Written by: Su Xin
Posted on: June 05, 2018 | 
| 中文
Tourists visit a farm in China
Influenced by the concept of shared economy, the latest trend is for tourists to share travel. By using the internet, big data, cloud computing and other modern technologies, shared travel helps realize tourism resource and information sharing, activates and releases unused resources, and thus brings a fundamental change to tourists’ consumption concept and travel mode. As tourists get more traveling experience, their demands in traveling change and become diversified.
From renting short-term home stay to sharing travel guides, tent and wifi and pooling tour-mates and vehicle, sharing of travel resources and information has become a “necessity” for many people.
Ms. Wang, a media worker in Beijing, travels abroad for holiday twice a year. “I like independent travel, photography, and sharing photos in my friends’ circle. So every time I travel abroad, I would rent a wifi device, a car and a homestay. Now there are a number of convenient online platforms for shared service. My traveling experience is becoming better and better,” she says.
Tourists like Ms. Wang, who accept and enjoy shared travel, have become more mainstream. Against the backdrop of shared economy bringing new driving force into social development, shared travel has come into being and entered a rapid development track.
Zhao Tian, a white collar worker from Taiyuan of Shanxi province, stayed at a local resident’s home in Shuanglang Ancient Town in Yunnan. “I made a last-minute decision to travel to Yunnan, so when I tried to arrange my accommodation, I found that hotels and homestays at reasonable price were all full,” she says. Thanks to a friend’s recommendation, Tian looked for house owners who would like to receive guests through the couchsurfing website, and finally succeeded in finding lodging, before setting out for the tour.
To her surprise, “couchsurfing” brought her an unprecedented traveling experience. “I pushed open the window and Erhai Lake was just outside. The scenery was so amazing that I didn’t want to leave,” says Zhao. The hospitable and friendly house owner offered her many travel suggestions only known to the locals, and told her the Shuanglang people’s stories, passed down through the ages.
In an era of mobile internet, integration of shared economy and tourism offers people more choices to travel. By sharing accommodation, tourists not only get a place to stay or a view to enjoy, but also a way to exchange two different life experiences.
Yan Yongle in Loulan Kurle of Xinjiang has been a “couch owner” for six years. Recently, he met a motorcade of backpackers from Beijing, Hebei, Shanxi and Guangzhou, and traveled with them on a motorbike.
Liu Yang, a girl from Shanxi, studied in the UK three years ago. During her trip around Europe, she became a couchsurfer more than 20 times. “It was the kind and sincere hosts who made me go from feeling anxious to feeling at ease,” says Liu. The deepest impression was left by an old German lady, who taught the girl how to make pottery and took her to see the stars. Today, they still keep in touch by emails, and remain good friends despite of a difference in age. After coming back to China, Liu also registered herself as a “couch owner” to welcome couchsurfers from around the world. “I will treat every couchsurfer as my friend,” she says. Through such exchanges and company, Liu has made many special friends.
For Zhou Tong, co-founder of qyer.com, travel meant tourists enjoying the scenery from the side, being separated from the local culture by an invisible fence, although the distance seems small. Now shared travel represents the process of integration and exchange between different cultures.
The concept of sharing in travel is enabling tourists to become locals at their destination. A foreign tourist once commented on China’s bicycle sharing, “When I ride a shared bicycle in Beijing’s hutong, I feel like I am from Beijing.” A survey by China Tourism Academy also shows that 83% of Airbnb lodgers hope to live like the locals in their travels.
Translated by Xu Donglin
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