In a sign of Chinese travellers’ growing appetite for niche experiences, Trip.com has begun retailing Virgin Galactic’s 2027 sub-orbital flights at ¥5.1 million (US$760,000) per seat, Shanghai-based City News Service reported on 17 September. Two mainland buyers have already secured slots, the platform said. The package includes four days of pre-flight training in the United States followed by a 90-minute space-plane journey that offers four minutes of weightlessness. Trip.com will handle visa paperwork, medical screening and bilingual concierge services—an unusually end-to-end offering for an outbound product priced at more than 100 times the average Chinese international holiday. Global-mobility consultants say the deal underscores a post-pandemic surge in ultra-high-net-worth Chinese outbound travel and the willingness of service providers to bundle complex visa, insurance and compliance elements into experiential products. Although the initial customer pool is small, observers expect knock-on demand for multi-entry U.S. B-type visas, specialised travel insurance and even astronaut-grade medical checks within China. If Virgin Galactic’s China market matures, corporate incentive travel planners could follow suit, reshaping high-end MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences, exhibitions) offerings.
Source: City News Service
