China Group Travel
By Marian Goldberg
What do travel agents and their clients look for in Group travel to China?
“Travel agents use particular group tour operators based upon their clients’ comfort level,” says Theresa Lock, owner of Air Sea Travel in Upland California. Theresa is a US citizen of Chinese origin, born in Shanghai and raised in Hong Kong. She speaks three different Chinese dialects, which makes taking groups a little easier for her than for most agents. She herself takes small groups to different areas of China “periodically, mainly my existing clients who are well traveled,” she explains. She says she “loves going to China because you get a lot of bang for your buck. The service level is high, the hotels are beautiful, and the shopping is great!”
“Most clients are not knowledgeable about China when they come to me to talk about trips, and when it comes to hotels and tour operators, ‘you get what you pay for,’” Theresa emphasizes. The hotel may look similar, but “there is a different kind of ‘5 star’ hotel system in China.” The service level may be different, and the location may be far away from the center of town. “Travel agents must really understand their clients’ needs. There are tours for different pocketbooks and different personal needs. Travel agents need to ‘read between the lines’ and make sure the clients will get what they want out of the trip. I do a lot of custom tours, especially if the group includes children, elderly and multi-generations, so that they will all feel more comfortable. If the client wants a pre-packaged tour and there are kids involved, I recommend a tour that caters specifically to families, so the kids don’t get bored. Most kids are not into museums! They are happy if they can run around or climb the Great Wall.”
Jean Holcomb, CTC, MCC, President, Viking Travel (www.vikingtravel.com), Chapel Hill, NC is not an expert on China, but she notes that with good package tours, that’s not necessary. As she puts it, “We can’t be “experts” in everything, but with 30+ years of experience, we do know a lot about a lot of destinations.” The first step for the travel agent is always is to qualify the client. Says Jean, “I make sure I am knowledgeable about the client’s expectations–be it moderate to upscale. Some want the ‘extras’ that are provided by a Tauck World Discovery experience, and are willing to pay for it. The non-Tauck client may be a repeat on Globus, or find the itinerary they are looking for on Pacific Delight Tours, or even General Tours’ small group journeys. Matching the client to the product is key.”
Diana Schneider President of New York City travel agency Snug Harbour Tours (www.snugharbourtours.com) looks for the following characteristics when trying out a new group tour operator: knowledge, detail, follow-through, a feeling that they will be there to support her, good and timely email responses, and referrals from other respected people (agents or otherwise) who have used the operator’s services.
Of Interest to China-bound Group Travelers
Peter Distefano, President of Tour & Travel Organizers, LTD (www.tour-travel-organizers.com) in Clayton, CA is a certified travel specialist for select countries in Eastern Europe and Asia, including China. He says that “typically, most clients want to begin their trips from Beijing.” Then he usually recommends a “Yangtze River cruise and Xian.“ He said that Tibet is growing in popularity too. Sites in Beijing that clients usually want to see and that he recommends include: The Great Wall, Summer Palace, Olympic Village, Tiananmen Square, and the Temple of Heaven. In Xian, it’s the Terra Cotta Warriors. In and around Shanghai, he emphasizes the Bund and Nanjing Road and the Grand Canal in Suzhou, and in Lhasa Tibet the not-to-miss sites are Jorkhang Temple, Potala Palace, and Barkhor Street.
Another agent, Bonnie Braga of Bonnie Braga Travel Consulting (www.chinalife.com/btc/) in Miami, says that about 30% of her China clients are well prepared and know what they want, but the rest do not. After Beijing, Shanghai, and Xian she recommends Guilin, Yangtze River Cruising, Lijiang (world heritage) and Chengdu (pandas) before Tibet. For second timers she recommends a Silk Road Tour. In terms of special interest tours, Bonnie recommends Jade experiences in Xian or Kunming, Pearls in Beijing–especially at the Hongqiao Pearl Market, silks and textiles in Suzhou or Shanghai , and rice plantations in Longshen in Guilin. For performing arts she looks for tours that include one or more of the following: a concert at the National Theater in Beijing, the ERA acrobatics show in Shanghai, the Tang Dynasty show in Xian, the Musical Modern Chinese Art Performance in Kunming, a Kung Fu show in Beijing.
Peter Distefano said he usually he puts together one or two Chinese medicine tours annually. For certain groups he sometimes includes ShaoLin Temple and Kung Fu Schools in the itinerary. He incorporates Jade learning as a part of a general tour and interestingly, saves the Jade learning focused tour for Burma!
Mary Li Stirland of Great Neck Long Island-based Tulips Travel (www.tulipstravel.com) is another agent also originally from Shanghai. She writes a newsletter/blog featuring people, places, and the local goings on: www.shanghai-today.com. She noted that there are numerous tour operators with standard tours that mostly take their tourists shopping, but she prefers to tailor make experiences for her clients. She also explained that most of her groups that visit China do so mostly for cultural matters, and they usually take one week to ten days for their first visit. Unlike Theresa Lock’s clients, most of Mary’s clients have done research and already know what they want to see and do. Most of the groups that she arranges are FIT family groups, because many of her clients have children who are living or going to school in China.
In contrast to Mary’s family clients, Peter’s family clients are mostly Chinese Americans who are going back to visit family in China. Peter’s non-family group clients are typically senior travelers. Many of them are slow walkers, for whom stairs are a challenge. He works with an operator who understand this and “does an excellent job of arranging tours to accommodate them.” Bonnie Braga said most of her family clients like to travel on their own. However, sometimes if they are all adults they may join a group within a group, such as father-mother-daughter-son-in-law.
Tips on Selling Group Travel to China
Peter Distefano explains that when promoting China travel to groups that might not have thought of the destination on their own, agents need to overcome the American perception that China is just a “land of slave labor for outsourced USA manufacturing.” Once he does book a trip, if he’s booking with an operator, he relies on the operator to select the hotels, because they know the hotels better and deal with them more frequently. He almost always uses 4 and 5 star hotels. He tries to discuss many options with his clients, so that they feel involved in the decision making on their behalf. Depending upon budget and time he would then make 3 to 4 recommendations and let the client choose.
How Agents can Recruit New Pre-formed Groups
Peter Distefano actively recruits group travel, including to China. He and his colleagues make presentations at retirement communities, high schools and colleges, Rotary clubs, etc. They also rely heavily on referrals and make special considerations to people who put a group together, and gives them a gift of an original photo book on that country that Peter creates himself! There’s nothing like a personally crafted gift. Kate Delosso, a travel agent in Chadds Ford, PA (www.katedelosso.com) specializes in Asia but especially Adoption Groups, and she speaks at and attends adoption related conferences. She also does very specific marketing to the adopted families connected with the agencies. Sometimes she’ll talk to a family, but they won’t come back for four years, but they usually do come back to her when they are ready.
More on Adoption Tours
Kate will sometimes put several families who have adopted daughters from China together on one trip – especially if the children were adopted from the same adoption agency. However, she always finds that there needs to be private extensions so that the individual families can go back to the villages where their daughters were from, and usually the villages are different and the specific Chinese family experiences are different.
Tips and Trends on Selling Group Travel to China
The itinerary should be good and the price right, said Theresa Lock. Adding, “China travel is definitely up, despite the fact that our dollar is not doing as well as before.”
For more information on group travel to China contact the China National Tourist Office at 212-760-8218; ny@cnto.org; or visit www.cnto.org
Traveling to China with Children, Tweens and Teens
By Marian Goldberg
Maybe because of their one-child policy, the Chinese seem to adore children. Sara Naumann, China Travel Guide for About.com (gochina.about.com) says, “There is simply no place where kids are unexpected, with perhaps the exception of five-star restaurants on the Bund.” Sara is the mother of two young children and an 8-year resident of Shanghai. In her experience, “Chinese people are friendly and welcoming to children of all ages, and if you have the right attitude, this makes your trip very enjoyable.”
I have to agree with Sara. I visited China in 2006 with both my mother and my then eleven-year-old daughter, Brianna. Brianna has long blond hair, and not only did the Chinese locals like having Brianna around; they wanted to interact with her. Many Chinese—both men and women—had the impulse to touch her hair and to take photographs with her. One family, especially, wanted to take a picture of their son—a year or two older than Brianna—standing next to her as if she were his girlfriend. This actually amused Brianna, and we found it a great way to negotiate getting photos of the local Chinese without paying them a fee.
Interaction was all so important. Traveling with children is not about rattling off historical facts in front of ancient buildings, but actively engaging them in local culture. Miriam Hoffman, founder of an information-only website for family travel in China (www.china-family-adventure.com), put it succinctly: “A trip to China with children has to go beyond the rich culture and beautiful scenery. It’s about making more than five thousand years of history come alive.”
From the personal experiences of China travel experts and travelers —including my own daughter—the following are what I’ve come up with as China’s top 10 family-friendly attractions and activities that do bring China to life.
The Great Wall
Go to the Mutianyu Section where kids can enjoy going up on lift chairs and coming down a luge slide. Brianna begged to ride this toboggan down twice, but, don’t worry, older folks like my then 70-year-old mother, can still take the chair lift in both directions. Also, if kids are Brianna’s age or older, your clients should do the hike between the Jinshanling and Simatai sections, and then take a zip-line down the wall! All these areas are accessible from Beijing.
The Terracotta Warriors
Boys who are into battles and their accoutrements like seeing these life-like warriors and checking out their various weapons. The intact city wall in Xi’an is also fun for kids who can run around it or bike along it.
Pandas
At the Giant Panda Breeding Base in Chengdu (www.panda.org.cn/english), kids can see pandas in action, get their photos taken next to them, and sometimes even hold them. While each interaction with the pandas costs money, the funds go back to panda research and preservation. Since the Szechuan earthquake, pandas from the Wolong Nature Preserve have been moved to Bifengxia Research Center outside Ya’an City. Here children over ten can even volunteer (www.pandasinternational.org), by cleaning their living areas, preparing their food, or helping to collect research data. Xandra Keats, 25, who now works for Asia Pacific Travel Ltd. (www.china1on1.com) traveled to China a number of times as a child to visit her maternal grandparents. She recalled how holding a panda was one of the most memorable experiences of her travels.
Shopping and Bargaining
In Shanghai, Beijing and markets scattered all over the country, haggling with local vendors helps teach kids the value of pocket money and the power of bargaining. Says Sara Naumann, “Let them loose in any of the markets or Bazaars and let them treasure hunt.” I also recommend taking them to supermarkets to see how local food is packaged and sold and to purchase and try some interesting fruit or snack, department stores to see the household gadgets department, and toy stores to check out what the Chinese kids play with. When Brianna was in Shanghai, we spent several days tracking down a special anime character headband that she had seen a Chinese girl wearing. Finding it in a four-story toy store for a fraction of its cost in the USA was a highlight of her trip!
Cruising
In Shanghai kids behold the dramatic juxtaposition of the old and new city while cruising along the Huang Pu River. In Yangshuo, while meandering along the Yulong River aboard a unique bamboo raft, kids have an up-close encounter with fantastic limestone mountain peaks, and the family can play I-Spy to buffaloes, farmers and fishermen. The ride takes about two hours, and families can choose to take the raft back or bicycle their way to the starting point. Alternatively, families can experience a large modern cruise vessel along the Yangtze River offered by companies such as Victoria Cruises (www.victoriacruises.com). This April, PATA Chairman, Mr. Hiran Cooray, enjoyed four nights cruising from Yichang to Chongching with his three sons ages 12, 14, and 18, who found the shipboard commentary particularly good.
Climbing to the top of Skyscrapers
Kids love to head up to the top of skyscrapers. In Shanghai, the Shanghai World Financial Center (SWFC)’s 101st floor viewing platform with see-through floors can be a thrill.
Open-air Light Shows
These spectacular light performances in Lijiang, Guilin or Hangzhou’s West Lake created by Director Zhang Yimou and Lighting Designer, Sha Xiaolan, who produced the light show for the Beijing Olympics, wow all ages.
Cooking Class
In Beijing, family travelers can take a class such as dumpling making, at a local cultural center like the Hutong: (http://thehutong.com). Brianna tried dumpling making with local and visiting kids at Beijing’s Children’s Palace. Tour operators like East Quest (www.east-quest.com) and WildChina (www.wildchina.com) can even arrange in-home cooking experiences, something my daughter prefers over “Not another tour, Mom!”
Acrobatics Performances
Brianna, my mother and I all loved the Acrobatics performance at the Portman Ritz Carlton complex in Shanghai. Another family traveler, Paul Stephen Lapuc, went to China on an FIT arranged by Champion Holidays (www.china-discovery.com) with his 11-year-old grandson, James Patrick “JP.” Paul raved about how much JP loved the Legend of Kung Fu show at the Ritz Carlton Theater in Beijing. I have also heard great reviews of Beijing’s Chaoyang Theatre Acrobatics Show. Sports and Kids’ Activities with Local Children
Kids love joining in with locals practicing morning Tai-chi in the park or flying kites in Tienanmen Square or participating in a martial arts class or soccer game if that’s what they are into. Tour operators can arrange this. Champion Holidays arranged for JP Lapuc and his grandfather to hear directly from a Feng Shui Master in Xi’an. JP was mesmerized!
Patricia Cuneen of East Quest emphasizes, “It’s important that your trip with your children is customized to their own interests, be it sports, animals, cooking, traditional games and crafts or even archeology. Always think about what they personally would like, not just what you as a parent would like.” Andrea Baumann Lustig, who traveled to China with her whole family and then stayed on to take her 17-year-old daughter, Allie, to a Chinese language immersion program near Tibet, asked Asian Transpacific Journeys (www.AsiaTransPacific.com) to arrange a complex itinerary to the Yungan Buddhist Grottoes, caves that house over 51,000 stone sculptures that were completed during the Northern Wei Dynasty (460-494). This could have been boring for younger children, but it was of interest to Allie who had studied them in school.
Other tips offered for traveling with very young children came from Kaamna Bhojwani-Dhawan, founder of the blog http://momaboard.com. Kaamna traveled to Shanghai with her infant son. Her blog points out things like where to purchase diapers, so you don’t have to take six suitcases with you and pay those dreadful excess baggage fees.
Many people wonder if trips for younger children should be shorter in length. I took Brianna to Japan for three weeks when she was six, and that was perfect. According to Sara Naumann, there’s really no “best length.” In her opinion, the longer the better, because it can take a while for kids (especially if they’re little) to get over jet lag and enjoy the trip. Of course it’s always important to break up the time. Suggests Mei Zhang, “make a deal with your kids, one temple [or historical site] a day,” and then do something else in the afternoon like a sports activity, a cruise, animal watching, a calligraphy lesson, foraging for treasures in the market or even just a swim at the hotel pool—especially important if you are visiting China in the summer.
For more information on traveling to China, visit the China National Tourist Office at: www.cnto.org, tel. 1-888-760-8218 in New York and 1-800-670-2228 in Los Angeles.