At major tourist attractions across Europe, those small, brightly colored flags fluttering in the wind once served as the most visible markers of Chinese tour groups.
The tour guide walked ahead, hoarse instructions drifting back through a loudspeaker, while dozens of travelers in matching sun hats hurried along behind.
Today, that highly recognizable scene seems to have dissolved into the mist along the Seine.
According to the latest data released by China’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Chinese travel agencies organized 3.73 million outbound trips in the third quarter of 2024.
At first glance, the figure appears respectable.
But one line further down the table reveals a far more telling number.
The statistics show that 1.08 million outbound travelers purchased stand-alone services—including flights, transportation, car rentals, hotels, dining, attraction tickets, and tour guides—rather than full group tour packages.
That figure already amounts to nearly one-third of traditional group tour volume.
In other words, as early as last year, a growing share of outbound travelers no longer needed a complete group tour product. The underlying logic of outbound travel was already undergoing a quiet but fundamental restructuring.
One young couple described how they found a “travel concierge” package through Xiaohongshu. From visas to flights, hotels, attraction tickets, routes, and detailed itineraries, everything was handled behind the scenes. The price was higher than a standard tour, they said—but still acceptable.
Even highly sought-after tickets such as those for the Louvre were secured in advance on their behalf. Every evening, they received a detailed itinerary for the next day—what to do, what to watch out for, even exactly which street corner to turn at.
In the past, joining a group tour was the only way for travelers to buy peace of mind.
Today, armed with the right tools and platforms, travelers can design an experience that reflects their own lifestyle.
This migration from the collective to the individual is, at its core, a full return of consumer sovereignty. But in the process, traditional travel agencies that still rely on information asymmetry for survival are facing a wave unlike anything they have seen before.
