“There’s been a big cultural shift. This generation is embracing individuality in every aspect: ‘I choose my own job, I choose my own boyfriend, so why not my own travel?’” says Mei Zhang, the founder of Beshan, one of the few Chinese operators offering high-end, personalized, private tours. “Media is playing a part too: On one hand, bus tours are depicted as dumb—you wouldn’t see a celebrity caught dead on one of these. On the other hand, bloggers such as Gu Yue (who backpacked from Beijing to Berlin to see his girlfriend) are creating a huge amount of romantic adulation for the idea of life out on the open road.”

Much of what made group tours appealing to previous generations no longer applies to China’s savvy new urbanites. Their parents, and tourists from less-developed parts of China, value the security that organized tours provide, especially in countries where Mandarin isn’t spoken. But these new independent travelers are not nervous first-timers. They have traveled extensively before and are comfortable using foreign languages, having often studied or worked abroad.

“Many Chinese travelers have already outgrown the domestic tour industry,” says Professor Wolfgang Georg Arlt, Director of the China Outbound Tourism Research Institute. “Most operators only offer standard tours of things they have already seen. Only a very select few are offering something more sophisticated or are catering to special interests such as wildlife watching. There have also been a lot of bad experiences with tour groups and forced shopping trips.”

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