the journey, "the prepared medicines were not used."
According to a Sanya Daily report on 25 December 2022, Sanya as a whole has passed the peak of infection. As of 25 December 2022, the surveyed infection rate was 57.1%. Before going to Sanya, Ms. Jia, like many tourists, was worried about whether tourist attractions would be closed due to the epidemic. After arriving, Ms. Jia found that not only hotels, but also most shopping malls, entertainment and restaurants have been opened for business.
Air tickets are also rising. With the arrival of a large number of tourists, many tourists have noticed that there is an increase in the price of air tickets in Sanya. "The price seen in the day before and after may have an increase of about two or three hundred." On 30 December 2022, the reporter searched on the online ticketing platform and found that the fare of the shortest flight from Luoyang to Sanya has reached 1950 RMB.
Ms. Jia learned from the tour guide that Sanya is currently in the peak winter tourist season. Although the passenger flow is gradually recovering, the number of tourists is less than half of that of previous years. There are almost no queues at many tourist attractions. The most crowded place is the night market at night. The local pick-up driver also said that the frequency of soliciting customers by taxis has been increasing day by day. Although some colleagues have not yet had a covi-positive condition, they all choose to take protective measures before going to work, and strive to seize this recovery opportunity to earn money and enjoy a good year.
At the hotel, the rooms are almost sold out. If the guest has a fever, the hotel staff can provide the service of buying medicine and sending the guest to the doctor.
The hotels and homestays in Sanya have also started to get busy. "In the past, we were afraid of not having orders, but now we are afraid of not having cars, houses and boats!" Zhou Yi, who is in charge of one-stop service projects such as hotels and yachts in Sanya, expressed emotion. A screenshot provided by Zhou Yi shows that after the release of the "New Ten Rules", a villa resort hotel he cooperated with was almost sold out within a few days, "120,000 RMB a night for 8 people, 80,000 RMB a night for 6 people and for 7 people, the 8,000 double rooms are all booked."
On 26 December 2022, the staff of Mangrove Tree Resort World Sanya Bay also told the reporter that the passenger flow of the hotel has rebounded to a certain extent, and the check-in rate on that day was 53.79%. There are also a lot of guests booking, and the occupancy rate has been going up.
With the arrival of the New Year's Day holiday, the occupancy rate of the hotel on December 30, 2022 has risen to 90%. According to the staff, the occupancy rate during New Year's Day was generally 70% to 80%. At present, the hotel is also actively planning and launching activities such as winter camp activities for children and New Year's dinner for families.
In addition to hotels, some homestays have also experienced an increase in occupancy rate. Although the data is not as good as in previous years, it has increased compared with a few months ago. The staff of Mitang Xiaoyuan Boutique B&B in Haitang Bay, Sanya told Cai Xiaoyi, Lan Jing and intern Liu Zhongmei, the reporters of Chengdu Commercial Daily Red Star News, that the occupancy rate of the B&B has reached more than 95%, "Because many customers book on the same day or only a day or two in advance, it is currently impossible to predict the future order situation."
Many hotels and homestays have introduced that with the implementation of the new policy, the current hotels and homestays no longer require customers to show health codes, itinerary codes, and negative nucleic acid certificates. Regarding the "covi-positive and healthy (Yangkang)" group that some netizens are concerned about, the staff of Mangrove Resort World said that they would not deliberately ask about the physical condition of the guests. For a period of time, if they do not go to other places at will, the hotel will try its best to meet the needs of such guests, such as providing home delivery services.
Like air tickets, hotel room rates are on the rise. Ms. Jia told the reporter that the room she booked has increased from more than 500 RMB a night to nearly 900 RMB. Ms. He also felt that "the room price has doubled compared with a month ago."
In this regard, the staff of Mangrove Resort World responded that it is normal for house prices to fluctuate during peak tourist seasons. Normally, for a room of 700 to 800 or 800 or 900 a night, the package price for two nights is only about 1,000 yuan. "On average, this kind of three-day two-night package is much more cost-effective than a single-night reservation." In addition, due to the long validity period of the package, the price will be increased based on the package price according to the situation. The relevant regulations will be stated in the package introduction in advance, and there will be no temporary price increase, which can be seen on the sales platform.
The reporter searched on the online sales platform and found that the hotel launched a package worth 1,088 RMB for "2 nights in a luxury family room + Amazon water park for two people + pottery drawing experience for one person". On the "Current Availability Date" page, it is clearly marked that on 31 December 2022 and 1 January 2023, the price has increased by 50 RMB per night while from 21 January 2023 to 26 January 2023, the price will increase by 500 RMB per night, and from 27 January 2023 to 31 January 2023, the price will increase by 200 RMB per night.
It was also introduced by the hotel side that the hotel prices are basically the same in the same period every year. The annual prices are set based on the data of previous years. There may be some fluctuations but they will not be too big.
Returning to the level of the same period three years ago, some tour groups are "finally looking forward to spring".
Xiao Dong is a tour guide of Hainan Kangtai Tourism Co., Ltd. During the epidemic, the number of tours was small and he could not earn much money. In the middle of 2022, Xiao Dong once fell into confusion whether to continue this job. "There is no basic salary for tour guides. If you leave the group, you will have money, but if you don’t leave the group, you will have no money. At that time, I felt like it was really impossible.”
Xiao Dong has led a tour group in Sanya for several years. He recalled that in Sanya in the past, there were people everywhere, and they all looked at the heads of people in the scenic spots. During the epidemic, some travel agencies closed down, and many tourists I knew also changed their careers. "Some went to deliver food, and some sold their houses because they couldn't pay their mortgages."
However, with the support of Hainan Province for the tourism industry, in less than a month, the passenger flow of Hainan Kangtai Tourism Co., Ltd. has basically recovered to the level of the same period before 2019. This was beyond the expectation of Tan Jie, the project leader of the company. Tan Jie estimated optimistically, "This number will go up."
He calculated that since mid-December 2022, the daily growth rate of orders has been about 5% to 10%, and the number of orders placed during the Spring Festival should be about 35%. The company currently receives nearly 300 tourists a day, and the most popular route has about 100 people per day, and nearly 9,000 people a month when it is full. "Generally, a medium-sized travel agency has 5,000 people per month, and a large travel agency has 8,000 people per month. It’s been pretty good.”
In the past 20 days, Xiao Dong has gradually returned to his previous work status. He has received three tourist groups, with a total of about 60 people, which is equivalent to the number received one month before the epidemic. The large influx of tourists has put travel agencies in a state of "always having groups".
Some time ago, many of Xiao Dong's colleagues were also on vacation due to the epidemic. "Sometimes there are not enough tour guides in the company, and some tour guides who lead tours abroad also return to China mainland to help."
In Tan Jie's view, the guidance of policies, travel needs of guests and the company's advance layout have contributed to the rapid recovery of the tourism industry. However, Sanya's reception capacity is limited. For the sake of tourists' travel experience, Tan Jie also recommends that everyone travel at staggered peaks.
With the recovery of Sanya's tourism industry, Tan Jie saw old friends who used to be in various scenic spots, hotels and restaurants. In the tourism industry, everyone resonated with each other, "At this moment, we all know that we are finally looking forward to a beautiful spring."
No comments:
Post a Comment