Expedia meets a tough competitorvia WikipediaThere is very little news passing my screen these days, but fortunately the diligent people at Golden China Brands pointed me at this interesting news regarding Ctrip, China's leading online travel agency entering the US market.
With more than 19 million registered users, Ctrip processed more than 9 million hotel room nights and 10 million air tickets in 2007. However, more and more English-speaking leisure and business travelers are on the site making enhanced English-language services and amenities a necessity to facilitate China travel and booking.Ctrip is my preferred online stop for domestic travel in China, their hotels and flights - including the famous discounts at Chinese airlines - seem rather comprehensive and changing your reservations is easier than wiping your nose.
I knew Ctrip was on the right track when on a holiday in Sanya, already some years ago, I met other tourists carrying print-out from the Ctrip-website. User-generated reviews told them how to enter the cordoned off beach without having to pay. That is indeed the way to get business in China.
For my international flights I would mostly rely on Expedia, although they got into some hot air in Europe, because they would not include most of the cheaper international airflights. Now they are teaming up with airline companies like Air Berlin, so their offers from Europe might also improve.
Ctrip cleverly limits itself to its strong point, the China travel business from the US, worth more than US$ 150 billion in 2007. At the same time, Golden China Brands tells us that Expedia is entering the China market. That is going to be an interesting battle, since Expedia has a strong international brand name, but Ctrip seems alsmost unbeatable on the China business.
2 comments:
2 things, Ctrip unbeatable ? What are the stats on eLong ? And in the same breath, I'd like to point out that Expedia is already on the chinese market since they got a stake in eLong...
According to the figures I have seen eLong is the number two but has still a very long way to go before it will come close to Ctrip.
I think the Expedia would be better off using the Ctrip-strategy: stay as much as possible with the market where people know you, in stead of taking on a fully new one.
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