Join a 50,000 yuan pet travel group, charter a plane for an overseas trip, how much profit can be made in the cute pet business?

At present, pet travel groups taking their "fur babies" on outings are becoming a new way of leisure.

If categorized by distance, pet travel groups include short trips lasting one day, local trips lasting two to three days, longer trips of around ten days, and international trips. If categorized by transportation, it includes options such as buses, self-driving, airplanes, and ferries.

Transportation methods, destinations, and duration all influence the pricing. Taking the 8-day cross-border trip from Shanghai to Bangkok and Pattaya recently released by the organization LovePetTravel as an example, the fees include animal quarantine procedures for entry and exit, airfare, and group expenses (hotel, 7 meals, photography, insurance, service charges). With the economy class airfare taken into account, the cost for two persons and one dog amounts to nearly 50,000 RMB.

"Fees are probably more than double the price of human-only tour groups," a travel route planner informed Tech Planet.

Meanwhile, the high prices of pet travel groups are not only reflected in long-distance and international trips but also in near suburban day trips and short trips. For example, the cost of bringing a dog on the hike published by Beijing Hikers is 100 yuan higher compared to joining without a dog.

However, the prices do not seem to deter the enthusiasm of pet owners. A consumer who joins pet travel groups almost every month told Tech Planet, "Many popular activities require reservation because pet-friendly travel groups generally have far fewer seats available than human travel groups."

In the trend of increasingly refined pet raising, pet travel groups are becoming a growing niche in the tourism industry. Since the establishment of organizations like LovePetTravel and TakePetTraveler in 2016, a large number of individual entrepreneurs have entered this field.

Businesses sprung from pet ownership struggle to expand beyond their region.

Sun Yue, who lives in Shanghai and owns a Shiba Inu, provided three reasons for joining pet travel groups – no car, dislike for planning, enjoyment of social interaction, and pet ownership. These reasons are the key points that entrepreneurs who enter the pet travel group sector are trying to address.

An insider, Qiqi, shared with Tech Planet that she started a pet travel group because she has a dog herself. Being a dog owner who loves the outdoors and travel, she discovered various challenges with traveling with pets, such as accommodation restrictions, entrance limitations at tourist sites, and transportation issues without a car. Under these circumstances, she conceived the idea of operating a pet travel group.

Wang Hao, founder of the pet travel agency TakePetTraveler in Beijing and Tianjin, mentioned that the initiative to start this business was his own experience as a dog owner. "I used to work in finance, but later entered this industry by chance due to raising pets."

Understanding the needs of pet owners due to being a pet owner themselves is the primary motivation behind the establishment of most pet travel agencies in the market. After entering the market, entrepreneurs will discover that this business is challenging and may be impossible to expand across regions.

In regions around Beijing and Tianjin, there are organizations like TakePetTraveler, BringYourDogHiking, and GiftYouADog. In the Yangtze River Delta region, there are LovePetTravel, Wong Companion Pet Travel, and Playmate, while in Sichuan and Chongqing, there are Pet Playmate, Cute Paw, Many Odd Cats, and Wow Pet, among others.

Qiqi told Tech Planet that unlike the freedom of destinations for human travel groups, pet travel groups are limited to the regions depending on the dog ownership policies and restrictions. "I live in Shanghai, so I would definitely choose a travel group departing from Shanghai. Sometimes, even though I like the routes or itineraries of other groups, due to the limitations of pet travel, I would not sign up for groups in other locations," said Sun Yue.

Therefore, despite the higher average spending per customer in pet travel groups compared to human travel groups, limited by geographic restrictions, the scale of this business is often limited.

Previously, the co-founder "V Ba" of LovePetTravel said in an interview that after operating for fourteen years, the revenue of LovePetTravel remains around 20 million RMB, and the average spending per active customer is between 30,000 to 50,000 RMB.

Several industry insiders informed Tech Planet that LovePetTravel is one of the long-standing organizations in the industry, with earnings near the top of the pyramid. However, according to "V Ba," LovePetTravel has attempted to start groups in Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Tianjin, Chengdu, and other places beyond the Yangtze River Delta region but has struggled to succeed in those markets.

Another entrepreneur who started pet travel business post-pandemic stated that this is not a sector that will grow annually. "It presents challenges in every aspect, from attracting fans to constantly exploring new routes and maintaining customer loyalty."

Survival rule: Form groups and increase repeat customers

The trips that Sun Yue joins are mostly hiking or short local trips in the Yangtze River Delta region, with prices around 300 RMB. In the pet travel groups she joined, new itineraries are launched almost every week.

In terms of pricing, day trips fall under the low-end products of pet travel groups, costing below 500 RMB. Mid-range products mostly consist of trips lasting three days or less, priced below 3,000 RMB. As for high-end long-distance products, depending on the transportation method, the price range is wider, from around 20,000 RMB for bus trips to as high as 50,000 RMB for chartered flights.

Wang Hao entered this track in 2016 and has always focused on pet travel, with bus travel as the main line, and has developed a series of routes suitable for various pet owners. He said, "Usually the main focus is on the surrounding areas, with trips lasting 1-5 days, which is more suitable for pet owners who are working. There are 6 long-distance trips each year, with routes planned according to the season and scenery, ranging from 6 to 20 days, which is more suitable for pet owners with more free time."

An entrepreneur in the pet travel industry once had the idea of chartering flights with a partner, but it did not materialize due to changes in airline schedules. He said, "For the same destination, the price of charter flights is tens of times that of a bus." This means that before forming a group, entrepreneurs have to advance tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands, of funds at the transportation level alone.

Therefore, in pet travel, opening a charter flight requires a large investment of financial, material, and human resources, and if the occupancy rate is not guaranteed, the losses will be difficult to estimate.

The above-mentioned industry insider told Tech Planet that previously, some entrepreneurs had organized pet charter tours, but due to insufficient group size and passive participation, they lost nearly 300,000 yuan.

Compared to charter flights, products centered around buses as the core transportation can reduce operating costs to a certain extent and reduce potential risks.

Qiqi told Tech Planet that most of her products are routes around Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shanghai, with a minimum group standard of 15 pet families. However, from an income perspective, this is just a non-loss bottom line. "Other factors depend on the price range of bus tickets during the event and labor costs."

Another uncontrollable factor is group withdrawals. After setting up the event link, participating families will sign up and make payments, but in many pet travel groups, the refundable time is often later than the group formation time. "If the number of sign-ups exceeds the group formation bottom line, we will advance payment for hotel and car rental deposits." Once someone chooses to withdraw from the group after it has formed but before the refundable time, the tour will incur losses.

In the nearly two years of entrepreneurship, Qiqi had an experience where nearly half of the families chose to withdraw due to weather issues after the group was formed, and she ultimately did not form the group due to concerns about the weather, resulting in the loss of the advance deposit.

However, an industry newcomer in the pet travel track told Tech Planet that sometimes, even if there is a loss, they will choose to form the group in order to retain users and achieve repeat purchases.

He said that pet owners are a niche group, and those who specifically plan pet travel are an even smaller group. Only by capturing these people can they survive, "So, increasing repeat purchase rates is very important."

Behind the increasingly crowded track, low prices and service are not both achievable.

In 2016, organizing pet travel groups was a niche track. Arvin's pet travel company, founded in 2016, has been in operation for nearly 9 years. With the development of the pet economy, he found that more and more entrepreneurs have entered this track. "Some focus on hiking, some focus on leisure trips around the area, and this niche track has been further subdivided."

In Wang Hao's plan, the bus is the core, and products are launched around this mode of transportation. According to the Yunnan itinerary he released in January this year, the 17-day trip, with a price of 10,600 yuan per person and an optional 600 yuan for a dog seat, includes accommodation, transportation, breakfast, insurance, scenic area tickets, and various value-added services provided by the tour guide, such as photos and videos to record the trip, with accommodation mainly being local characteristic accommodations or hotels.

Wang Hao told Tech Planet, "This is a relatively acceptable price for a pure pet travel group in the market."

In fact, "seeking a balance between price and service" has always been a common challenge for pet travel group organizations.

The above-mentioned industry insider told Tech Planet that unlike human travel groups, pet travel groups exclude shopping activities, and costs have also increased due to hotel cleaning fees, photographer fees, and transportation load rates.

In pet travel groups, having a photographer take pictures throughout the trip seems to have become a common practice. A consumer told Tech Planet that their standard for choosing a group is based on the travel photos taken by the group, "Some groups take photos like a photo shoot, but some groups' photos taken during the trip are not even enough for a single WeChat moment."

The style of the tour guide is also a core factor affecting consumer repeat purchases. Sun Yue told Tech Planet that she has participated in some groups where the tour guide is mainly silent and does not provide further introductions or interactions after leading the users to the destination.

The comfort of transportation is also a key consideration for consumers when choosing a travel group. Before joining a group, Sun Yue will specifically select trips where "pets have seats." "Some organizations, in order to lower transportation costs, will recruit users as much as possible and will not provide separate seats for pets. Sometimes, the bus will be full of people, and the pets will need to be carried by their owners throughout the journey, which is very tiring."

According to the "2023 China Pet Content Value Research White Paper" released by iResearch, the domestic pet consumption market is expected to reach approximately 392.4 billion yuan by 2023. Behind this massive data, the consumption demand of millions of "pet owners" is upgrading, and pet travel groups as a niche track are on the rise. However, under this wave of enthusiasm, more and more entrepreneurs entering this field will face tests.

Wang Hao, who has been in the pet travel group business for 9 years, no longer aims to organize more groups this year, but to build a reputation through service. In his view, this is the key to the long-term success of pet travel groups.

(Note: All names in the article are pseudonyms.)