Travelling around the world is the stuff of dreams. First brought into the imagination by Marco Polo, the idea was then refined by fictional character Phileas Fogg, who inspired documentary filmmaker Michael Palin to do the same more than a century later.
Now, local travel agency Wing On Travel is making the dream possible for anyone with time on their hands and deep enough pockets following the launch of its 60-day, round the world tour which jets holidaymakers in business class, and arranges stays in the world's finest hotels, across five continents.
'At first, we were concerned whether enough people would be able to afford the cost [HK$550,000] of the holiday and to take this long a period off, so we partnered with our sister agencies to sell the product in China and Taiwan. The response has been very good,' explains Jo Jo Chan Shuk-fong, director and general manager of Wing On Travel. She says it is the first time such a trip has been offered in Hong Kong.
'Our customers have been senior executives and the proprietors of small to medium-sized enterprises. One client told me he had, years ago, promised to take his wife around the world when he made enough money. He signed up immediately when he heard about our new product.' The dream tour has been kept small deliberately. The first tour of 18 people filled up so quickly that a second tour had to be launched. Both tours will embark from Hong Kong next February, each escorted by a tour guide from Hong Kong fluent in Putonghua, Cantonese and English, in addition to local tour guides at each destination.
Holidaymakers will spend the first few days touring the legendary sites of Australia, the Great Barrier Reef and Uluru (formerly known as Ayers Rock), before visiting Chile, Peru and Argentina in South America.
This will be followed by a 10-day cruise of the Antarctic Peninsula, aboard Silversea's Prince Albert II, a purpose-built expedition ship designed to navigate waters in some of the world's most remote destinations. The cruise will also include some shore excursions, weather permitting.
