Ctrip Chairman Shrugs Off Impact of Trump Tariff Dispute — For Now
Skift Take
Ctrip has been able to spend most of its 15-year history riding a rising travel tide in China while buying out much of the competition to blunt their challenges. For 2019, Ctrip will have to stand up and get moving to recapture momentum and investor attention.
The main emphasis of Ctrip's business is short-haul outbound trips so the impact of the U.S.-China dispute over tariffs is limited, co-founder and executive chairman James Jianzhang Liang told Skift.
"Obviously, in the long-run, it will hurt the global economy and global prosperity," Liang said.
Skift spoke to Liang recently in Shanghai at the company’s annual partner event, which on December 10 marked the travel booking site's 15 years as a public company. The Nasdaq-listed firm is China’s leading travel site by a wide margin, but it could face challenges as new competitors loom. For example, food delivery and online review site Meituan-Dianping fueled up this year to take on Ctrip, raising more than $4 billion in a Hong Kong listing.
The interview was wide-ranging, covering Ctrip's relationship with investor Booking Holdings, the competitive landscape, the impact of airline commission cuts, and China's slowing domestic economy, which doesn't appear as though it will turn around in 2019.
An edited version of the interview follows:
Skift: In the 15 years since Ctrip went public, what’s been the biggest change in the market?
James Jianzhang Liang: The biggest change in the market is completely going from offline to online and to mobile. That’s one industry that has completely gone digital and online. Other economies, maybe now it’s 50 percent online, maybe 80 percent.
Skift: Ctrip is in so many different areas in terms of what it considers travel. Everything from selling luggage to bus tickets. On top of Ctrip’s site, there are 15 categories; Expedia only has eight. You’ve invested in a company that does supersonic air travel. What’s out of bounds for Ctrip? What’s not considered travel?
We still focus on everything related to travel. Priceline [Booking Holdings] invested in a rideshare company. I think that’s a bit outside of travel. We want to stay in everything related to travel. We are successful in upstream downstream, we successfully invested for example in hotels, and group tours. It’s not only financially very positive, but w
