The Tourism Administration of the Ministry of Transport has launched a two-wheel drive plan for tourism, hoping to attract domestic and foreign tourists. Among them, the weekday international travel subsidy will be launched in September. The activity was originally scheduled to last until November 30, but today it was announced that it will be extended to the end of December. Scholars pointed out that the current international travel market is not sluggish, but a problem of concentrated holidays and overnight accommodation sluggishness, and the subsidy incentives are lower than the cost of people taking special leave. It is recommended that the government can cooperate with online booking platforms (OTA) to increase the occupancy rate, and then gradually solve the problem of weekday travel.
Liu Xilin, a professor at the Tourism Research Institute of Kaohsiung University of Hospitality and Tourism, said that the current international travel market is not devoid of enthusiasm, but is mainly concentrated on holidays and one-day trips. The direction of using subsidies to improve the downturn in holiday and overnight accommodation in the international travel market is correct. However, he also pointed out that policy incentives and whether the market structure can be changed through subsidies are the main reasons.
Liu Xilin said, "It's not that consumers can't afford the money, but that they think the money is worth it." The value must show that "lost" is better than "gained". People need to take special vacations to travel, and whether travel and accommodation can reflect the value. Taking the first night as a discount of 800 yuan as an example, the cost of taking a day off may exceed 800 yuan. If tourism and hotel operators cannot reflect the corresponding value of accommodation, consumers will still lack incentives to travel.
Liu Xilin said that the subsidy of 800 and 2,000 yuan is to stimulate petty bourgeoisie and students to travel, but this group is in the beginning of school, and students are naturally less willing to use it; for office workers, the subsidy incentive is not enough to solve the dilemma of traveling on weekdays.
Liu Xilin said that in addition, the current domestic travel subsidy requires you to book a room directly with the hotel on weekdays. You cannot apply for the subsidy when booking through the OTA platform. However, when hotels use the OTA platform, they already have some discounts. If you book a room through the hotel's official website at the original price, you will get a discount of 800 yuan. For the public, the price difference between the two is not big. He is also worried that recurring subsidies may lead to "subsidy addiction," leading to diminishing marginal benefits and higher and higher subsidy prices, which may not meet consumer demand.
Liu Xilin suggested that it is not necessary to increase the subsidy amount, but to return to the market mechanism. At present, the main problems in the international tourism market are the gap between weekdays and holidays and the reduction of overnight stays. The two do not need to be solved at once. For example, if you want to increase the overnight accommodation rate, you do not necessarily need to tie in the weekdays at the beginning, but first make people who originally traveled on holidays to be willing to stay overnight.
Liu Xilin said that in addition, for hoteliers, the focus is to increase the occupancy rate, because rooms cannot be kept in stock, and if they are not sold, they will lose money, and even if some operators offer discounts, they still cannot attract tourists to stay. Therefore, the government can consider cooperating with OTA platforms. In addition to the existing discounts, adding another layer of platform incentives may bring more incentives.
Liu Xilin said that international travel subsidies should not be limited to travel and accommodation, but should also include food, accommodation, travel, shopping, transportation, etc., so that consumers can experience an enhanced "sense of value" and value for money, which can further increase international travel consumption and accommodation willingness.
