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China's self-help tourism status quo and development trend

China's self-help tourism status quo and development trend

A Self-help Tourism Concept

(A) The concept of self-help tourism

People usually use the need to travel agents and other travel agencies to divide the group tourists and casual tourists, but with the development of the tourism service agency industry as well as the tourism intermediary service projects, the way people arrange their own travel has changed greatly. However, with the development of tourism service organizations and tourism intermediary service projects, the way people arrange their own tours has changed a lot, and there is a group in the casual market that shows **** the same characteristics clearly different from the general casual tourists, and people call this group's tourism behavior self-help tourism. Self-help tourism is a fashionable way of tourism, can be expressed as: "to promote individuality, close to nature, relaxation" as the goal, completely independent choice and arrangement of tourism activities, and not accompanied by a full tour guide a way of tourism. Self-help tourism in the tourism organization and tourism purposes have the following three obvious characteristics:

First of all, the autonomy of tourism activities, including the determination of tourist destinations and itineraries, modes of transport and accommodation standards of choice, the arrangement of excursion projects have personal autonomy. At the same time, self-help tourism also has a great deal of flexibility, in the journey according to personal preferences can be temporarily adjusted or change the itinerary. Secondly, the purpose of tourism is mainly to leisure, vacation, entertainment, fitness, knowledge, adventure and to meet the special hobbies of individuals and other purposes of the pastime. Thirdly, there is no full leader, accompanied by tour guides, in the journey need to travelers to take care of all tourist activities, so travelers have autonomy at the same time, but also must have a certain quality and travel experience.

From the above definition, it can be seen that self-help tourism and casual tourism, the two concepts have a large degree of crossover, both overlap, but also have a clear difference. From the point of view of the organization of travel, both of them design their own travel routes and arrange the corresponding travel activities by themselves, but self-help tourism does not exclude booking through intermediaries, including travel agencies (especially transportation and accommodation facilities). However, from the point of view of the purpose of travel, the general purpose of the travel of the casual traveler covers a wide range of purposes, while the self-help tourism is more focused on pure tourism or recreational purposes, excluding official, business and conference tourism and tourism activities arranged by the reception unit responsible for the arrangement of the tourism activities, but in the destination of the business trip or on the way to arrange for their own leisure and recreational tourism activities should be regarded as self-help tourism.

(B) the type of self-help tourism

At present, there are various types of self-help tourism, can be classified according to the mode of transportation, the purpose of travel, travel distance, consumption level, the content of tourism activities and other criteria, this paper focuses on the mode of transportation and the purpose of tourism to divide. According to the mode of transportation can be divided into: self-driving tourism, bicycle tourism, hiking tourism and so on. According to the purpose of tourism can be divided into: leisure and vacation self-help tour and professional purposes of self-help tour two categories, and professional purposes of self-help tour including study and knowledge self-help tour, extreme adventure self-help tour, special interest self-help tour (photography, mountaineering, skiing, golf, etc.) and so on.

(3) Characteristics of Self-help Tourism

Self-help travelers pursue autonomy in tourism, or to show their personality, or to relax their body and mind; compared with the overall tourism market, they have a higher rate of travel, and tourism has become an indispensable element of their lives; most of them come from economically developed areas, especially large and medium-sized cities, and have a higher level of education. They show the following characteristics in the process of tourism:

1. The two types of self-help tourists are obviously different in the choice of tourist destinations Leisurely self-help tourists are mostly family units, or flow to the seaside as the representative of the resort tourism destinations, or flow to the scenic spots around the city (points), and for the city around the tour, self-driving tour is a more popular mode of transportation; professional self-help tourists are looking for the newly developed or even not yet developed tourist destinations, while professional self-help tourists are looking for the newly developed or even not yet developed tourist destinations. Tourists pursue newly developed or even undeveloped tourist destinations, especially the western region is more popular. They have a tendency to avoid the heat in the choice of destinations and travel time, either avoiding hot tourist destinations for sightseeing, or avoiding the peak travel period, touring hot landscapes in the opposite season, and enjoying the unusual scenery, in short, the crowded scene is the last thing they would like to see, and this feature objectively plays a role in easing the contradiction between supply and demand.

2. Self-help travelers have a high degree of participation, belonging to the depth of tourism. Due to the need to arrange everything by themselves, self-help travelers usually make full preparations before the trip: collect tourism resources of the destination, local customs and other relevant information, design routes, selected transportation, check flights and buses, according to the budget conditions to find the appropriate accommodation facilities, ticketing reservations, for the self-driving car, bicycle tourists, the preparation of the necessary equipment and road condition information is more For self-driving and cycling travelers, the preparation of necessary equipment and information on road conditions is even more essential. This kind of preparation enables travelers to have a more comprehensive understanding of the tourist destination, not only the tourist attractions (points) of the situation. In the process of traveling, self-help travelers' food, housing, transportation, travel, shopping, entertainment are closer to the life of the locals, can be more real contact with the local residents, feel the local nature, history, customs and social customs, their participation is higher. At the same time, they can also according to their own preferences, on a certain aspect or a theme of the destination for in-depth understanding. While participating in conventional tours always seem to be far away from the locals, tourists are basically in the special reception of tourists in the fixed-point hotels, fixed-point restaurants, fixed-point stores between the activities, even like the national songs and dances, wedding customs, such as the "folklore" show is often with a strong performance, and even evolved into a disguised charges for the project, very easy to make tourists and host residents mutually see each other, contrary to the purpose of tourism to promote exchanges and understanding! The purpose of tourism is to enhance communication and understanding.

3. Compared with group tours, self-help tours are smaller in scale, and those who travel with them share the same interests and are more likely to reach an agreement; under the same specification standards, they cost more than group tours and reflect a special consumer psychology: on the one hand, they are intoxicated by the fine-tuning and haggling, especially in basic elements such as lodgings and local transportation, but on the other hand, they are not bad at purchasing some of the more price-elastic products and are not bad at purchasing "specialties", which are even more important than those that are not. They also have a strong preference for "specialties", such as special tourism projects, unique handicrafts, and local cuisine. In addition, although self-help travelers in the process of travel effort, but the satisfaction is still high, corresponding to the travel agency against the increasing number of complaints, of course, this and self-help travelers have no door to complain also has a certain relationship.

The development of self-help tourism in China

(1) Background of the development of self-help tourism in China

Internationally, cheap group tours and package tours have been a major breakthrough in the development of travel agencies' business model since the 1960s, which has greatly promoted the development of "mass tourism", and contributed greatly to the popularization and development of tourism. However, in the ensuing era of increasing self-esteem, it is also due to the standardization and programming of package tours that people are no longer satisfied with this mode of travel, and more and more people are choosing self-help travel (independent travel), fully realizing their own individual needs and seeking for a different travel experience. At the same time, the development of transportation and other ancillary services and facilities also make self-help travel more convenient, self-help travel market has developed rapidly, especially the popularity of the car so that driving self-help travel to Europe and the United States has become the most convenient, the most popular way of travel. In recent years, the development of self-help outbound tourism is very fast, especially attention to Europe and the United States and other economically developed regions of the travelers have flocked to the natural and cultural resources of developing countries and underdeveloped countries and regions, Africa, Asia, South America has become a hot tourist destinations, was once very closed, poor places can also be seen with a large bag of "foreign" backpacking tourists figure. The development of China's self-help tourism has also been influenced by these international self-help travelers, and this kind of adventurous travel style coincides with the realm that some Chinese travelers are pursuing, so they follow the footsteps of these foreign backpackers to start their own discovery journey and continue to carry it forward. This has had a great demonstrative effect on the majority of Chinese travelers. In Tiger Leaping Gorge in Yunnan Province, according to the locals, almost all the tourists are foreigners with backpacks, and there is not a single Chinese tourist for a few days, but in recent years, there are more and more domestic backpackers, and their number tends to exceed that of foreign tourists. In addition, the organization of tourism generally follows this development law: self-help tourism - mass tourism - self-help tourism, initially self-help tourism in the traditional sense, is in the early stages of tourism development in the lack of intermediary services forced to choose, the development of mass tourism stage reflects the socialization of tourism services of the leap; the second self-help tourism is the concept of self-help tourism explored in this paper, it is from the The second self-help tourism is the concept of self-help tourism discussed in this paper, which is differentiated from mass tourism to reflect the improvement of the level of tourism demand. China's travel agency industry started late, domestic travelers arrange their own tours out of necessity, with the adjustment of the structure of the travel agency industry and the target market, travel agencies have made great efforts to develop the domestic tourism market, and "group tours" were once talked about by the people; however, self-help tours in China have developed rapidly before the formation of the scale of mass tours, which should be thanks to the "self-help tours" demonstrated by the post-development countries in many areas of economic development. This should be attributed to the "latecomer effect" of late-developing countries in many areas of economic development. On the other hand, as the economic conditions of the Chinese people are improving, people's demand for leisure is increasing, many people have a certain amount of travel experience, and the tension in transportation and accommodation has been eased, which undoubtedly provide objective conditions for the development of self-help tourism in China.

(2) The Basic Condition of Self-help Tourism in China in Recent Years

1. Self-help Tourism Market is Growing Rapidly

Since the concept of self-help tourism has yet to be further clarified, it is still difficult to quantify the size of China's self-help tourism market, even though the market of casual tourists occupies a huge share of the domestic market (the proportion of group tours is less than 10% of the domestic tourism market). It is still difficult to describe the size of China's self-help travel market with quantitative indicators, but it is certain that self-help travel is growing rapidly. Two surveys conducted in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chengdu show that most people tend to choose self-help tourism, as shown in Figure 1 and Table 1. In addition, it is not difficult to find that the ranks of self-help travelers are growing in the "Golden Week of Tourism" reviews, and the reports on the reception of travelers in various tourist attractions (points) also confirm this.

2. Short trips account for the majority

In the self-help tourism market, family leisure travel accounted for a considerable share, and most of the short trips to the surrounding areas, double holidays and public vacations is the peak of the self-drive short-distance travel. According to a survey of 749 families in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, respondents who had traveled in the past six months said that most of their recent trips were short trips to the surrounding areas of their cities. In terms of destinations, among the 84 Beijing respondents who had traveled, 12% traveled to Liaoning (Dalian, etc.), 27% traveled to Hebei (Beidaihe, Qinhuangdao, Shijiazhuang, etc.), 10% traveled to Tianjin, 7% traveled to Shanxi (Wutaishan, Datong, Pingyao, etc.), and 8% traveled to Shandong (Qufu, Jinan, Mt. Taishan, etc.). Among the 81 Shanghai respondents who had traveled, 22% traveled to Jiangsu (Suzhou, Wuxi, Nanjing, Zhenjiang, etc.), 47% to Zhejiang (Hangzhou, Ningbo, Shaoxing, Qiandao Lake, etc.), and 9% to Jiangxi and Anhui (Mount Lushan, Jiuwashan, Mount Huangshan); among the 69 Guangzhou respondents who had traveled, 49% traveled to Guangdong Province, 10% to Guangxi (Guilin, Nanning), 6% to Hunan and 4% to Hong Kong/Macao/Taiwan. /Macao/Taiwan by 4%.

3. Self-driving tourism has the fastest growth rate

Currently, China's urban residents have more and more private cars, self-driving trips have become the preferred mode of travel for people with cars. In addition, the rental car tourism industry has become another way of self-driving trips, Beijing, for example, with a driver's license without a car more than 1 million people, the city has more than 80 car rental companies, leasing vehicles about more than 30,000, the rental situation is very good on both days off, whenever the golden week of tourism is more fiery and unprecedented. To April 20, 2002, "today's new concept" nearly 2,000 cars have been fully booked out, and even a month in advance, some people came to book "May Day" during the car rental business. During the golden week of May 1, 2002, the National Holiday Office Executive Director, Deputy Director of the National Tourism Administration, Zhang Xi-Qin, pointed out in an interview with reporters, with the rapid increase in the number of private cars and self-help tourism boom, self-driving tours have become a bright landscape of the golden week of tourism. Before the Golden Week, Beijing, all the car rental company's vehicles have been booked in advance; Haikou holiday rental car prices increased by 20%, but still in short supply; Shenzhen 9% of the residents of self-driving tour, than the Spring Festival Golden Week this year and growth; Shanghai, Guangzhou and other large cities of short and medium-distance travelers, a considerable portion of the self-driving tour; Putuo Mountain and other scenic spots around the parking lot are showing a saturated state; Dalian, Chengdu, etc. Highways around large and medium-sized cities are basically saturated due to the large number of self-driving tourists. Self-driving tourism is mostly leisure family tourism with friends and relatives, and the destination is mainly the scenic spots around the city of residence (points). But there are also some "cool car family" favor long-distance cross-country or driving adventure tourism, car club is a good place for them to communicate and meet.

4. Backpackers are getting more and more attention

Teenagers and young people are the backbone of self-help tourism, especially long-distance travel, reading books and traveling thousands of miles, cultivating the spirit of self-reliance, understanding of different cultures, and enriching the experience of life is the goal they pursue in their travels, and they are often known as backpacker, trekker, hiker, and hiker in foreign countries, because they often carry a big bag to do the hiking trip. trekker, hiker, and they are usually more frugal, sometimes also known as budget traveler, and it is this feature that makes them have not been valued by the domestic tourism industry. As the ranks of backpackers grow, people begin to pay more attention to this group. Students are naturally its main force, and there is also a niche market - young office workers - that is also beginning to take shape, mostly white-collar workers with good incomes, small financial burdens, and great spending potential, who are very willing to choose backpacking as a more natural and environmentally friendly way to get closer to nature.

5. Breakthrough in travel insurance

Travel insurance has been lagging behind the rapid development of the tourism industry due to people's low awareness of insurance, limited types of travel insurance, and inconvenience in purchasing. Since 2001, there has been a breakthrough in travel insurance. First of all, the "Travel Agency Liability Insurance for Travel Agents" came into effect on September 1, 2001, and the "Interim Provisions on Travel Accident Insurance for Travel Agents" implemented since 1997 was terminated at the same time. It was this provisional regulation that objectively made travel insurance sold only to groups and with a single type of insurance, making it very inconvenient for self-help travelers to understand and purchase travel insurance. The new regulations require travel agencies must purchase travel agency liability insurance (travel agency liability insurance is different from accident insurance, the insurance company for travel agencies engaged in tourism business activities, resulting in travelers' personal and property damage should be borne by the travel agency's responsibility to bear the liability to compensate for the insurance premiums; and does not belong to the travel agency's responsibility for the traveler's personal accidental injuries, is not in the scope of the insurance), the traveler's own insurance is purchased voluntarily by the tourists. Voluntary purchase of travelers' insurance, so that the insurance companies to develop new types of travel insurance and vigorously promote the pressure and motivation in the travelers are significantly increased. Therefore, although this is an adjustment of the rules for travel agencies to take out insurance, it is indeed a breakthrough for self-help travelers to avoid travel risks. Another breakthrough is the continuous innovation of travel insurance. Insurance companies to travel assistance insurance, travelers personal accident insurance, travelers attractions accidental injury insurance, accommodation tourists personal insurance and other four types of insurance, and in the various types of insurance under the design of different insurance contracts to adapt to the different requirements of travelers, such as Ping An Insurance Company of China Ltd. has launched a safe card for aviation (for frequent flyers travelers), travel safe card (for short-term outings), road road (a year of traffic accident insurance). For example, Ping An Insurance Company of China Ltd. has launched the Aviation Safety Card (for frequent flyers), Travel Safety Card (for short-term travelers), Road Safety Card (for one-year traffic accident insurance), and Road Safety Card (for one-year comprehensive accident insurance for motorists); Xinhua Life Insurance Company has launched the "Caring Card", which is a one-year domestic and overseas accidental injury and emergency rescue insurance; and American International Assurance Company (AIA) has AIA Travel Accidental Injury, AIA Overseas Travel Accidental Injury, and other types of insurance, with a more flexible insurance period, so that self-help tourists can have more choices. In addition, on the eve of May 1, 2002, Ping An Insurance Company designed and launched the "May Day Leisure and Holiday Insurance", which is the first holiday insurance specifically for the Golden Week of tourism in China, travelers only have to pay 10 yuan premium, you can get the "May Day" holiday of 40,000 yuan of insurance coverage for accidental injuries, which is also a reflection of the continuous innovation of travel insurance.

Three, the development of self-help tourism in China obstacles and difficulties

In recent years, with the development of tourism information, transportation and accommodation facilities, self-help tourists travel conditions greatly improved, but still face many obstacles, and urgently need to be improved. First of all, infrastructure and hospitality facilities are still a bottleneck hindering the development of self-help tourism.... Insufficient transportation capacity has always been a constraint on the development of tourism and tourist travel, for self-help tourists, travel is naturally more difficult, especially difficult in the destination area between the various attractions of the lack of convenient public **** transportation, which is the biggest inconvenience compared with the group travel; accommodation facilities are tight in the peak season, and many self-help tourists go to the destination and their choice of accommodation facilities Accommodation facilities are tight during peak seasons, and many destinations visited by self-help travelers and the accommodations they choose lack booking networks, making it difficult to reserve rooms in advance, and in some cases some travelers even cancel their trips. Secondly, there is a lack of practical information on self-help tourism. People now inquire about the increase in travel information channels, travel newspapers, self-help travel books, television travel programs and even specialized travel channels, and the fastest growing when the network: the major portals are equipped with a travel version of the travel site has more than 300, self-help travel network began to increase, major travel agencies, hotels and some famous scenic spots are also disputes "touch the network", travel information is more than ever more rich. The tourist information is also more abundant than before. Nevertheless, there is still a gap between this information and the expectations of self-help travelers, and there is still a need to deepen and expand the content and service provided. For example, most of the current online tourism information is the introduction of attractions, tourism routes and product promotion, ticket booking and some self-help travelogue, and the information about tourist destinations is not comprehensive or even sometimes not accurate enough, which is very easy to mislead self-help travelers, and there is a lack of comprehensive information about the transportation network, road conditions and meteorology, which is very important for the travelers who have designed their own new routes, and there is a basic gap in the interactive online consulting; also, although some websites are not as comprehensive as some other websites, there is a gap in the content and service mode. Basic blank; Another example is that although some websites have opened hotel booking, air ticket booking, travel line booking, online group booking and other services, but must be "online booking, offline confirmation, offline payment", which is not convenient for travelers to make self-help travel easier and more convenient through the network booking. Third, the supporting facilities for self-driving tourism are seriously inadequate. The construction of corresponding supporting facilities is lagging far behind the development of self-driving tourism, such as the timely release of traffic and road information, clear road signs, the reasonable layout of gas stations and signs, the construction of motels, car maintenance and emergency rescue services, etc., there are a lot of problems that need to be solved urgently, or else it will limit the development of self-driving tourism, an in-depth study of European and American countries in this regard will give us useful insights. In-depth study of the practice of Europe and the United States in this regard will give us useful insights. In addition, the lack of sufficient awareness and attention to self-help tourism, the lack of government and industry incentives, as well as self-help travelers' safety and rights and interests of the lack of security, the lack of price discounts, the travel payment, withdrawals, the use of credit cards and other financial services is not convenient enough, etc., these obstacles will affect the development of self-help tourism to be further improved.

Four, the development trend of self-help tourism in China

In the future, the development of China's self-help tourism will show the following three trends: first, self-help tourism will be more fully developed. The scale of self-help tourism will have a greater growth, become the mainstream mode of tourism, in the tourism market accounted for a larger proportion; self-help tourism content is more colorful, the form is more diverse, self-help travelers began to talk about online companionship, mutual aid tourism, such a fresh topic and began to pay for action; all kinds of self-help travel clubs continue to emerge, become a self-help travelers to exchange places and parks. Secondly, the supporting facilities and intermediary services for self-help travelers will have great development. Tourism websites will be adjusted in content and structure, tourism information will be more convenient and practical, and breakthroughs will be made in ticketing, hotel booking and other tourism e-commerce businesses; new ways of cooperation and business models will emerge, such as Huaxia Tourism and China National Travel Service Travel Rescue Center will jointly launch the "Tourism Accident and Travel Rescue Insurance" as long as you sign up to become a member of the HUAXIA to get the pre-positioned premiums of the membership card. Membership card, as long as the use of three days before notifying the Huaxia Tourism Network, you can get a ten-day domestic travel travel accident and travel rescue insurance, such attempts to target self-help tourism business opportunities will continue to emerge, and will have an impact on the development of self-help tourism; car rental industry will have a greater development of the leasing procedures and rental deposits will be a breakthrough in the settlement of the development of emergency automobile rescue services will make the self-driving car traveler Free from worries, easy on the road, in addition, due to China's vast territory, great differences in terrain, road conditions are complex, therefore, self-help travelers away from their usual place of residence when renting a car tour, often in the rental car at the same time also equipped with a local driver is also known as chartered tours, which in the case of the current difficulties in credit card settlements, is not less than a very good practice. Thirdly, there will be rapid growth in self-help outbound travel by Chinese citizens. As more and more Chinese people have the experience of traveling abroad, mastered the foreign language tools, more confident in their own, and with the regrets of group tours also make them want to try to self-help way to travel abroad, the emergence of websites dedicated to outbound self-help tours also shows that people's demand in this area has been strengthened. In addition, from the experience of other Asian countries, the hosting of the Olympic Games, the World Cup and other such major international tournaments on the host country's residents of the demand for outbound tourism has a great stimulus, for example, the 1988 Seoul Olympics for South Koreans outbound self-help tours is indeed a landmark event, the Olympic Games held before and after a large number of South Korean youth went to other countries to do backpacking tours, it is also from then on, the It is from then on, South Koreans self-help travel abroad has become fashionable, and Beijing's success in winning the 2008 Olympic Games bid will greatly inspire the Chinese people's national self-confidence, but also more eager to go out to learn about the world, to the world to show the Chinese people's style, so the next few years there will be more young Chinese people backpacking tour of the world. In short, with the development of China's economy, the infrastructure and tourism reception facilities will be more perfect, information, financial and communication services are more convenient, travelers will be able to travel to truly realize the "ease of self-help"; at the same time, people's standard of living will continue to improve, more and more rich experience in travel, but also the pursuit of more independence, personalization, people will recognize the huge potential of this market, so the development of the self-help tourism market space must be more broad. The space for the development of the market must be more broad.