BEIJING - A half-a-million-yuan tour around the world sold out in less than 10 minutes on the mainland, the organizer said.

The 500,000-yuan ($73,200) trip will take tourists to six continents, including the North and South Poles, over 60 days.

They will travel by air, train, helicopter and ship to reach destinations said to best represent Antarctica, South America, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia and the Arctic. They will stay in top-level hotels all the way.

Labeling it "the first real global tour" on the Chinese mainland, Ctrip.com, a leading online travel agency and one of the organizers, said only eight seats were reserved for mainland tourists out of the 20 available spots.

The other two organizers are ezTravel online travel agency in Taiwan and Wing On Travel Limited in Hong Kong.

The sales target was met nine minutes after the package went on sale, Tang Yibo, Ctrip's holiday department supervisor, said on Thursday.

More than 30 mainland tourists had called to inquire about the product by Wednesday evening, he said.

"We are now considering the possibility of adding one more such group to meet the demand," he said.

The healthy response from the market is "not a total surprise for us," as the number of wealthy people on the mainland is expanding quickly, he said.

According to the 2010 Hurun Wealth Report released on April 1, the mainland is home to 55,000 people with assets of more than 100 million yuan, and home to 875,000 people with assets worth more than 10 million yuan by the end of 2009.

"Taking half a million yuan to travel around the world is not too expensive for rich Chinese," said Li Xinjian, a professor with Beijing International Studies University's School of Tourism Management.

"In the future tour market, luxurious tours and economic tours will be the major trends in China's tourism industry. As riches increase in the country, people will spend more on travel," he said.

After the first such luxurious tour appearing in Guangzhou in 2006, which charged 20 mainland tourists 100,000 yuan each to go to Antarctica, expensive tours now appear frequently.

On March 12, a travel agency in Jilin province organized a luxurious hunting tour in Changbai Mountain, costing nearly 150,000 yuan a person, about 20 times higher than a normal tour.

A luxurious tour to Australia for delicious food, expected to cost 33,888 yuan a person, is now being arranged, and another tour to South Africa for the World Cup is being organized for 37,999 yuan a person.

Chen Chen, an office lady in Beijing, said people are gradually accepting luxurious tours, and she would spend most of her earnings on travel as long as she makes enough money.

CHINA DAILY

(China Daily 04/23/2010 page2)