The company known as Chinatour since its founding in 2002 by Alex Wang in San Francisco, has joined the U.S. Tour Operators Association, rebranded as Elite Voyages, and expanded its product range beyond Asia, its previous area of operation. In addition to Asia, it now offers Europe, South America and North Africa. This is a vast set of changes for a company formerly known as Chinatour.
The company first used the name Elite Voyages in 2019 for luxury-tier bespoke programs. It also offers pre-set itineraries. When joining USTOA this year, the company put the Elite Voyages brand up front as the main brand for the company going forward.
The company is still using the Chinatour brand for its Asia programs. But now China is only one of many countries on four continents. The company needed a new brand that would better represent the actual range of its business. It offers pre-set programs as well as custom-designed packages.
Even in Asia, the company’s destinations go far beyond China. They include Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, Bhutan, Nepal and India. The company works in partnership with ground operators and tourist offices in its various regions. It’s currently working closely with Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) promoting tours to Korea and Japan.
In Europe, Elite Voyages is offering travel to Italy, France, Greece, England, Scotland, Wales, Iceland, Italy, Norway, Finland, Sweden,. Spain, Switzerland and Turkey. For the river tours, the company is partnering with AMA Waterways. For land tours, the company is partnering with ground operators it has developed relationships with over the years.
In North Africa, the company is offering Egypt with an extension to Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia. For South America, it is offering Peru, Argentina and Brazil.
The USTOA Credential
Just to be clear about what it means to join USTOA, it is a major undertaking. It’s not just joining an association. Certainly it is that, but it’s a very unusual kind of membership. Probably the most striking qualification for membership is that the applicant must lay down a million dollars and give it to USTOA to hold while the company is a member.
I don’t suppose much more has to be said about the importance of that requirement. It’s fairly obvious. I can’t think of a lot of companies that have a million lying around that they’d like to give to someone. But in the tour industry, it can be worth it to many tour operators, if they can afford it. It’s a prize that confers a special status on every member.
The tour operator business is a notoriously tight one. Cash flow is troublesome for tour operators, having to put money up front to secure accommodations and services in advance, and not get paid till much later. Every kind of bad incident in weather or politics can cause quantities of cash to go up in smoke. Financially, tour operation requires a high degree of acrobatics.
The business is highly competitive, so there’s always downward pressure on prices that keeps profit margins slim. A tour operator has to turn over a lot of money to retain a little of it.
Under those kinds of conditions, it’s a major distinction for a company to survive at all. The marketplace itself is a grouping of survivors, but the market has left a heap of casualties in its wake as well. It’s a sort of championship prize in itself to be a tour operator that is still standing after 10, 20 or more years. To be able to, in addition to this, muster up a spare million bucks is a feat deserving of respect. All members of USTOA carry that prestige. Elite Voyages, formerly Chinatour, is now part of the USTOA elite. It has reached a pinnacle.
In these testy times the word “elite” is often used pejoratively, but when you are traveling out there in the world, trying to get from country to country, airport to airport, hotel to hotel, it’s nice to have an elite at your back. That’s one of the ways “elite” is a good word.
Besides its USTOA credential, Chinatour aka Elite Voyages has some impressive awards to its credit, including Magellan awards for Best Tour Operator Overall, and Travvy Awards as well.
Ricko Tindage
Considering that I hold this achievement in high regard, I wanted to reach out to Elite Voyages and find out more about what is happening. I was able to reach Ricko Tindage, the director of sales and marketing for the company. He was able to fill me in on some important background.
To say he’s been around is putting it lightly. He definitely brings a lot to the table. Ricko is based in California. He’s originally from Bali. He has been in the travel industry since 1990. He joined Chinatour in 2017. He brought to Chinatour a lot of the experience and contacts needed to engineer this upgrade to the company’s profile to a global operator, beyond Asia.
He started in hotel management, working in hotels, The Jakarta Hilton International in Jakarta, Indonesia; the Brussels Hilton in Brussels, Belgium; and the Renaissance Hotel in Los Angeles. From early on, hotels were something that inspired him.
“I always admired the look and feel of a hotel,” he said, “with the restaurant setting, the front desk and concierge, with well-groomed uniformed staff, and beautifully done with crisp white linens ready for the guest.”
Later he moved from hotels to tours and river cruises, working with SITA World Tours and Uniworld River Cruises. He’s also created and developed some boutique tour operators specializing in honeymoons, destination weddings, incentive travel and luxury travel, including the leasing of private jets. For one of the startups, Romance Travel Concierge, of Pasadena, Calif., he served as president from 2007-2010. Working in all these areas has given him a broad base of experience to draw from for the ongoing expansion of Elite Voyages.
Ricko embraces new technology, up to a point.
“This industry has changed so much,” he said, “if you’re not patient or flexible enough you won’t survive it. We have to be able to adapt to the technology that comes with it, especially, with online platforms. Never one to despise this technology, instead I embrace it.”
However, in a world where “humanless” customer service is actually being tried out in some hotels, it’s good to know that for Ricko customer service will remain fully human. “The one thing I still hold dear is the ability for us to be able to provide service one-on-one, and the client is able to receive service when they’re having problems with their travel arrangements. This relationship will never be replaced by a computer.”
AI has a place, many places in the travel industry, in fact, and throughout all the industries. But not at the front desk of a hotel. No, thank you. You can’t synthesize hospitality. When I come in from a long plane trip, I love to be greeted by a real human being. That’s true for customer service in general. There are some areas where the human touch is unreplaceable. Good for Elite Voyages that the human touch is part of its concept of luxury travel.
For more information on Elite Voyages, call (844) 551-9909 or visit www.elitevoyages.com.
David Cogswell is a freelance writer working remotely, from wherever he is at the moment. Born at the dead center of the United States during the last century, he has been incessantly moving and exploring for decades. His articles have appeared in the Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times, Fortune, Fox News, Luxury Travel Magazine, Travel Weekly, Travel Market Report, Travel Agent Magazine, TravelPulse.com, Quirkycruise.com, and other publications. He is the author of four books and a contributor to several others. He was last seen somewhere in the Northeast US.