Mark Grundy took over Wendy Wu Tours’ American operation as president in 2012. Wendy Wu, a native of China, founded the company in Australia in 1998 and opened branches in the U.K. in 2005 and a U.S. office in 2011. Wendy Wu Tours quickly moved to a place of prominence in the U.S. market for travel to China.

What sets Wendy Wu Tours apart in the marketplace?

Its customer service. Yesterday I was having a strategy meeting with Donna Heinz, the senior director of sales and strategic partnerships for American Express Vacations, and she said that she’s never known a company to have such great customer service. She said that in the first 18 months of this relationship, they’ve not had any complaints. So she has complete confidence that not only her travel counselors but also her clients get exceptional customer service from Wendy Wu Tours, and that we always deliver the correct travel experience to people traveling to China and Indochina.

How is your luxury product, Premier Collection, selling?

Premier tours started in 2013, so this is its second year. The Premier Collection is a variation of our Classic Tours, but they have a higher grade of hotel accommodations — properties like Shangri La. The customers pick and choose the itineraries they want. And we actually took some of the dinners out of the included meals so that in the evenings people are free to relax and spend a bit of time by themselves, because not everyone wants to have dinner as a group every day.

Why did you bring out The Premier Collection?

I put forward the proposal to the board for the Premier Collection because in the American market there is a demand for more luxury and more free time on touring holidays. So the Premier Collection was born and sold here in America, and then it was introduced as well as in Australia and the U.K., and it’s doing very well.

How does The Premier Collection differ from your Concierge product, which is also a luxury product?

Concierge is devoted to unique individual custom packages. Whereas the Premier Collection has guaranteed itineraries and departure dates. What has been a big success this year is our Concierge Department, which helps agents and consumers communicate with our destination specialists, and together create and develop unique travel experiences.

Generally, these clients want to stay in higher-grade hotels like Shangri La and Peninsula properties. And the tours are custom. So each travel experience is unique.

Our American Express clients who are Centurion or Platinum card members really are looking for unique experiences, so when they come back they can brag about the unique experience they had spending the night in one of Chairman Mao’s summer palaces. That’s not something you’re going to see in a brochure. But we have lots of those unique, one-off experiences available in China and Indochina.

What advice would you have for travel agents who want to sell those programs?

Travel agents have to know their customers and know what their price point is for any type of vacation. But at Wendy Wu Tours, we have such a wide variety of products.

I don’t think there’s a tour operator in North America that has such a comprehensive range of itineraries and products as Wendy Wu Tours. We have our regular Classic Group Tours; we have the Premier Collection; we have Private Tours; we have our stopover and extension programs. And then we have our Concierge. So depending on what clients want, it’s very important that the agents and Wendy Wu Tours destination specialists understand each individual consumer and what he or she is looking for.

We want to provide the best possible experience for that customer based on his or her expectations and budget. An average Classic tour for us — you’re looking at around $8,000 for a couple. Whereas on Concierge, we have bookings in excess of $50,000. There’s a wide gap there. It’s understanding consumers and what they want. That’s where we’ve been very successful because we do have this wide range of product, so we have something for everyone.

And can you tell us about those other product lines you mentioned?

We have the Private Tours. They follow the Classic and Premier tours, but rather than going in a small group, they’re made for families or small groups of friends who just want to travel together. They don’t want to go with a group of strangers. Then we have the extensions or short stays. If someone is coming off a cruise ship in Shanghai or Beijing, they might want to book a three- or four-night pre- or post-tour. We do a lot of those.

And then we have our programs to Indochina and Japan. We’ve been selling Indochina and Japan programs for 10 years globally, but just launched them in North America.

How is Indochina doing?

Really well. We have customers who go to China and experience Asia for the first time, and get a very good feeling about it and a great sense of wonderment. They’re amazed and they want to look at other destinations. So they come back to us and ask, “Where else can we go?”

It’s very easy to sell them our programs for Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia and Laos. The whole Southeast Asia corridor is becoming a very popular long-haul destination. As more Americans engage in long-haul travel, they find these destinations attractive. There’s great variety. From a cost point of view, it offers great value.

What’s the key to Wendy Wu Tours’ rapid rise in the U.S.?

We have preferred agreements with all the major consortia. We don’t advertise to consumers. The reason for our existence and why we’re successful is our relationships with travel agents across the country. Without travel agents we would not be here.

For more information: 877-933-6399 www.wendywutours.com