Residents in small towns are falling in love with overseas vacations. Small cities have big markets.

Cover Source | Visual China

In 2025, it is becoming increasingly convenient for the general public to embark on a spontaneous trip.

Not long ago, on March 17th, Tongcheng Travel opened its "First Flight Assurance" service to all users. Since January this year, the platform launched a test of the first - flight service, specifically providing prompts and guidance services for first - time air travelers. By the 17th of this month, the stress test had been completed. Previously, Tongcheng Travel had successively set up 19 membership service centers at various airports, high - speed railway stations and other places. Members can obtain travel information there, charge their mobile phones, and handle ticket refunds and changes.

The dynamics of travel service enterprises reflect the trends and changes in the domestic tourism market.

The launch of the first - flight service means that non - first - tier city residents who travel infrequently are becoming new valuable users in the eyes of travel enterprises. The improvement of the details of offline service facilities in these cities also shows that "small cities" are becoming more attractive as tourist destinations.

In fact, observing the travel data of several small holidays last year, non - first - tier cities, especially county - level markets, have witnessed significant growth.

On OTA platforms, the tourism bookings in many small cities have increased by more than 100% year - on - year. The popularity of train tickets and air tickets to third - tier and lower - tier cities has also increased by more than 200%.

The travel willingness of residents in these cities is also getting stronger and stronger, becoming a new growth point for travel enterprises.

For example, during the National Day holiday last year, on the Ctrip platform, the average daily outbound travel orders from residents in fourth - and fifth - tier cities increased by 100% and 300% respectively year - on - year. On the Qunar platform, more than 600 residents from third - tier and lower - tier cities and counties took a plane for the first time. Within two months of Tongcheng Travel's test of the first - flight service this year, it has helped more than 20,000 users take their first flight.

A series of data reflect the confidence and potential of the mass tourism market. As tourism penetrates from an entertainment item considered only by those "with money and leisure" to a broader market, the preferences of mass tourism are also shifting from sightseeing and check - in to higher - price - per - customer vacation and leisure.

Young People in Small Cities Travel Abroad: Essential Demand Sinks, Enjoyment Upgrades

During the Two Sessions this year, Pang Yonghui, a deputy to the National People's Congress, put forward the "Proposal on Implementing the 'Spring and Autumn Holidays' System across the Country", suggesting optimizing the vacation structure by adding "spring holidays" and "autumn holidays" to improve the pain points of the "tidal effect" in the holiday economy.

He mentioned that there is an obvious holiday effect in domestic tourism at present. During long holidays such as summer and winter vacations, "May Day" and "National Day", tourism consumption accounts for a high proportion, but problems such as overcrowded scenic spots, soaring hotel prices and traffic congestion occur frequently, weakening the consumption experience.

This reflects the willingness and potential of domestic tourism consumption from the side. Taking the National Day holiday as an example, according to data from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, 765 million domestic trips were made during the holiday, a year - on - year increase of 5.9% on a comparable basis; the total spending of domestic tourists reached 700.817 billion yuan, a year - on - year increase of 6.3% on a comparable basis.

Among them, residents in small cities have become another major group contributing to orders, and their willingness to travel abroad has increased significantly. On many OTA platforms, the growth rate of outbound travel orders from residents in third - tier and lower - tier cities far exceeds that of first - and second - tier cities. During the National Day holiday, the orders from many small cities increased several times, while those from first - tier cities remained basically flat.

The latest financial report recently released by Tongcheng Travel shows that as of the end of 2024, registered users living in non - first - tier cities in China accounted for more than 87% of the total registered users on the platform. In the fourth quarter, about 70% of the new paying users on Tongcheng Travel's WeChat platform were from non - first - tier cities in China.

Combined with its user base in non - first - tier cities, the annual report data of Tongcheng Travel reflects the trends and potential of the mass market to a certain extent.

According to the annual report data, Tongcheng Travel served a cumulative of 1.93 billion person - times in 2024, a year - on - year increase of 9.3%, setting a new historical high again. As of the end of 2024, the average revenue per user on the platform increased by 44% year - on - year, and the average consumption frequency per person increased from 5.5 times in 2019 to 8.1 times in 2024. At the same time, the "other" revenue, including the online vacation business, increased by 35.5% year - on - year, reaching 2.3 billion yuan.

In addition, the platform's international business has grown rapidly, with the volume of international air tickets increasing by more than 130% year - on - year and the volume of international hotel room - nights increasing by more than 110% year - on - year.

This shows that residents in non - first - tier cities had a stronger willingness to travel, a higher frequency of travel, and higher tourism consumption expenditures in the past year, preferring outbound travel and enjoyment - type vacation products.

Earlier, the "Report on the Development of China's Outbound Tourism (2023 - 2024)" predicted that the number of outbound tourists in China exceeded 87 million in 2023 and was expected to reach 130 million in 2024. Non - first - tier cities showed a faster growth rate than first - tier cities.

This not only reflects the trend of the further sinking of outbound tourism consumption to multi - tier cities but also indicates that residents in small cities will contribute new increments to the tourism market.

The transformation of the national consumption upgrade and the consumption structure characteristics of non - first - tier cities jointly catalyze the above - mentioned trend.

On the one hand, from the perspective of the overall consumption data, service consumption is becoming a new consumption growth point.

In 2024, China's service retail sales increased by 6.2% year - on - year, far higher than the growth rate of the total retail sales of social consumer goods. The service retail sales data including transportation, accommodation, catering, etc., released by the National Bureau of Statistics since August 2023, shows that the proportion of service consumption in the per - capita consumption expenditure of national residents has exceeded 40%.

As a major destination of service consumption, tourism naturally shows faster growth. Cheng Chaogong, the chief researcher of Tongcheng Research Institute, previously analyzed that "as an important service consumption item, tourism has changed from elastic consumption in the past to consumption with obvious rigid demand and has become an indispensable part of people's daily lives."

Moreover, referring to the fact that the proportion of per - capita service consumption in the United States is 70%, China's current proportion has just exceeded 40%, and there is still much room for growth in the future.

On the other hand, in terms of the proportion of per - capita consumption expenditure in per - capita disposable income, residents in some second - and third - tier cities have a stronger consumption willingness than those in first - tier cities. Since residents in first - tier cities tend to use their income for investment and financial management, their consumption data is actually not as good as that of residents in small cities in terms of "willingness to spend money".

Who Will Escort the "Novice" Travelers?

As the consumption potential of the mass tourism market is gradually released, some travel enterprises are also tailoring their product designs and services to the preferences of this group and have long completed their online and offline layouts to better meet the differentiated needs.

The travel of residents in non - first - tier cities has several obvious characteristics different from those of "frequent travelers" in first - tier cities: there are many "novices" such as first - time air travelers and first - time outbound travelers. They value both quality and cost - effectiveness. Their departure and arrival transportation is relatively circuitous, but their time is relatively flexible.

For "novice" travelers, Tongcheng Travel launched the first - flight service this year, providing online and offline guidance and prompts for users taking a plane for the first time, such as luggage safety prompts, security check prompts, and setting up offline staff to guide security checks and waiting for flights.

Previously, focusing on the essential needs during the journey, Tongcheng Travel had cooperated with many domestic airports and high - speed railway stations to set up membership service centers, providing services such as flight information inquiry, travel route consultation, and ticket refund and change for travelers.

Currently, Tongcheng Travel has set up 19 membership service centers, and as of the end of 2024, it has served more than 300,000 person - times in total. For the vast number of non - first - tier city residents lacking travel experience, setting up such service centers at offline stations undoubtedly dispels their concerns before traveling, and it is also an effective customer - acquisition channel for travel service enterprises.

Facing the primary round - trip transportation problem during the journey, residents in non - first - tier cities now have more flexible travel options. In the past, the availability of convenient direct transportation routes was an important factor restricting the destination choices of residents in small cities. Especially for outbound travel, most round - trip flights were concentrated at airports in first - tier cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, which greatly affected the efficiency and enthusiasm of residents in small cities when planning their trips.

In response, Tongcheng Travel integrates businesses such as air tickets, train tickets and small - scale transportation, providing travel options such as "air - to - air transfer" and "air - rail combined journey". It allows users to book flights, high - speed trains and subways in a combined way, and solves the one - stop transfer problem between air and ground transportation, providing users with more convenient and cost - effective choices. It also matches the needs of many small - city regional airports that have been diverted by high - speed trains or lack passenger flow.

For example, after the "Air - Rail Connect" service was launched in cooperation with Tongcheng Travel at Chengdu Shuangliu Airport, which was often "complained" about because of its long distance from the urban area, the transfer time was reduced from 4 hours to 90 minutes. After Zhengzhou Xinzheng Airport participated in Tongcheng Travel's "Air - to - Air Transfer" service last year, its annual passenger throughput increased by 12.4% year - on - year. At the same time, Tongcheng Travel's transportation business revenue increased by 19.9% year - on - year, reaching 7.23 billion yuan.

At the same time, in the face of the enjoyment - type needs such as leisure vacations, the supply side of the tourism market has also "put on the shelves" more vacation - type product combinations different from the past. On social media, there are endless travel guides for traveling to a place for a hotel or a camping experience. On OTA platforms, there are more leisure projects such as forest hiking and accommodation sources such as niche homestays.

As the "leisure trend" spreads to all age groups of the general public, Tongcheng Travel has opened travel agency stores in offline communities to further explore more segmented needs and serve groups such as the elderly who are more used to offline communication and "cat owners" and "dog owners" who need to board their pets.

In addition, in the face of the sudden growth of the outbound tourism market in a short period of time, major travel service enterprises are facing both opportunities and challenges.

On the one hand, the proportion of individual travelers has been increasing in the past two years, which means that the group - tour products mainly promoted by travel agencies are inevitably being diverted. On the other hand, the overall outbound tourist group is relatively young, and their travel preferences are more personalized, fragmented and niche. Therefore, travel agencies need to make timely adjustments in route planning, resource allocation and other aspects.

In contrast, OTA platforms are more suitable for individual travelers, but their international layout must go through the process of localization adaptation. Currently, most OTA platforms have customer service teams in key overseas cities to solve the problems of independent travelers during their trips. With the help of its accommodation industry ecological platform, Tongcheng Travel has also expanded several domestic hotel brands to countries such as Japan and Malaysia.

The Era of Mass Tourism: The Platform and Travelers Move Towards Each Other

For the tourism industry, residents in small cities are bringing new increments, and the vast number of tools that have not been fully explored and developed are also a new market. Small - city tourists need characteristic products and services, and potential needs also need to be stimulated by innovative technological means.

Therefore, through the upgrading paths of market players growing in non - first - tier cities, we can also glimpse the process of the gradual improvement of the emerging tourism market and gain insights into the future prospects and directions of the tourism industry.

In January this year, DeepSeek - R1 emerged suddenly. In less than two months, Tongcheng Travel, Alipay's Fliggy and Mafengwo have all connected to the DeepSeek large - scale model, indicating that the application potential of AI in the tourism industry in the future is huge.

In fact, before this, many OTA platforms had collectively increased their efforts in AI application innovation. For example, platforms such as Ctrip and Meituan use AI to accurately push personalized travel routes based on users' browsing footprints and consumption data. In March this year, Tongcheng Travel's tourism - specific AI "Chengxin" completed the technical integration with DeepSeek and launched the "AI + Real - Time Booking" service. On the 24th, "Chengxin AI" was upgraded again, and a new domain name - "DeepTrip.com" - was launched to serve domestic and international tourists, providing China itinerary planning services for tourists speaking 9 languages and helping to develop inbound tourism.

It is understood that the above - mentioned application is directly embedded with the resource information and booking systems of air tickets, hotels and scenic - spot tickets. Users can complete itinerary planning, consumption decision - making and final itinerary booking in one - stop through natural dialogue.

A relevant person in charge of Tongcheng Travel said: "The traditional recommendation system relies on label matching, while 'Chengxin' can deeply understand implicit needs. For example, when a user puts forward the need to travel easily during the May Day holiday with a budget of 5,000 yuan, the system will comprehensively consider the holiday crowd flow prediction, price fluctuation trend and the user's historical preferences to dynamically generate a personalized plan to avoid congestion."

This will undoubtedly transform countless detailed and trivial pre - travel preparations into a travel plan that can be "generated with one click". From the user's perspective, lowering the threshold of travel strategy means increasing the willingness to travel and ensuring a better travel experience.

The technical tools that connect recommendation, decision - making and booking make it more possible to "set off at once". The already - standard intelligent tour guides and intelligent customer service allow tourists to have an efficient and free tour experience when entering various scenic spots and hotels. This shows that technological development has brought changes to mass tourism and reshaped the overall operation mode of the industry.

Previously, the industry predicted that with the development of AI technology, online tourism services would be one of the few definite fields to benefit in the early stage. Now there are specific applications in the industry. Combined with external conditions such as consumption trends and consumption policies - the increasing tendency of the general public towards service consumption, the rise of outbound travel of residents in small cities, the further resumption of international flights, and the policy - makers' encouragement to issue cultural and tourism consumption vouchers - the enthusiasm for travel in the mass market last year is expected to continue throughout this year.

The upcoming Tomb - Sweeping Festival holiday's booking data has verified this in advance.

Data from Spring and Autumn Travel shows that as of March 20th, the number of bookings for the Tomb - Sweeping Festival holiday has nearly doubled year - on - year. As of March 18th, data from the Air Travel Alliance platform also shows that the number of domestic flight ticket bookings has exceeded 1.05 million, an increase of about 12% compared with the same period last year. In addition, the number of inbound and outbound flight ticket bookings has exceeded 480,000, an increase of about 24% compared with the same period last year.

The Tomb - Sweeping Festival holiday continues the popularity of the Spring Festival travel season. The "May Day" holiday is still some time away, and places such as Hangzhou have already announced the arrangements for the connected spring holidays. The factors of consumption willingness, policies and technology jointly stimulate the growth of tourism consumption in the first half of this year, which is almost a foregone conclusion. Platforms that are