Company eyes booming personalized travel tours in China

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In 2016, almost 600 million trips were taken by Chinese traveling abroad for vacation. People are no longer choosing to follow the conventional tour groups. Instead, more and more travelers are opting for a customized itinerary.

October 1 marked the start of China's annual National Day holiday, the "Golden Week," which is a seven-day public holiday to celebrate the founding of the People's Republic of China.

During this festive period, millions travel domestically and internationally to take advantage of the long break.

Zhang Lei on a safari trip. /CGTN Photo

"There are three kinds of travelers: one where they have no idea where they want to go, what they want to do; the second kind usually has a vague idea of the regional location or at least a vibe or temperature of the preferred location and the third kind with very clear ideas and explicit demands," said Zhang Lei, General Manager of Polar & Adventures at Caissa.

He emphasized that many people have the misconception that customized travel plans are for the rich. But that’s not true, the company tries to cater to each customer’s demands and adjust the price range accordingly.

Chinese visitors are quite familiar with travel groups now, but personalized traveling tours are still a relatively new concept.

Handout photo from Caissa

The demographic varies, but the service is attracting more people who have already traveled abroad. Zhang said that many are with young children or elders who may need special care. But there are also customers who have more particular demands, such as requesting a certain license plate for the chauffeur due to superstitions or a certain brand of spring water.

The premise is that this is a new way of traveling, but people shouldn’t just take it as a new service. Zhang said most of these services are through connections they have built with service providers over the years when booking general tours, private tours, etc.

The network is vast and the company has many resources to satisfy almost all the needs.

Zhang Lei with a customer. /CGTN Photo

With a staggering 700 million trips expected to be taken by Chinese tourists this National Day holiday, the destinations, range and theme could well vary. Zhang said anything legal is possible these days, whether it is driving a tank in Russia or bird watching in Argentina; skiing in Canada or parachuting in Thailand. You name it and all will be taken good care of.