Wendy Zhang/ Shanghai Daily news

Ctrip, China's leading online travel agency, yesterday announced its new offerings for luxury vacationers, today's Laodong Daily reported.
At Ctrip.com, the price of a luxury tour is usually double that of a standard one with the same itinerary. For example, a standard individual trip to Hong Kong usually costs more than 2,000 yuan (US$246.6), while the luxury equivalent, which includes staying at the Peninsula Hotel, costs up to 4,696 yuan.
"We are offering packages that satisfy growing demand from luxury vacationers, who account for 5-10 percent of our clients," said Yang Tao, senior supervisor for vacational packages, adding that the packages can save them up to 70 percent compared to booking the hotels directly.
The first group of destinations covered by the new packages include Sanya, Shangri-la, the Maldives, Phuket, Bangkok, Bali, Langkawi, Sabah, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore.
More than 20 big-name hotel groups can be booked at Ctrip, including the Mandarin Oriental, Shangri-la and Sheraton groups.
"Our target clients have annual household income of more than 500,000 yuan, and a luxury traveler usually spends as much as two or three ordinary travelers," Yang said. "We received 10 bookings in the first day of the packages being available," he stressed, adding that a second group of destinations will be added soon, including Europe and Australia.