Articles tagged “ctrip”

There's no doubt China's economy is going through a downturn, but western travel brands can't blame all of their shortcomings on that point. Much of foreign travel brands' failures or missteps in China -- such as Airbnb or Uber for example -- are probably more likely because they couldn't execute strategies that fit the Chinese market.

It's not around the corner but you can expect China's Ctrip to set up shop to compete against online and offline travel giants in the U.S. Breaking in through acquisition would be an obvious strategy although it's unclear whether that's actually part of Ctrip's seemingly very active strategic plan.

With these investments in North America and elsewhere, Ctrip is creating a new online travel agency model. It's one that goes beyond merely booking trips but guaranteeing service levels once travelers arrive abroad.

If we were Airbnb, we'd be paying very close attention to this latest news.

Like Chinese travelers, Ctrip is breaking out of its domestic shell and looking to become much more of an international player. There is vast potential for Ctrip still to take advantage of in China and then there is a whole wide world out there too as it begins to service customers outside of China. But can the company tackle both ambitions simultaneously? Ctrip has great partners -- 16,000 of them, actually -- to assist but the partners may also turn out to be formidable competitors, as well.

Would the world's second-largest online travel agency in market cap, Ctrip, entertain the idea of entering the U.S. market to complement its sites in mainland China, Hong Kong and Singapore? The x's and o's are unclear but the idea isn't as far-fetched as it might seem given Chinese investment in the U.S. and the Ctrip CEO's statements about his interest in the U.S. market

Ctrip did its own thing and adapted to conditions in China when it was created but its founders were very much aware of what was going on in the rest of the world, including the development of search engines, as well as Travelocity, Expedia and Priceline. One of the things that differentiated Ctrip from the outset was it appreciated the outsized importance of technology.

25 Moments that Mattered in 2015: To make our selection of 25 moments, we thought back to the stories that drove reader engagement and sparked discussion among both travel experts and the general public. Some stories were quick blips that represented bigger things while others were narratives that built slowly through out the year. Each one, though, spoke to where we are right now when it comes to the big business of global travel.

Sometimes Qunar wants us to believe it can sail through a hurricane unscathed in a sailboat. We'll have to see how the Chinese economic crisis ultimately impacts the Chinese travel market -- and the world.

The moves that Priceline and Expedia have made in the past week in China will ultimately be mere footnotes in the fluid and hyper-growth Chinese travel market.