Cross-border tourism on the right track

Most of Liu's clients are 45 to 65 years old, an age group she considers having the time and money to travel and showing interest in customized trips, including those to the polar regions. "Many of them made inquiries about the train", she adds.

Plans have been made to introduce a six-night, seven-day tour package after the National Day holiday. Liu believes the market potential will be great. "They will surely appeal to those who seek novel travel experiences," she says.

Tourists on the China-Laos Railway initially used it as a means of transportation and would buy a ticket and travel to Laos for sightseeing, says Jia Lei, an official with the StarExpress train operations.

"What sets this cross-border tourism train apart is that we are treating it as a tourism product and an upgrade of the original China-Laos Railway tourism experience," Jia says, adding that the train will be a vehicle to promote more tourism train products across the country.

The initial plan involves two product lines, he says. One line will focus on high-quality trains, similar to that of the Star-Express and the other line is said to be more akin to sightseeing tourism trains in Japan, Europe and Canada, according to Jia.

He notes that China boasts a high-density railway network. In addition to the high-speed rail, the previous conventional system is suited for tourism as it covers areas where high-speed rail is not as prevalent.

Areas in China such as the Northeast, Northwest and Southwest have a strong railway infrastructure and abound in tourism resources along the way, which makes them ideal for tourism trains, he says.