Specific, tailor-made itineraries are rapidly gaining traction among China’s luxury travellers, with the demography becoming better travelled, more globally-oriented, and more plugged-in to the gamut of products available and motivated by more complex needs, says TTG Asia.

According to Hurun’s The Chinese Luxury Traveller 2017 report, the proportion of wealthy Chinese choosing standard packages fell from 37 percent in 2015 to 26 percent in 2016, with more than half showing preference for fine-tuned packages (27 percent) or fully-customisable packages (23 percent).

“A lot of companies previously were about groups and having charters and fixed departures, which (continues) to happen in the luxury segment. But now the ‘real high-end’ (segment) looks for tailor-made experiences, niche destinations and properties with few Chinese guests,” the report quotes Sparkle Tour assistant GM Aymeric Naudin as saying.
Wealthy travellers now have desires more sophisticated than “spending money and being flashy”, he says. “They want to learn on their travels and live like a local, and are better able to realise these goals, being “less shy to interact with locals”.

Even Ctrip, China’s largest OTA, now provides on-request itineraries to “high-end clients” via its luxury brand HHTravel. “Clients often turn to us with requests for something unique and we connect them to an ‘experience guide’ who will design an itinerary for them,” says the company’s Luigi Deng.