Ctrip, China’s leading online travel agency has entered 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 limits itself to its strong point, the China travel business from the US, worth more than $150 billion in 2007. At the same time, 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 almost unbeatable on the China business.
Source: China Herald

If you work for a big American company and you have to travel you have very few choices. The company makes them for you. It has a deal with yet another company which negotiates lower travel and accommodation costs because of the bulk involved. The individual traveler simply does not have much say. Because the company saves serious amount of money.

At the moment China business has, generally, not got on to this area of cost saving.

Jean-Pierre Remy, president of Expedia Corporate Travel said fewer than one in five companies in China currently uses a travel management company, leaving room for explosive growth.

It is, in fact, a no-brainer.

According to American Express China’s business travel market is worth $10 billion, the world’s fourth-biggest. Online travel agency Expedia Inc’s corporate travel unit expects growth in China’s corporate travel services market to speed up substantially from its current pace of 20 to 30%.

Expedia Corporate Travel, a five-year-old business, is still small time compared to its massive retail parent. It had 1.3 billion bookings globally in 2007, compared with 20 billion bookings for Expedia Inc.

It is moving into China in a joint venture with eLong Inc. the country’s second-largest online travel firm in which Expedia owns a stake. Yes, there is competition already for this immense market but it is barely tapped and Expedia has a major growth opportunity.
Source: Reuters

All Shangri-La hotels and resorts are now available through Expedia which means that customers can do their booking through what is possibly the world’s online travel company.

As part of the agreement, Shangri-La gains access to marketing and merchandising opportunities to reach the more than 60 million unique monthly visitors worldwide to Expedia’s Web sites.
Source: Press release

Expedia, the world’s leading online travel company, has started a partnership with Jin Jiang, the largest hotel owner and operator in China and the 22nd largest in the world.

As part of the agreement, Jin Jiang, which owns and operates more than 250 hotels, from luxury five-star lodging to economy accommodation, will now make its entire inventory of hotels available to Expedia customers.

The idea is that through Expedia customers can get the best online rates at the hotel.

Jin Jiang has completed its IPO. is cashed up and plans to expand outside of China, and grow to 500 hotels and inns by 2010. It will then probably be in the top dozen hotel chains in the world.
Source: Expedia press release