[Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

HCG Travel Group, a Beijing-based tour operator that mainly provides foreign travel services aims to reshape and reconstruct its tour guides' image by training a group of employees to be fashion buyers, gourmets and erudite story tellers, which is a part of its brand upgrading strategy for this year.

That was announced by the travel agency at a product launch event which was attended by representatives from airlines, tourism administrations, consulates and embassies.

The agency, founded in 1993, has cooperated with the national tourism administrations in Australia, Canada, Ireland, Singapore and other countries and boasts 25 subsidiaries across China.