Who can briefly introduce the current situation of China's inbound and outbound tourism?

As a pillar industry of the tertiary industry in China, tourism has attracted more and more attention. With the continuous development of China's economy, the improvement of people's living standards and the introduction of relevant policies on outbound tourism, outbound tourism has become a new fashion for people. The outbound tourism market has become an important part of the tourism market, and people have formed certain laws in consumption decision-making and consumption behavior. However, outbound tourism has just started and is still immature, and there are still some problems to be solved.

I. Overview of China's outbound tourism market

1. The formation and structure of China's outbound tourism market

Outbound tourism market refers to the economic phenomena and economic relations reflected by tourists in the process of outbound tourism. The early outbound tourism was mainly business, but the outbound tourism in China was formed by1Interim Measures for the Administration of Self-funded Outbound Tourism of China Citizens, which was approved by the State Council in March 1997, officially promulgated by the National Tourism Administration and the Ministry of Public Security, and implemented in July 1997. This truly marks the formation of China's outbound tourism market, and establishes the basic pattern of China's travel agency business-inbound tourism, domestic tourism and outbound tourism. At present, China's outbound tourism is divided into three parts: overseas tourism, border tourism and travel to Hong Kong and Macao.

2. The development of China's outbound tourism market in recent years and its reasons.

(1) The development characteristics of China's outbound tourism market in recent years

First of all, according to the information provided by travel agencies, outbound tourism is growing rapidly, among which outbound tourism, urban residents are growing at a high speed of 30%, and it is mainly concentrated in coastal provinces and cities, such as Guangdong, Shanghai, Beijing, Fujian, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and other provinces, accounting for 2/3, and the outbound tourism is mainly at the family's own expense. As can be seen from the following data, the number of outbound tourists has increased rapidly, doubling from 1996 to 1999. The following data are taken from the Statistical Yearbook of China:

Second, the analysis of the current situation of tourists' behavior in the outbound tourism market.

Tourist behavior mainly refers to the behavior of tourists collecting information about products to make decisions, as well as buying, evaluating, consuming and handling tourism products. Today's society is diversified, and the differences in nationality, status, gender, occupation, education and life in different societies make them different in behavior, interest, preference and concept. These aspects are also reflected in tourism behavior, which strongly affects people's tourism behavior and makes people show great differences in making decisions on tourism destinations and tourism forms.

1. Analysis of consumption decision of outbound tourists in China

Tourism consumption decision-making is a process of making decisions according to one's own experience, subjectivity, preference and personality. There are two main factors that affect tourism behavior: one is the overall impression of the environment formed by the collected information in the brain, that is, the perception of the environment; The other is the principle of maximizing interests, that is, tourists always choose the least travel time and get the most travel information. Because of these two factors, outbound tourists show obvious regularity in the decision-making of destination selection, tourism form, purchase channel and transportation mode.

(1) destination selection

In the process of traveling, tourists always pursue the principle of maximizing interests, so they show some consistency in the choice of tourist destinations, that is, most outbound tourists choose the same country. According to the statistics of 1998, about 17000 China tourists visited New Zealand. 1999 after the signing of the agreement between the two countries in May, the number of China tourists visiting New Zealand increased by 50%. Of course, Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong and Macau will remain the main destinations for the outbound team. According to the statistics of the Hong Kong Tourist Association, from June 5438 to September 2000, Hong Kong * * * received 227,000 tourists from Chinese mainland, an increase of 29.5% over the same period in June 1998. According to the frontier registration of the Ministry of Public Security, the total number of people entering and leaving the country reached a record high in 2000, * *142.87 million, of which Chinese mainland16.85 million (including those who live overseas and hold China passports), an increase of 2.5% compared with 1998.

2. Behavior patterns of China outbound passengers.

After completing the tourism decision, tourists turn to the last link-tourism spatial behavior, which is the process of people traveling and playing in the region. It is based on decision-making behavior, and many of its characteristics are determined by the principles of decision-making behavior. In specific spatial behavior, it involves three different spatial scales. There is an interdependent relationship between different elements in tourism behavior. It is mainly determined by tourism intermediate conditions and tourists' personal motives, and their relationship can be expressed by the following formula:

S→O→R

S stands for tourism conditions, O stands for personal motivation, and R stands for tourism behavior. Among them, S, O and R can also be represented by various elements, which are represented by N, I and M respectively. In this way, we can more accurately express the above formula as:

With the above formula, it is easy to explain why different tourists have different travel behaviors under different travel conditions and different travel motives. According to tourists' travel motives, outbound travel behaviors can be divided into several types: visiting relatives and friends, sightseeing, working and doing business, emigrating and settling down, studying abroad, cultural and sports exchanges, investigation and training, etc. In western countries, the outbound tourism market is mature, and tourists' consumption behavior is mainly influenced by tourism motivation. In China, however, the outbound tourism market is not very mature, and the consumption behavior is not affected by tourism motives, but mainly by tourism conditions, that is, different tourist markets, different economic incomes, different social classes, different educational levels, different ages and genders.

(1) Behavior patterns of different tourist markets

Due to the vast territory of China and great differences in economic development, outbound tourists from different regions have different travel behaviors.

Three, China outbound tourism market problems and countermeasures.

1. The main problems in China's outbound tourism market

(1) The software facilities of outbound tour groups are not up to standard.

Although all qualified tour groups have gone through strict examination and approval, the proportion of outbound tourists is too different from that of domestic outbound tourists, so it is impossible to send a full-time team leader in each team, which makes the service quality of outbound tourism decline and various problems appear. This is because outbound tourism is a transnational interpersonal activity, and there are great differences in social systems, political beliefs, lifestyles and customs among countries. Therefore, tour leaders should not only have high professional quality, but also need strong professional quality.

(2) The franchise market is too small

China has formed a franchise market, but the franchise market in China is still very small, which makes some travel agencies, non-travel agencies, individuals, and even overseas permanent representative offices and personnel in China do everything possible to organize China residents to travel abroad through various channels and means. These people use personal passports and other passports to organize and participate in overseas travel, and the number has far exceeded the franchise channels. Therefore, the number of people leaving the country for the purpose of tourism has increased rapidly year by year, but the number of people leaving the country through travel agencies has not exceeded one third of the total number of people leaving the country.

(3) The management of outbound tourism is out of order.

Mainly manifested in, in addition to the approved travel agencies operating outbound tourism, there are a large number of organizations and personnel operating outbound tourism in China that have not been approved or approved according to the prescribed procedures, including the operating and non-operating organizations and personnel of travel agencies and non-travel agencies, that is, the so-called unlicensed operation (hereinafter referred to as unlicensed operation) and the operation with a license or business license beyond the business scope (hereinafter referred to as out-of-scope operation). Because these operators have no right to operate and the government's supervision is limited, they naturally have more hidden dangers and problems in quality, reputation and safety than authorized operators. At the same time, travel agencies authorized to operate according to the prescribed procedures also try their best to expand their business volume outside the franchise channels, and various illegal operations and promotional activities are also very serious.

(4) The protection of tourists' legitimate rights and interests is increasingly prominent.

Mainly manifested in unfair competition in the market, travel agencies provide low-cost and low-quality services with irregular, unfair and unfulfilled contracts. Travel agencies use various legal and unreasonable means to compete for business, and the simplest and most effective is of course the price war. As long as the price is reduced, it is inevitable to temporarily increase a large number of low-quality and high-priced items that are even harmful to health by lowering the reception level and service quality and traveling abroad, and to get back the loss of low prices, and the more the better, the "zero tour fee" and "negative tour fee" came into being and became more and more common. In September 2000, the National Tourism Administration made great efforts to rectify the outbound tourism market, which was specifically aimed at protecting the rights and interests of tourists under the conditions of "zero tour fee" and "negative tour fee". On the other hand, at present, tourists and the public pay too much attention to prices, but their ability to protect their own rights and interests is still weak. When the rights and interests of tourists were not protected, they did not complain to the relevant departments in time.

(5) Bad influence on China's international image.

The problems in this respect can be divided into two categories. First, because of the low price, a set of tourism products specially provided for China tourists has been formed in some destination countries, which is obviously different from that provided by developed countries in terms of reception level and service quality. This is obviously not conducive to China's image as a big country, improving its international status and prestige, and will seriously harm our national character and civic personality. China's tour groups frequently have quality and safety accidents abroad, which can't be solved in time, and the responsible persons can't be thoroughly investigated. However, Chinese tourists patronize overseas and some pornographic entertainment places with low style, which deepens these adverse effects. On the other hand, a small number of tourists stay abroad, illegally engage in labor services, trade and even pornography, and are used by criminals to engage in illegal immigration, which often leads to bilateral disputes, adversely affecting the improvement and consolidation of bilateral relations, and further negatively affecting the reputation and image of our country and people overseas.

2. Analysis of the problems in China's outbound tourism market.

The above-mentioned problems in China's outbound tourism market are rooted in many aspects, including the level of China's economic and social development, the economic management mechanism in the transitional stage, residents' consumption concepts and habits, the understanding and implementation level of China's tourism development policies, and the defects of the current outbound tourism management system. From the marketing point of view, there are two main reasons:

On the one hand, from the perspective of the outbound tourism market itself, the main reason is that there is an obvious gap between the supply and demand of outbound tourism, and the pressure and motivation to increase the supply to meet the demand are relatively large. The direct reason why the supply can't meet the demand is that China has determined the tourism development policy of "vigorously developing inbound tourism, actively developing domestic tourism and moderately developing outbound tourism" according to the level of economic and social development and the needs of national construction. The development of outbound tourism should implement the basic principle of "organized, planned, controlled and moderately developed". Therefore, the country can control the scale and development speed of outbound tourism by controlling the number of travel agencies, the number and scale of outbound tourists, destination countries and regions, and outbound tourism methods. As a result, there is a big gap in market demand, which will inevitably lead to increasing supply by all means, thus causing problems such as the order, quality and safety of China's outbound tourism and its influence on the national image.

On the other hand, from the perspective of outbound tourism market space, the main reason is the information asymmetry in the outbound tourism market. Information asymmetry in marketing refers to the phenomenon of adverse selection and survival of the fittest, which is the direct result of information asymmetry between the two parties. When the quality of tourism products is controlled by the party with hidden information in the market, adverse selection defined in economics arises, that is, one party is eager to get high-quality products, while the other party is willing to provide inferior products. At present, in the outbound tourism market of China, the information about outbound tourism is completely hidden by tour groups. Generally speaking, it is the first time for outbound tourists to contact tourist destinations: it is difficult for them to get all kinds of information about tourist destinations, which leads outbound tourists to hope for high-quality tourism service products, while tour groups may make huge profits by providing low-quality tourism products, which makes China's outbound tourism unfair, dampens the enthusiasm of outbound tourism and affects its sustainable development.

3. China outbound tourism market problems and countermeasures.

Through the analysis of the above problems, we can take the following measures to control the problems in the outbound tourism market:

(1) Strengthen the training and management of team leaders and improve their professional quality and professionalism.

Travel agencies must send a full-time tour leader with a tour leader's card for each group to supervise the implementation of the itinerary plan. The team leader shall not accept any kickbacks. If the tour leader causes losses to tourists, the package tour agency shall be responsible for compensation and cancel the qualification of tour leader.

(2) the tourism department should closely cooperate with the industry and commerce, public security departments, conduct a comprehensive inspection of local travel agencies, and deal with illegal outbound tourism,

Units or individuals that engage in tourism business without a license or engage in outbound tourism business beyond the scope shall be resolutely investigated and dealt with and severely cracked down.

For clues about complaints from tourists and reports from the masses, find one and investigate one. Travel agencies and their agencies shall not operate beyond their business scope, organize China citizens to travel to destination countries that have not been approved by the state, sell them below the cost price, accept quotations from overseas reception agencies below the cost, sell self-funded projects, and take tour groups to visit pornographic places. Once violations are found, the "one-time death law" will be implemented to cancel the qualification of outbound tourism business.

(3) Strengthen the supervision of the service quality of tour groups.

The National Tourism Administration has formulated the Model Contract for Outbound Tourism Organizers and Overseas Reception Agencies, the Model Contract for Outbound Tourism, the Notes for Passengers, and the Special Questionnaire for Outbound Tourism Services. All localities should conscientiously implement and check regularly. Local tourism quality supervision offices should play a role, and those who harm the interests of tourists should be ordered to make maximum compensation to tourists and be punished.

(4) The National Tourism Administration should strengthen the supervision and inspection of overseas sectors.

The National Tourism Administration should send an inspection team composed of elite soldiers, go to relevant destination countries and regions from time to time to carry out unannounced visits, and seriously deal with tour groups with obvious problems in overseas sections. It is also necessary to strengthen coordination and cooperation with the destination tourism authorities to solve the problems arising in outbound tourism.

(5) Carry out publicity activities for tourists, educate tourists to establish correct consumption concepts, enhance their awareness of safeguarding their own rights and interests, and conduct civilized tourism.

The National Tourism Administration and the Provincial Tourism Administration should increase the number of tour groups, and at the same time publish the list of outbound tour groups, domestic complaint telephone numbers and overseas travel complaint telephone numbers, and announce the scope of accepting complaints. It is necessary to cooperate with the news media, introduce the precautions for outbound travel, expose typical cases of outbound travel in time, and use the news media to strengthen supervision over the quality of tourism services, so as to guide tourists to become healthy, civilized and mature consumers.

Fourthly, the development prospect of outbound tourism market.

China regards tourism as a key industry to support the local economic take-off, increasing capital investment, increasing tourism projects, holding large-scale promotional activities, improving tourism facilities, strengthening tourism management, and simplifying entry and exit procedures, thus creating more favorable conditions for the development of tourism. Therefore, outbound tourism is more optimistic. The development of China's outbound tourism market has the following characteristics.

1. Outbound tourism will continue to grow at a high speed.

China's outbound tourism market was only formed in recent years. Generally speaking, the development of outbound tourist market is sufficient, the development time is very short, and there is still a lot of room for development. At present, the tourism market in China has great potential. According to the questionnaire survey of consumer behavior and lifestyle yearbook 1999-2000 on leisure activities that people want to do most, traveling abroad ranks the highest.

2. The growth rate of outbound tourism will be higher than that of domestic tourism and inbound tourism.

At present, among the three major tourism industries: domestic tourism, inbound tourism and outbound tourism, inbound tourism has the fastest growth. As a country with a mature tourism industry, outbound tourism occupies a certain market share in the three major tourism structures, but it is less than 1% in China. The state gives priority to supporting tourism. To make China's tourism industry mature, outbound tourism must develop at an alarming rate. In addition, domestic tourism and inbound tourism are saturated. At present, the highest profit of China's tourism industry is outbound tourism, followed by humanistic tourism, and finally domestic tourism. The least market share is outbound tourism.

3. The forms of outbound tourism will be more diversified.

China's outbound tourism is no longer a mode of visiting relatives and sightseeing. Although this traditional tourism product is still very popular, with the change of market demand and consumption behavior, people pay attention to the interest, entertainment and participation of tourism products, and leisure and holiday tourism products, business tourism products and eco-tourism products will be paid more and more attention. A survey of 7 countries in Europe/kloc-0 shows that in recent years, European business tourism accounts for 16% of the outbound tourism market. With China's accession to the WTO, China's outbound tourism forms will probably be the same as those of western countries, mainly business tourism.

In the near future, outbound tourism will mainly be short trips, mainly in Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand. Because Southeast Asia is the earliest tourist destination open to China citizens, people know more about Southeast Asia, and many of them are the first choice for traveling abroad for the first time. And the price is relatively favorable, which is easy to accept by the consumption level in China. In the long run, there will be more and more destinations for outbound tourism. With the formation of a certain scale of outbound tourism in China, the number of outbound tourists has increased rapidly. More and more countries expect the China government to approve their country as a destination for citizens to travel abroad, so as to prosper the country's economy. At present, the countries that express their willingness to become China citizens' outbound destinations have not been realized: North Korea, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Turkey and Iran in Asia, Egypt, South Africa and Cuba in Latin America, Canada, Switzerland, Finland, Greece, France, Germany and Austria in Europe. They are aiming at the growing pockets of China people and are full of confidence in the strength of China's overseas tourism consumption. In the next few years, more countries will sign agreements with China, and China's outbound destinations will gradually increase.

The number of individual travelers leaving the country will greatly increase, and the time and consumption of leaving the country will also increase accordingly. In countries with developed outbound tourism markets, most outbound tourists are individual travelers. The proportion of domestic business trips abroad is still very large, and most of these business trips are in the form of groups. At present, the time and consumption of outbound tourism in China are less than those in other developed countries.

Source: Tourism Management, No.5, 2002 Author: Xiao, Director of Economic Management Department of Jingzhou Normal University.