Travel to another country, especially you are not speaking the same language as them, always cause a lot of pains. In the past, you may only have to contact with the travel 
agencies in your country, and then they will transfer your request to another local travel agency in the destination area. Well, this is convenient but expensive though. For example, you have booked the Xi’an Tours in the travel service A in your place, then this travel agency A contacts the counterpart (travel agency B) in China, most likely in those big cities, such as Beijing or Shanghai. Travel agency B will be responsible for your Beijing Flights, and it would contact with travel service C in Xi’an and arrange the details of your trip there. Now you will have some clues about why I said it was expensive to book the packages through traditional travel agencies. Each agency, including A, B, C, need to make some money from this trip. If they only share 10% profit, you would have to pay at least 30% more than the original price.
New trends for booking tour packages are now open to international travelers. You could be quite familiar with expedia or other online travel agencies. But these websites are only good for you travelling in Europe, North America, or South America. For China, there are
a few such websites available for international travelers. You can book flights, hotels, cruise and customized tour packages through this kind of website. This is just like expedia, but the differences are that you can customize your trip, besides hotels and flights within China. Also the domestic flights tickets are always on sale on these websites and they are always cheaper than expedia or other online travel agencies. This is because that the domestic flight information is restricted from agencies outside of China. The tour packages provided by these websites are flexible. You can choose your own combinations and destinations through internet. English speaking guides are also provided. In addition, you can also “rent” a car online. Though “rent” here I mean that you can book a private tour with a car, a driver and a guide. Because it is difficult for you to transfer your driving license within several days, especially you know few Chinese.
Although there are some online travel agencies for international travelers for China travel, only several of them provide complex services. The two major websites might be ctrip.com and chinatraveldepot.com. The first website is famous among
Chinese, as it provides great deals for those Chinese who want to travel within or outside of China. The customers of this website are mainly Chinese local people. And this is a pure online travel agency. While the other website chinatraveldepot.com is a division of China CYTS Tours Holding co. The CYTS Tours Holding co. is a registered large company including many sub functions or companies. It covers exhibition, conferences, domestic and international trips. And this website is a new department of this company. It is constructed merely for international travelers who are interested in China travel.
How does this kind of online tour packages booking system work? Firstly, you select the default tour packages which determines the days for vacation. Secondly, you could pick the details of visiting items. For example, there is a summer palace tour in the package, but you prefer other places. Then you can just change this item with another one you are interested. Thirdly, once you have made your mind, just pay with your credit card or paypal account. Last, pack your stuff and enjoy your china travel!
Related posts:
