First Chinese Tourists To Visit UK Go Sightseeing (Photo : Getty Images)
For rich Chinese, the cost of travel does not matter. That is why 10 vacant slots for a round-the-world package tour costing 1.38 million yuan ($212,520) each were sold out on Monday before noon, just hours after the slots became available.
It did not matter for the affluent tour package buyers that in a matter of 10 years, the price of a similar package was only 500,000 yuan and that the tour sold would still be in 2017. The package, sold by HHtravel, the high-end brand of Ctrip travel agency, would be from Jan. 3 through March 23 and cover 22 nations and regions as the ticket buyer covers 63,223 kilometers, reported China Daily.
What distinguishes the tour package just sold by HHtravel to Chinese millionaires is that these are tailored and well-planned travel packages, a growing trend in the Chinese travel industry. Clients of these type of tours do not travel in large groups, wear the same hat with the logo of the travel agency and take photos of scenic spots as soon as they arrive at destinations, pointed out Zhang Guangrui, honorary director of the Tourism Research Center at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
The maturity of affluent Chinese travel meant itineraries going beyond the usual tourist destinations such as the Statue of Liberty in New York, Eiffel Tower in Paris or Disneyland Resorts. The new destinations include a sojourn to a national wildlife park in Kenya or a cruise along the Amazon River. Also growing in popularity are tours to Antarctica and the Arctic.
According to The Economist, in 2015 Chinese tourists spent $215 billion on outbound travel, a 53 percent increase from 2014 figures, indicating strong consumer spending despite the national economic slowdown. The higher consumption is also reflected in sales of sports utility vehicles in China up 46 percent, box-office sales grew 50 percent and Huawei predicting a 50 percent boost in revenues for 2016.
