The car rental industry is reshaping, and three new features have emerged in the travel market

It can be said that 2023 is the new opening year of the "normal control of the epidemic". According to the data of relevant research institutions, based on the calculation of inter-provincial population flow, local bus and subway travel and catering service consumption, China's economic recovery in 2023 has become a foregone conclusion. As the haze of the epidemic has dissipated, service consumption, represented by tourism, catering and entertainment, has also taken the lead in recovering.

For example, from the "line" of "food, clothing, housing and transportation", residents around the Spring Festival travel intention is extremely strong, and the off-season is not weak for the first time after the festival. Ehi car Rental, the industry's leading brand, said that 2023 Spring Festival orders increased by nearly 40% compared with last year, and the Spring Festival in 2021 was 50%, and the orders after the holiday repeatedly hit a record high. According to data from Ctrip, since the Spring Festival, the number of domestic car rental orders on the platform has increased by 192% compared with the same period after the holiday in 2019. According to the analysis of Ehi Travel Research Institute, the trend of travel upgrading after the epidemic is obvious, and privacy, security and flexibility have become the primary considerations for people to travel.

Market hot car rental self-driving industry ushered in new opportunities

Cultural tourism market is one of the fastest growing industries since February 2023, by the promulgation of the "New Ten", the first wave of the virus impact subsided, the Spring Festival consumer market awakening and other factors superimposed, domestic residents travel ushered in a large increase. According to the data of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, 308 million domestic trips were made during the Spring Festival holiday in 2023, and domestic tourism revenue reached 375.843 billion yuan, both the highest values since the epidemic, recovering to 88.6% and 73.1% respectively before the epidemic.

Looking at the enterprise data level, Ehi Car Rental announced that its revenue and orders during the Spring Festival in 2023 had recovered to 120% of that in 2019, which can be said that the recovery of the car rental self-driving industry is far ahead of the entire large cultural travel sector. And for the first time after the Spring Festival this year, the situation of "off-season is not light" indicates that the domestic car rental industry and the daily life of the public are forming a closer "combination", the trend of consumption upgrading and travel upgrading is more obvious, and the service force has become the most concerned factor for consumers.

It is this situation that constitutes a new opportunity for the car travel market, which may continue throughout 2023. Industry research and analysis, with the domestic social and economic recovery is showing a "V" rebound, supplemented by the increase in demand for rental car self-driving services, in the future under a series of favorable policies to upgrade consumption, China's rental car self-driving market compound annual growth rate is expected to be much higher than the pre-epidemic forecast of 13%.

Market changes, travel upgrades to promote consumption of three new features

It is true that the epidemic has changed the behavior of the masses. As mentioned above, the reason why the demand for car rental self-driving services has risen is not just "retaliatory consumption". More importantly, the epidemic is changing some of the people's consumption habits. For example, in terms of travel, Chinese people are not only increasingly inclined to the quality and experience of travel, but also have higher requirements for privacy, safety and flexibility, and self-driving travel is the best solution to meet the current public travel needs.

Data from Ehi Travel Research Institute show that users of all ages have increased by more than 30% after February, reflecting the trend of travel upgrading under the normal control of the epidemic. Nowadays, China's car drivers have been close to 500 million and continue to grow, the transportation of aviation, high-speed rail network is also increasing, people in the landing to solve the last 10 kilometers of travel problems, based on the private, safe, flexible travel three factors, directly stationed in the airport and high-speed rail station seamless traffic rental self-driving service, become the best solution.

After the convenience attribute is built, it can better attract the public to rent a car. Overall, from the perspective of the consumption recovery of the rental car market, under the normal control of the epidemic, consumers pay more attention to the privacy, safety, flexibility of travel, and pay more attention to the quality of travel.

Market pattern, consumers identify the national direct and off-site car

Mr. Wang is an executive of a foreign enterprise in Guangzhou, after the Spring Festival, they chose a family of three to travel to the wrong peak, starting from Guangzhou to rent a car and drive to Fangchenggang in Guangxi, which lasted 9 days. When choosing a car rental company, he did not hesitate to choose Ehi car rental, because at present, only eHI in China are all direct outlets, and there is no additional charge for returning the car. "Compared with several other platforms that can return cars from other places, EHi is more than 3,000 yuan cheaper, the cost is too high, in the past, many cities have also used eHi services, direct brand his national service is standardized, more reassuring." Mr. Wang said.