A “Hotel+Plane Ticket” tour has appeared in Shanghai, offering self-help travel that is cheaper and far easier to organize than existing means.

Potential travelers can see on the price list that a round-trip ticket with three nights in a five-star hotel for a person coming from Sanya, in China’s southernmost province of Hainan, only costs 2,980 yuan, while a round-trip ticket with two nights in a four-star hotel costs 2,180 yuan from Beijing. This new kind of tour is expected to attract many “white collar” workers, and one local travel agency says it is handling as many as 300 tourists a month.

Usually, a round-trip air ticket between Sanya and Shanghai costs 1,600 yuan, with an additional 2,100 yuan for three nights stay in a five-star hotel – a total of 3,700 yuan. Thus, the new self-help tour can considerably reduce spending.

The table d’hote is, in fact, not really novel. In Shanghai, the local railway department has already had the train tour table d’hote and the local traffic department also has a road Beijing-Shanghai tour table d’hote. But the “Hotel+Plane Ticket” mode suits the tastes of professionals and is attracting more and more middle-class tourists.

The “Hotel+Plane Ticket” tour mode has resulted from the rapid economic development. Nowadays, the tourism industry attracts many enterprises. For example, educational departments and different kinds of traffic departments have also moved into the field by making full use of their superiority. But how to produce the best results and how to attract more tourists? No doubt, the “Hotel+Plane Ticket” mode sets a good example.

(CIIC 02/26/2001)