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About Zanadu

We started Zanadu with the idea to curate luxury and boutique hotels to discerning Chinese travelers. The timing was right. Thanks to continuous strong growth of the middle class, China became the world's most important outbound tourism market in 2017. And we became the leading travel platform for China's luxury travelers.

Several rounds of VC funding helped us launch new and innovative travel products in the market. Beyond our hotel and resort collection we also offer signature journeys, small luxury groups, luxury cruises, international and domestic high-end packages, private villas and bespoke travel services.

Zanadu Brand Film

From the beginning we relied on our own media to create brand awareness and demand for our travel products. Our own content reaches around a million affluent Chinese consumers across different social and video channels. We also ran a quarterly print magazine, distributed to the rooms of all luxury hotels in China.

We took the idea of travel media to a new level by creating 360 degree immersive VR experiences. Our first film "The Dream" went on to win best VR film at the HTC Vive global awards. On the back of this success we launched a full-fletched VR production studio and created 20 more travel experiences.

Zanadu Media

Amongst many awards we received, Conde Nast Traveler Magazine made Zanadu "Travel Agency of the Year" and gave it the "Reader's Choice" awards for several years in a row. We were honored by Harvard Business Review as most innovative travel company. Awards are fun, so we created our own travel award show, the Global Travel Experience Awards, held yearly in Shanghai and with representatives of some of the world's best hotels in attendance.

Here are some fun projects we did while we built Zanadu into the leading high-end travel brand in China.

// Zanadu x Chen Man

We worked with China's leading celebrity photographer Chen Man on this film that became viral.

// Zanadu x Maserati

One of several Maserati collaborations was the Soul Journey with Chinese rockstar Cui Jian and British Electronic Music producer Howie B. We went on a 7 day long journey through Italy, met some amazing people and recorded a song.

// Zanadu x Mini

Together with Mini China we created the idea of Mini Weekend Vacations. Take your cooper to someplace near by and have a luxury break.

// Zanadu VR Experience Space

We created two dozen travel VR films and then opened the world's first Travel VR Space, located next to Disneyland Shanghai to showcase these immersive 360 experiences.

// Zanadu @ Burning Man

Together with VC firm Matrix Partners China we took 65 major Chinese startup CEOs to the Burning Man festival in Nevada. Our camp "Eastern Lights" featured a cool wooden lantern sculpture.

// Michelin Food Festival

We booked out 500 rooms of the newly opened Sanya Edition and organized China's first ever gourmet food festival. Raging success.

// VR Experiences

Some of the VR experiences we created are up on Youtube, but most of them are on a dedicated app or on our VR website.

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