Immersive, transformative travel in demand for new-gen Chinese

As China’s outbound travel market enters a new phase of development, increasingly savvy Chinese travellers are eschewing cookie-cutter package tours for customised, personalised experiences during their holidays.

“Many (Chinese) have already been to the major ‘pit stops’ like New York, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and California. Now, tour operators tell us they want to see the ‘real’ America, and our region is considered a new product,” said Lee Anthony McCarrick, executive director of Great Lakes USA.

“We have the big-city experience with Minnesota and Chicago, but the majority of our region is small towns and the great outdoors,” he said. “The Chinese have been the number one overseas traveller market in the Great Lakes region.”

Joy Cao, general manager of marketing division, Guangzhou Dista International Travel Service, has also begun marketing tours anchored on American culture and nature, such as discovering Chicago’s jazz and blues scene, exploring the Yosemite National Park and Napa Wine Valley, as well as visiting the small towns surrounding Yellowstone National Park.

In Europe, Tuscany-based DaVinci Travels recently established a partnership with Chinese tour company Feiyang Italy to bring authentic Italian experiences to the Chinese market.

“We have mainly worked with Americans and Europeans, but now we would like to focus on the Chinese market,” said Beatrice di Tomizio, senior tour organiser and account manager for incoming department of Italia-Experience, the new company formed under the partnership.

She added: “We have cooking classes and wine tasting sessions, and for smaller groups, we can arrange stays in real Italian houses to give them an original and special taste of Italy.”

Elsewhere in Egypt, Chinese travellers are also forgoing direct train and ferry connections in favour of traversing the country on four-wheeled self-drives, noted Castle Tours’ tourism manager Ahmed Abdul Mounem.

This new breed of Chinese traveller seeking transformative experiences hence represents a lucrative opportunity for the industry, driving the development of “experiential products” among tour operators, remarked Wang Xinjun, CEO, Ivy Alliance.

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