Self-guided travel

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The concept of self-guided travel

(1) The concept of self-guided travel

People usually use whether to It is necessary to distinguish group tourists and individual tourists through travel agencies and other travel agencies. However, with the development of tourism service agencies and the continuous enrichment of travel intermediary service items, the way people arrange their own travel has changed greatly. In the individual tourist market, there are A group shows unique characteristics that are obviously different from ordinary individual tourists. People call this group's travel behavior self-guided tourism

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Self-guided tourism is a fashionable way of traveling, which can be described as: with the goal of "showing off individuality, getting close to nature, and relaxing body and mind", choosing and arranging travel activities completely independently,

It is a kind of travel without full tour guide. Self-guided tourism has the following three obvious characteristics in terms of tourism organization methods and tourism purposes:

The first is the autonomy in arranging tourism activities, including the determination of tourism destinations and itineraries, transportation methods, and accommodation standards Have personal autonomy in selecting and arranging tours. At the same time, self-guided tourism also has great flexibility. During the journey, the itinerary can be temporarily adjusted or changed according to personal preferences;

Secondly, the purpose of tourism is mainly leisure, vacation, entertainment, fitness, knowledge seeking, adventure and The main purpose is to satisfy personal special hobbies and other recreational purposes;

The third is that there is no full team leader or tour guide to accompany you. During the journey, tourists need to take care of all travel activities by themselves. Therefore, tourists have autonomy when At the same time, you must also have certain qualities and travel experience.

It can be seen from the above definition that the two concepts of self-guided tourism and individual travel have a great degree of overlap, with both overlap and obvious differences. From the perspective of travel organization, both design travel routes and arrange corresponding travel activities on their own, but self-guided travel does not exclude booking (especially transportation and accommodation facilities) through intermediaries including travel agencies. However, from the perspective of travel purposes, the general travel purposes of individual travelers cover a wide range of purposes, while self-guided tours focus more on pure tourism or recreational purposes, excluding official, business and conference travel and travel activities arranged by the host unit. However, when traveling on business Leisure and entertainment travel activities arranged by oneself at the destination or on the way should also be regarded as self-guided travel.

(2) Types of self-guided tours

At present, there are many types of self-guided tours, which can be based on transportation methods, travel purposes, travel distance, consumption level, tourism activity content and other standards To classify, this article mainly focuses on the classification by transportation mode and tourism purpose.

According to the mode of transportation, it can be divided into: self-driving tour, bicycle tour, hiking tour, etc.;

According to the purpose of tourism, it can be divided into two categories: leisure vacation self-guided tour and professional purpose self-guided tour. , and self-guided tours for professional purposes include self-guided tours for learning and seeking knowledge, self-guided tours for extreme adventure, self-guided tours for special interests (photography, mountain climbing, skiing, golf, etc.), etc.

(3) Characteristics of self-guided tourism

Self-guided tourists pursue autonomy in travel, express their individuality, or relax their body and mind; compared with the overall tourism market, their travel The rate is relatively high, and tourism has become an indispensable element in their lives; most of them come from economically developed areas, especially large and medium-sized cities, and have a high level of education. They showed the following characteristics during their travels:

1. There are obvious differences in the choice of tourist destinations between the two types of self-guided tourists

Leisure self-guided tourists are mostly family units, or go to resort-type tourist destinations represented by the seaside, or to Scenic spots (spots) around the city. For travel around the city, self-driving travel is a more popular mode of transportation; professional self-guided tourists pursue newly developed or even undeveloped tourist destinations, especially in the western region. . They tend to avoid heat in their choice of travel destinations and travel time. They either avoid hot tourist destinations, avoid peak travel periods or visit hot spots out of season to enjoy the unusual scenery. In short, crowded scenes are the last thing they want to see. This feature objectively plays a certain role in alleviating the contradiction between supply and demand.

2. Self-guided tourists have a high degree of participation and belong to in-depth tourism.

Since they need to arrange everything by themselves, self-guided tourists usually make full preparations before traveling: collecting tourism resources of the tourist destination, local customs and other relevant information, designing routes, selecting transportation, and making inquiries Check the flight and train conditions, find the corresponding accommodation facilities according to the budget conditions, and make ticket reservations. For self-driving and bicycle tourists, the preparation of necessary equipment and road condition information is even more essential. This kind of preparation enables tourists to have a more comprehensive understanding of the tourist destination, not just the situation of tourist attractions (spots).

During the travel process, the food, accommodation, transportation, travel, shopping, and entertainment of self-guided tourists are closer to the lives of local people. They can have more real contact with local residents and feel the local nature, history, and culture. The local customs and social customs have a higher degree of participation. At the same time, they can also have an in-depth understanding of the destination on a certain aspect or topic according to their own preferences.

However, those who participate in regular tour groups always seem to be far away from the locals. Tourists basically stay in designated hotels, restaurants, and stores that are specially designed to receive tourists. Even "ethnic songs and dances, wedding customs, etc." Exhibitions of "folk customs and customs" often have a strong performative nature, and even evolve into disguised charging projects, which can easily cause tourists and host residents to disagree with each other, which is contrary to the purpose of tourism to enhance communication and understanding.

3． Compared with group tours, self-guided tours are smaller in scale and have like-minded travelers, making it easier to reach an agreement. Under the same specifications and standards, the cost is higher than that of group tours, and it reflects a special consumer psychology: on the one hand, they are intoxicated with careful calculation and bargaining. , especially basic elements such as accommodation and local transportation, but they show considerable purchasing power for some products with greater price elasticity, and they are particularly fond of "features", such as special tourism projects, unique handicrafts, local delicacies, etc. . In addition, although self-guided tourists put a lot of effort into the travel process, their satisfaction is still high. Correspondingly, there are more and more complaints against travel agencies. Of course, this is also related to the fact that self-guided tourists have no way to complain.

2 The development of self-guided tourism in China

(1) The background of the development of self-guided tourism in China

From an international perspective, since the 1960s, cheap Group tours and package tours are a major breakthrough in the development of travel agency business models. They have greatly promoted the development of "mass tourism" and contributed greatly to the popularization and development of tourism. However, in the subsequent era of increasing self-esteem, it is precisely because of the standardization and stylization of package tours that people are no longer satisfied with this way of travel. More and more people are beginning to choose independent travel to fully realize themselves. to meet their individual needs and seek unique travel experiences. At the same time, the development of transportation and other supporting service facilities has also made self-guided tourism more convenient, and the self-guided tourism market has developed rapidly. In particular, the popularity of automobiles has made self-guided tourism by car the most convenient and popular way of travel in Europe and the United States. In recent years, self-service outbound tourism has developed very rapidly. What is particularly noticeable is that tourists from economically developed regions such as Europe and the United States have flocked to developing countries and underdeveloped countries and regions rich in natural and cultural resources. Africa, Asia, and South America have become In popular tourist destinations, places that were once very isolated and poor can now see "foreign" backpackers carrying oversized bags.

The development of self-guided tourism in China is also affected by this type of international self-guided tourists. This adventurous travel style coincides with the realm pursued by some Chinese tourists, so they follow these The footprints of foreign backpackers began their own journey of discovery and continued to carry it forward. This has had a great demonstration effect on the vast number of Chinese tourists. In the Tiger Leaping Gorge in Yunnan, according to locals, almost all the foreigners who came to visit were backpackers at first, and not a single Chinese tourist was seen for several days. However, in recent years, there have been more and more domestic backpackers, and there are a large number of them. trend of overtaking foreign tourists.

In addition, the way tourism is organized generally follows this development pattern: self-guided tourism - mass tourism - self-guided tourism, initially self-guided tourism in the traditional sense, is an intermediary service in the early stages of tourism development. The forced choice when institutions are lacking, and its development into the mass tourism stage reflects a leap in the socialization of tourism services; the second self-service tourism is the concept of self-service tourism discussed in this article, which is differentiated from mass tourism and reflects the level of tourism demand. improve. China's travel agency industry started late. Domestic tourists arranged their own travel out of helplessness. With the adjustment of the travel agency industry structure and target market, various travel agencies have made great efforts to develop the domestic tourism market. "Group travel" was once talked about by people. However, China's self-guided tourism has developed rapidly before mass tourism has formed a large scale. This should benefit from the "latecomer effect" shown by underdeveloped countries in many fields of economic development.

On the other hand, as the economic conditions of Chinese people improve day by day, people’s demand for leisure is growing. Many people also have certain travel experience, and the tension in transportation, accommodation, etc. has also been eased. These undoubtedly provide objective conditions for the development of self-guided tourism in China.

(2) The basic situation of self-guided tourism in China in recent years

1. The self-guided tourism market is growing rapidly

Since the concept of self-guided tourism needs to be further clarified, although the individual travel market occupies a large share of the domestic market (the proportion of group tours in the domestic tourism market is less than 10% ), the current scale of China's self-guided tourism market is still difficult to describe using quantitative indicators, but it is certain that self-guided tourism is growing rapidly. Two surveys conducted in the four cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chengdu showed that most people tend to choose self-guided travel, see Figure 1 and Table 1. In addition, from the reviews and reviews of various "Golden Tourism Weeks", it is not difficult to find that the team of self-guided tourists is constantly growing, and the tourism reception reports from various tourist attractions (spots) also confirm this.

2. Short-distance travel accounts for the majority

In the self-guided travel market, family leisure travel accounts for a considerable share, and most of them are short-distance travel to surrounding areas. Weekends and public holidays are the peak times for self-driving 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-distance trips around the city where they were located. Looking at the most recent travel destination, among the 84 Beijing respondents who had traveled, 12% traveled to Liaoning (Dalian, etc.), 27% traveled to Hebei (Beidaihe, Qinhuangdao, Shijiazhuang, etc.), and 27% traveled to Hebei (Beidaihe, Qinhuangdao, Shijiazhuang, etc.). 10% went to Tianjin, 7% went to Shanxi (Wutai Mountain, Datong, Pingyao, etc.), and 8% went to Shandong (Qufu, Jinan, Taishan, etc.); among the 81 Shanghai respondents who had traveled, 7% went to Jiangsu (Suzhou, Wuxi, Nanjing, Zhenjiang, etc.) accounted for 22%, those who traveled to Zhejiang (Hangzhou, Ningbo, Shaoxing, Qiandao Lake, etc.) accounted for 47%, and those who traveled to Jiangxi and Anhui (Lushan, Jiuhuashan, Huangshan) accounted for 9% ; Among the 69 Guangzhou respondents who have traveled, 49% have traveled within Guangdong Province, 10% have traveled to Guangxi (Guilin, Nanning), 6% have traveled to Hunan, and 6% have traveled to Hong Kong/Macau/Taiwan. Accounted for 4%.

3． Self-driving tourism has the fastest growth rate

Currently, more and more urban residents in my country own private cars, and self-driving travel has become the preferred way of travel for car owners. In addition, the car rental tourism industry has become another way to travel by car. Taking Beijing as an example, there are more than 1 million people with driver's licenses but no cars. There are more than 80 car rental companies in the city, with more than 30,000 rental vehicles, and they are available for rent on weekends. The situation is very good, and it is even more popular during the Golden Week of Tourism. By April 20, 2002, "Today's New Concept"

Nearly 2,000 cars had been booked, and some people even came to book car rentals during the May Day holiday one month in advance.

During the May Day Golden Week in 2002, Zhang Xiqin, executive director of the National Holiday Office and deputy director of the National Tourism Administration, pointed out in an interview with reporters that with the rapid increase in private cars and the vigorous development of self-guided tourism, self-driving cars Traveling has become a beautiful sight in Golden Week tourism. Before the Golden Week, the vehicles of all car rental companies in Beijing have been booked in advance; although car rental prices in Haikou increased by 20% during the festival, the supply still exceeds demand; 9% of residents in Shenzhen travel by car, an increase compared with this year's Spring Festival Golden Week; Shanghai, A large number of short- and medium-distance tourists in big cities such as Guangzhou travel by self-driving cars; the parking lots around scenic spots such as Putuo Mountain are saturated; the highways around large and medium-sized cities such as Dalian and Chengdu are crowded due to the large number of people traveling by self-driving cars. , the highway is basically saturated.

Self-driving tours are mostly leisure family tours with relatives and friends, and the destinations are mainly scenic spots (spots) around the city where you live. But there are also some "cool car people" who prefer long-distance cross-country or driving adventure travel, and car clubs are a good place for them to communicate and gather.

4. Backpackers are attracting increasing attention

Teenagers and young adults are the backbone of self-guided travel, especially long-distance travel. Reading thousands of books and traveling thousands of miles, cultivating a spirit of independence, understanding different cultures, and enriching life experiences are the key to their travels. Because they often carry large bags for hiking, they are called backpackers, trekkers, and hikers abroad. Moreover, they are usually more frugal and are sometimes called budget travelers.

Traveler It is this characteristic that prevents them from being taken seriously by the domestic tourism industry. As the backpacker team grows, people begin to pay more attention to this group. Students are naturally its main force, and there is also a market segment - young office workers - which have also begun to take shape. Most of them are white-collar workers with good incomes. They have small financial burdens and great consumption potential. They are very willing to choose Backpacking is a more natural and environmentally friendly way to get close to nature.

5． Breakthroughs in travel insurance

For a long time, travel insurance has seriously lagged behind the rapid development of the tourism industry due to people's weak insurance awareness, limited types of travel insurance, and inconvenient purchase. Since 2001, travel insurance has made breakthrough progress.

First of all, the "Regulations on Travel Agency Liability Insurance for Travel Agencies" officially came into effect on September 1, 2001, and the "Interim Provisions on Travel Agencies for Travel Accident Insurance" implemented in 1997 were terminated at the same time. It is this temporary provision that objectively makes travel insurance only sold to groups and has a single type of insurance, making it very inconvenient for self-guided travelers to understand and purchase travel insurance. The new regulations require travel agencies to purchase travel agency liability insurance (travel agency liability insurance is different from accident insurance. Insurance companies are responsible for compensation insurance for the travel agency's liability for damage to tourists' personal and property damage caused by the travel agency's engagement in tourism business activities. liability; personal accidental injuries of tourists that are not the responsibility of the travel agency are not covered by this insurance). Tourists' own insurance is voluntarily purchased by tourists. This puts pressure and pressure on insurance companies to develop new travel insurance types and vigorously promote them among tourists. The power is significantly increased. Therefore, although this is an adjustment to the rules for travel agency insurance, it is indeed a breakthrough for self-guided travelers to avoid travel risks.

Another breakthrough is the continuous innovation of travel insurance.

Each insurance company mainly provides four kinds of insurance: travel assistance insurance, travel personal accident insurance, tourist attraction accident insurance, and accommodation tourist personal insurance. They also design different insurance contracts under each insurance category to meet the different requirements of tourists. For example, China Ping An Insurance Co., Ltd. has launched Airline Safety Card (suitable for frequent flyers), Travel Safety Card (suitable for short-term travelers), Lulu Smooth (one-year traffic accident insurance), and Safe Travels ( One-year comprehensive accident insurance for motorists), the "Care and Care Card" launched by Xinhua Life Insurance Company is a one-year domestic and overseas accident injury and emergency rescue insurance, and the American AIA Insurance Company has AIA Travel Accident Injury and AIA Overseas Travel Accident Insurance. In terms of injury and other insurance types, the insurance period is also more flexible, giving self-guided travelers more choices. In addition, on the eve of May Day in 2002, Ping An Insurance Company designed and launched the "May Day Leisure Holiday Insurance", which was the first holiday insurance in China specifically targeted at the Golden Week of Tourism. Tourists only need to pay a premium of 10 yuan to get "May Day Leisure Holiday Insurance". Accidental injury insurance with an insured amount of 40,000 yuan during the May Day holiday is also a reflection of the continuous innovation of travel insurance.

3. Obstacles and difficulties in the development of self-guided tourism in China

In recent years, with the development of tourism information, transportation and accommodation facilities, etc., the travel conditions of self-guided tourists have been greatly improved. , but still faces many obstacles and needs to be improved urgently.

First of all, infrastructure and reception facilities are still bottlenecks hindering the development of self-guided tourism.

Insufficient transportation capacity has always been a constraint on the development of the tourism industry and tourist travel. For self-guided tourists, travel is naturally more difficult. What is particularly difficult is the attractions in tourist destination areas. The lack of convenient public transportation is the biggest inconvenience compared with group tours; accommodation facilities are tight in peak seasons, and many self-guided travelers lack reservation networks for the destinations they visit and the accommodation facilities they choose, which makes it difficult to It is difficult to book a room in advance, and sometimes some tourists even cancel their trips because of this.

Secondly, there is a lack of practical self-guided travel information.

People now have more channels to search for travel information, such as travel newspapers, self-guided travel books, travel columns on TV and even special travel channels. The fastest growing one is undoubtedly the Internet: all major portals have There is a travel section, and there are more than 300 travel websites. The number of self-guided travel websites has begun to increase. Major travel agencies, hotels and some famous scenic spots have also "connected to the Internet", and travel information is richer than before. Despite this, this information is still far from the expectations of self-guided tourists, and the content and service methods provided need to be deepened and expanded. For example, most of the current online travel information is the introduction of attractions, travel routes and product promotions, ticket bookings, and some self-guided travel notes. The information about travel destinations is not comprehensive or even accurate enough, which can easily mislead self-guided travelers, and lacks comprehensive information. Transportation network, road conditions, weather and other information are very important for tourists who design new routes by themselves, and interactive online consultation is basically blank; for example, although some websites have opened hotel reservations, air ticket reservations, travel route reservations, etc. There are many services such as online group booking, but they must be "online booking, offline confirmation, and offline payment", which makes it inconvenient for tourists to make self-guided travel easier and more convenient through online booking.

The construction of corresponding supporting facilities lags far behind the development of self-driving tourism, such as the timely release of traffic and road condition information, clear road sign instructions, reasonable layout and sign instructions of gas stations, construction of motels, There are many problems that need to be solved urgently in terms of car maintenance and emergency rescue services, otherwise the development of self-driving tourism will be restricted. An in-depth study of the practices of European and American countries in this regard will give us useful enlightenment.

In addition, people lack sufficient understanding and attention to self-guided tourism, the government and the industry lack corresponding incentive policies, and the safety and rights of self-guided tourists are weakly protected. There is a lack of price discounts, payment, withdrawal, and It is not convenient to use financial services such as credit cards. These obstacles will affect the development of assisted tourism and need to be further improved.

IV. The development trend of self-guided tourism in China

In the future, the development of self-guided tourism in my country will show the following three trends:

First of all, self-guided tourism will be more fully developed. The scale of self-guided tourism will increase significantly, becoming a mainstream tourism method, and its proportion in the tourism market will increase; the content of self-guided tourism will be more colorful and the forms will be more diverse. Self-guided tourists will begin to talk about things like online companionship and mutual assistance. New topics such as tourism have begun to be put into action; various self-guided travel clubs continue to emerge, becoming a communication place and spiritual home for self-guided travelers.

Secondly, supporting facilities and intermediary services for self-guided tourists will develop greatly.

The content and structure of tourism websites will be greatly adjusted, tourism information will be more convenient and practical, and ticketing, hotel reservations and other tourism e-commerce businesses will make breakthrough progress; new cooperation methods and business models will emerge, such as Huaxia Tourism Network and The "Travel Accident and Travel Rescue Insurance" will be jointly launched by China International Travel Service Travel Assistance Center. As long as you register as a Huaxia member, you can get a membership card with insurance money preset. As long as you notify Huaxia Travel Network three days before use, you can get a membership card for a period of Ten-day domestic travel accident and travel rescue insurance, such attempts to target self-guided tourism business opportunities will continue to emerge and will have an impact on the development of self-guided tourism; the car rental industry will have greater development, and the rental procedures and rental deposits will There will be a breakthrough in settlement, and the development of automobile emergency rescue services will allow self-driving tourists to avoid worries and get on the road easily. In addition, due to my country's vast territory, huge differences in terrain, and complex road conditions, self-driving tourists will need to rent a car far away from their usual place of residence. When traveling, you often rent a car and also have a local driver, which is also known as chartered car travel. This is a good practice in the current difficult situation of credit card settlement.

Third, self-guided outbound travel by Chinese citizens will grow rapidly. As more and more Chinese people have experience in traveling abroad, master foreign language tools, and become more confident in themselves, and the regrets of group travel also make them want to try a self-guided way to travel abroad, specifically for outbound self-guided travel The emergence of the website also shows that people's needs in this area have increased. In addition, judging from the experience of other Asian countries, hosting major international events such as the Olympic Games and World Cup has a great stimulating effect on the outbound travel demand of residents of the host country. For example, the 1988 Seoul Olympics greatly stimulated the outbound travel demand of Koreans. It is indeed a landmark event. Before and after the Olympic Games, a large number of Korean youths went to other countries for backpacking tours. It was also from then on that it became fashionable for Koreans to travel abroad on their own, and Beijing's success in winning the right to bid for the 2008 Olympic Games will be extremely important. The earth inspires Chinese people's national self-confidence, and at the same time they are more eager to go out to understand the world and show the Chinese people to the world. Therefore, in the next few years, more young Chinese will pack up their bags and travel around the world.

In short, with the development of my country's economy, various infrastructure and tourism reception facilities will be more perfect, information, finance, and communication services will be more convenient, and tourists will be able to truly achieve "easy self-help" when traveling; at the same time , people's living standards will continue to improve, their travel experience will become more and more abundant, and they will pursue more autonomy and personalization. People will also realize the huge potential of this market, so the space for the development of the self-guided tourism market will definitely be broader.