Graduated from the University of Cambridge with a Master’s Degree, Sun Bo is one of the first graduates of Jack Ma’s business school, Hupan College, a college for entrepreneurs.
Seven years ago, Sun founded Sun PALA, a customized travel service targeted at Chinese luxury travelers whose daily expenses for the service is around RMB 20,000 (USD 3,026). Sun PALA once served people like Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba, and Pony Ma, founder of Tencent.
During those seven years, Sun PALA has created over 20,000 high-end travel itineraries. In addition, support from customers of Sun PALA allowed Sun to land RMB nine million in angel investment for her site My DayDream, or “Bai Rimeng” in Chinese. My DayDream builds upon Sun PALA and targets all outbound independent travelers whose daily expenses are expected to fall between RMB 500 and RMB 2,000.
My DayDream differs from most offline and online travel agencies in that it offers one-day travel plans and focuses on the travel itenerary only, without covering flights or accommodation. In order to meet varied individual tastes and provide in-depth travel experiences, it has featured travel itineraries with local guides such as a tailor in Taipei or a samurai in Kyoto.
Outbound independent travelers can either book a single day tour with local insights, or book a set of one day tours that make up a complete schedule.
The first 200 itineraries introduced by My DayDream cover 10 regions or countries, including Taiwan, Japan, the United States, Kenya, and Russia. At present, travelers can only place bookings via the official WeChat account of My DayDream before meeting their guides at the destination.
Data from the National Tourism Administration shows that China, with 120 million outbound travels in 2015, ranked as the world’s first in terms of both the number of outbound travelers and the consumption level per outbound traveler.
Additionally, according to the Global Independent Travel Report 2015 by the China Tourism Academy and the Chinese travel SNS website Mafengwo.com, Chinese independent outbound travels reached 80 million; that’s over 60% of the total Chinese 120 million outbound travels, a YoY growth of 10%.
(Top photo fro pixabay.com)