The definition of customized tourism presents a trend of contention among a hundred schools of thought. Some researchers have proposed that customized tourism is a high-end tourism mode dominated by tourists. According to the individual needs of tourists,seamstress measuring tape, tourism enterprises design and produce tourism products or services that meet the needs of tourists. Some researchers hold a similar view that customized tourism is designed and provided by professional tourism consultants according to tourists’specific travel wishes, from the aspects of food, housing, transportation, travel, shopping and entertainment, to provide high-end tourism products or services that fully meet the individual needs of tourists. Some researchers also believe that customized tourism is a kind of tourism mode in which tourism enterprises arrange various elements of tourism itineraries according to the needs of tourists, and let tourists participate in the design process of tourism products or services, so as to satisfy tourists’individualized pursuit of tourism experience and ultimately realize tourism value. Customized tourism mode weakens or removes intermediaries, which can provide more personalized products or services for tourists. The above definition of customized tourism has something in common. One is that customized tourism is a form of tourism centered on tourists, and the other is that it emphasizes the participation of tourists. In terms of development, it is the primary feature of customized tourism to emphasize tourists and their personalized needs as the center. In the vision of customized tourism enterprises, every tourist is a subdivided target market. Tourism enterprises are committed to meeting the personalized needs of tourists and regard the needs of tourists as the first priority; Emphasizing the participation of tourists is the continuation of taking tourists as the center, and also further highlights the characteristics of customized tourism different from traditional tourism from the perspective of tourists, that is, the participation of tourists in customized tourism is far greater than that in traditional tourism, and tourists participate in every important link in the overall design process of tourism products or services. When defining customized tourism, most other researchers also emphasize the communication between tourism enterprises and tourists, respect the individual needs of tourists, and pay attention to the participation of tourists in tourism products or services, but some focus on modular design or production, some pay more attention to the budget of tourists, and some highlight the products or experiences around tourism. Customized tourism for individuals (families) takes individuals (families) as units to appeal to tourism enterprises, and tourism enterprises give professional customized tourism programs one-to-one. Online customized tourism is divided into B2B, B2C, C2C and other forms according to its different operation modes (see Table 1). Online customized tourism has become a new growth point of customized tourism, tailor measure tape ,bespoken tape measure, and its proportion in the whole customized tourism business is gradually increasing. According to the different service groups, it can be divided into high-end customized tourism and mass customized tourism. High-end customized tourism serves the needs of high-income groups with its unique tourism resources. The profit margin of a single order is relatively high, but the production capacity is relatively low; Because of the lack of superior resources, mass customized tourism generally integrates existing tourism resources, provides relevant customized tourism products or services for low-income groups, and achieves profits by increasing the number of orders (see Table 2). According to the degree of participation of tourists, customized tourism can be divided into three types: demand-side customization, balanced customization and supply-side customization (see Table 3). Demand-side customization is mainly dominated by the demand-side, that is, tourists. Tourists put forward product or service design requirements and deeply participate in them. The final product or service completely or mostly meets the individual needs of tourists. In this type, tourists have the highest degree of participation; Under the type of balanced customization, although tourists have personalized needs, their goals are not clear enough, and it is difficult for tourists to make decisions on the choice of products or services, which requires both suppliers and demanders, that is, customized tourism enterprises and tourists, to communicate many times, and on this basis, customized tourism enterprises give a variety of flexible customization schemes to guide tourists. In this type, tourists have a higher degree of participation; in the supplier type, tourism enterprises adjust and reconstruct the standardized products according to the tourists’ unclear personalized requirements, and then submit them to the tourists for selection, while in this type, tourists have a lower degree of participation. The types of customized tours can also be subdivided into parent-child customized tours, family customized tours, couples customized tours according to different groups and themes, or into North American tours, European tours and East Asian tours according to different regions. In short, customized tourism can be based on different standards, from different perspectives, subdivided into a variety of different types or forms, which is an important manifestation of customized tourism centered on tourists. Because tourists’personalized needs vary greatly, and they are at different levels or belong to different fields, the division of customized tourism products or services is relatively flexible. Customized tourism enterprises can create different types of products or services according to their own business characteristics and business focus to meet the diverse and personalized needs of tourists. II. Development Status of Customized Tourism in China (1) Several Misunderstandings about Customized Tourism 1. Customized tourism equals high-end tourism Many tourists think that customized tourism is a kind of high-end tourism, which is equivalent to luxury tourism and luxury tourism. Admittedly, in the early stage of the development of customized tourism in China, the form of customized tourism is mainly high-end customization, but with the continuous development of economy and society, customized tourism has shown a variety of forms of development, high-end customization still exists, but it is not the only form. Therefore, the “high-end” price presented by high-end customization should not be magnified infinitely, and the high-end here should be understood as relatively high-end. In fact, the high-end of customized tourism should be more reflected in the fact that it is centered on the needs of travelers, reflecting the importance of tourists. Tourists have more initiative and choice in tourism products or services. Compared with the role of tourists in traditional tourism, they are in a higher position, play a greater role and get better experience. This is the real embodiment of the high-end side of customized tourism. Moreover, the price of customized tourism products or services has dropped dramatically compared with the early stage of development, and the price gap between them and traditional tourism products or services is gradually narrowing, coupled with the improvement of people’s income level and the expansion of tourism consumption expenditure, all of which make customized tourism popular and not exclusive. It is possible to become a mass tourism product or service that everyone can participate in. 2. Customized tourism can not achieve scale. Some operators of customized tourism enterprises believe that customized tourism is difficult to design or produce in batches because of its emphasis on individualization and difference, which makes customized tourism enterprises unable to achieve large-scale operation. In fact, with the continuous application of new technologies such as the Internet, customized tourism enterprises are more convenient in collecting and analyzing various data such as tourist information. Enterprises have established a powerful database, which can be used to quickly generate personalized tourism products or services according to the needs of tourists. The key and difficult point to achieve scale is how to firmly grasp the consumption demand of tourists and increase their return rate, which is also an important issue to enhance the profits of customized tourism enterprises. 3. Customized travel is equivalent to “Fully Customized” Many tourists think that the products or services of customized tourism must meet their own needs and be unique, which is totally different from the products or services customized by other tourists. It should be admitted that the products or services provided by customized tourism enterprises to tourists are personalized and unique, but if customized tourism enterprises do not have standardized or modular product or service material reserves, then each customization will cost a lot of manpower and material resources, and pay high development costs, which is not in line with the business rules and profit models of customized tourism enterprises. Therefore, the current customized tourism must be a combination of standardization and personalization, and the personalized needs of tourists can be changed or adjusted through standardized modules to form personalized products or services that meet the needs of tourists. (2) The Development Status of Customized Tourism in China — — Taking Online Customized Tourism as an Example At present, online customized tourism has become an important new force in China’s customized tourism, representing the future development direction of customized tourism. Compared with other types of customized tourism, the data of online customized tourism is easier to obtain and more typical, which can reflect the current situation of the development of customized tourism in China. According to Erie Consulting Research, the total scale of China’s customized tourism market in 2017 was 86.5 billion yuan, of which the scale of online customized tourism transactions reached 6.8 billion yuan, with an online rate of 7.9% (see figure 1). From the existing transaction scale and online rate, China’s online customized tourism is still in the early stage of development, and there is still much room for development in terms of products or service forms. Considering the continuous innovation of the future business model of online customized tourism, the gradual expansion of the groups covered and the trend of integration between online and offline data, this report believes that the transaction scale of customized tourism in China will continue to grow substantially, and the online rate will continue to rise. 1. The development status of customized tourism in B2C mode. As far as the current development trend is concerned, the self-operated B2C mode can effectively control the quality of products and services, and provide a good space for the career development of customizers, which is conducive to the long-term development of customized tourism enterprises, but it is difficult to achieve rapid and large-scale development because of its relatively high offline labor costs; Relatively speaking, the platform B2C model is more difficult to control the quality of products and services, but it can easily achieve scale expansion. 2. The development status of customized tourism in B2B mode. With the increasingly fierce competition in the client market, customized tourism enterprises will expand their business to the same industry enterprises, and this model is developing rapidly. However, there are still many difficulties in the promotion of customized tourism distribution platform, and the establishment and unification of industry standards still need to be explored. 3. The development status of customized tourism in C2C mode. Due to the uneven level of customization ability of a considerable number of individual customizers or tourists, and the lack of systematic support for tourists’related services, the secondary consumption rate of C2C mode customized tourism is relatively low. It can be seen that at present, China’s customized tourism is in a period of rapid development, but the rapid development does not mean that the customized tourism market has matured, but that customized tourism is entering a fast development channel, it will still encounter some bottlenecks and uncertainties in its development, and the customized tourism market is still facing many problems in the process of development. For example, many tourists still do not know enough about the mode of customized tourism, and the proportion of customized tourism enterprises in the whole tourism industry is relatively low, so the development space of customized tourism in China is huge. To be continued Author: Sun Pengyi, Doctor of Management,keychain tape measure, Visiting Scholar, Tourism Research Center, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Editor-in-Chief: Song Rui Return to Sohu to see more Responsible Editor:. tape-measure.com
Analysis and Prospect of China’s Customized
