Agents set to raise the bar for seasoned outbound travelers

Prospective tourists check out information on travel to the United States at the US pavilion during the China International Travel Mart 2014 in November in Shanghai.[Provided to China Daily]

Custom-designed packages become the norm due to growing demand

Travel agencies and tourism service providers are having to raise the bar in developing some more sophisticated products and packages for China's growing number of seasoned travelers.

Li Mengran, public relations specialist at Beijing UTour International, says it has become a lot more challenging to satisfy repeat customers who have become accustomed to visiting countries, such as the United States, for instance.

"You have to develop much more innovative products with in-depth programs and themes that really capture their imagination" says Li, adding that add-on, tailormade services such as car rental are becoming more the norm these days, than the exception.

Hotels.com, a leading online accommodation booking website, says it is now providing a lot more specific and unusual travel service requests.

For example, in partnership with Taipei City Hall, they can include local MRT passes in the price of some packages, to allow mainland visitors to enjoy the convenience of exploring the city using the underground.

And in South Korea, driven by the insatiable demand for Korean pop, Hotels.com is promoting a special deal in which visitors can tour popular romantic television drama sets or music studios.

May Wei, senior director of international business at car rental giant Hertz, says the introduction of extended visas for Chinese visitors to various countries including the US and Japan, has prompted a huge rise in bookings.

"We have definitely seen a surge in Chinese visitors to the United States," according to Wei, helped along particularly by a growing interest in driving holidays by the more adventurous Chinese travelers looking to book a self-drive holiday.

"More people are certainly enjoying the freedom of having their own wheels on holiday," says Wei, "and this type of holiday is becoming a completely new type of travel lifestyle for many."

With 1,400 airports across the US, she says that customers can go beyond the key cities with confidence using multilingual GPS systems. The company also offers a 24-hour emergency roadside assistance services, in Chinese.

Alex Wang, chief operating officer at Zanadu.cn, an online service for luxury and boutique hotels, says Chinese customers looking to shop overseas have also developed more mature interests, including their demands on not only where to stay, but where to dine.

"We are seeing more demand for unique tour experiences by Chinese travelers," says Wang, adding his company provides tailormade shopping routes, with hotel accommodation along the way.

FENG XIUXIA/CHINA DAILY