Flight Info in Baidu Search Results

When a user searches on Baidu using “flight number”?she can view the real-time flight status on top of the search results like the screenshot shown above. Similarly, it works for train and some coach services.

The flight and train data are from Qunar, in which Baidu strategically invested $306 million last June.

Actually Baidu has started integrated some of the Qunar services into its search results. For example, when a user searches for flight from Beijing to Shanghai, she will be shown this search box and price trend:

Flight search and trend on Baidu SERP

Also read:: Baidu Map Integrates Real Time Search

Top China OTA by Share of Visits

Experian released November data for China’s most visited online travel agencies. Does it surprise you that Qunar is the most visited OTA in China?

Also read:: Chart: Select Digital Media Penetration in China in Q2 2011

China OTA Market Share Q3 2011

ctrip.com maintains its dominant position in China’s Online Travel Agency (OTA) market with 41% share of total 2.41 billion yuan revenue (USD 379 million).

Mangocity.com surpassed elong.com, benefiting from the Universiade 2011 in Shenzhen.

China OTA Revenue 2010-Q3 2011

Also read:: Charts: China 2011 Q2 Search Engine Market Update

During the seven days of China’s National Day holidays, about 24.3 million tourists traveled to 119 national scenic attractions according to the National Tourism Administration. That was about 8.84% more compared to the same period of 2010.

The tickets sale at these tourists attractions during this period went up by 10.57% to 1.25 billion yuan (US$196 million), according to statistics released by the administration last Friday.

Both online and off-line retailers experienced increase in total sales during this holiday.

Also read:: Taobao Sales during Golden Week Reached 8 Billion RMB

Image via CrunchBase

Australia-based budget airline Jetstar has partnered with the leading online payment solution provider Alipay in China to integrate Alipay into its online booking payment options.

Jetstar, Asia’s largest low-cost carrier by revenue, is expanding its Chinese network to nine Chinese destinations, including a planned service linking Beijing, Singapore Melbourne. With a fleet of 80 aircraft, Jetstar offers up to 3,000 flights a week to 56 destinations in 17 countries and territories across the Asia Pacific region.

So far Alipay is powering 27 airlines for direct online booking in China. With over 600 million users, Alipay no doubt provides confidence and convenience to Chinese travelers on Jetstar.com.

Also read:: China to Allow Non-financial Companies to Offer online payment services

Travel search engine Qunar.com received USD 306 million strategic investment from Baidu, which makes Baidu the biggest institutional shareholder.

306 million is the biggest strategic investment in online travel market in China and also the biggest one for Baidu so far. Qunar and Baidu will work closely together in the product line and branding to promote online travel business.

In addition to cash investment, in-depth strategic cooperation also includes the valuable business framework. after the investment, Qunar.com will maintain the existing strategic direction and continue to develop Chinese online travel market and increase its investment in hotel, hotel group deals, and online marketing for hotels.

About Qunar.com

Qunar network was founded in February 2005 and is one of the largest Chinese online travel websites. Qunar.com aggregates travel information (like hotel, air tickets and tour packages) from various sources to provide users comparison on prices and other information. It also recently launched daily deal services.

Qunar has over 45 million monthly unique visitors.

Also read:: Qunar Now Provides Online Hotel Mgmt Toolbox for Free

Qunar recently announced free use of their online hotel marketing and user comments management tools for free.

Hotel Description Update

Hotels can update their hotel information and photos, which Qunar promises approval within two working days.

Qunar Data

Hotels can get data including visits to their hotel pages, popularity of their hotel, and the demand in the market.

internet user comments about the hotel

qunar comments reply

Hotels can reply and interact with users commenting on their hotel pages.

Qunar Competitor Analysis

Hotels can also check daily online bookings of their competitors.

Also read:: Baidu Announced $306 Million Strategic Investment in Qunar.com

China’s online travel market in Q1 this year exceeded 2 billion in revenue (third-party online travel agents), up 4.7% compared to the previous quarter. In China, there are a lot more travel activities during the first quarter due to New Year and spring festival.

CTrip remains the number online travel agent in China.

Also read:: Top Online Travel Booking Websites in China

China will become the world’s largest tourism destination within five to seven years,said Taleb Rifai, Secretary General  of UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO).

Image via Wikipedia

Wu Wenxue, Director-General of Department of Planning and Finance of China National Tourism Administration (CNTA), shared some insights in his meeting with Mr Rifai:

The total number of domestic travel in 2010 is estimated to be 2.12 billion person-times, an increase of 12-13% compared with the previous year. The domestic tourism receipt in the year totalled 1.15 trillion RMB (about USD 174.41 billion). The number of international tourist arrivals to China in 2010 is estimated to amount to 2.5 million with positive increase over the year before.

When other countries kept a tight grip on their purses as a result of the crisis of 2009, China’s expenses on international tourism went up by a staggering 21%. Over 90% of China’s outbound travellers go to other neighbouring countries within Asia and the Pacific region.

Also read:: China Mobile has the largest share of the 3G market by subscribers

Ctrip yesterday announced the launch of the lowest hotel online booking rates commitment.

From March 10 onwards, Ctrip guarantees the lowest online domestic hotel booking rate. If consumers find any other cheaper offer, Ctrip will pay three times the difference in cash.

Online travel booking in 2009 has reached 30.24 million users, an increase of 77.9%.

Also read:: Top Online Travel Booking Websites in China

China Online Travel Websites Market Share by Revenue

According to a latest China online travel booking report by iResearch, China’s total online travel booking revenue in 2009 has increased to $3.74 billion yuan (about US $548 million) from year 2008′s $2.94 billion yuan (US$431 million), up 27.2%.

The top online travel booking websites (by revenue) are:

• Ctrip: 55.6%
• eLong.com: 9.9%
• mangocity.com: 6.2%
• 118114.cn: 5.8%
• 12580.com: 3.2%
• etpass.com: 3.1%
• 17u.com: 2.7%
• aoyou.com: 1.5%
• Others: 12%

Ctrip.com & eLong.com
Both listed in NASDAQ, ctrip and eLong are probably not strange to you as the two biggest online travel service provider in China.

Mangocity.com
Mangocity is an official subsidiary of China Travel Online and engages in business travel management service to corporate clients. It was formerly known as CTI Business Travel Management Company, one of the earliest travel management companies in China.

China Travel Service (Holdings) Hong Kong Ltd. has built its strong reputation in travel industry over 77 years. The travel management company joined Global Specialist Markets (GSM), one of the world’s largest global travel management network in 2006 and became the affiliate of GSM in China and Hong Kong.

118114.cn & 12580.com
This two sites are telecom’s expansion into online business. 118114.cn is ownbed by China Telecom and 12580.com by China Mobile.
118114.cn is more than a online travel website but a lifestyle portal covering travel, hotel, food, and etc. 12580.com is clearly an online travel portal.
Interestingly, “118114″ and “12580″ are two phone numbers in China that local people can dial in to ask for lifestyle information such as the entertainment facilities near a location.

etpass.com
According to its “about us” page on the website, etpass.com was founded in April 2005 by a dozen of fortune 500 companies.

17u.com
This travel website is new to me; according to its official introduction, 17u.com was founded in 2004 and headquartered in Suzhou with over 700 employees.It not only targets consumer customers but also business customers including travel agency, hotels, ticketing organizations, and tourist spots authorities.

aoyou.com
aoyou.com is operated by one of the three largest travel companies in China “CYTS”, founded in 1997 and listed on Dec 3 1997 on shanghai stock exchange?

Online travel booking will likely grow rapidly in 2010 due to the upcoming Shanghai Expo and Guangzhou Asian Games.

Also read:: CTrip Guarantees The Lowest Hotel Online Booking Rate

Tripadvisor Acquiring Kuxun.com

TripAdvisor is buying Kuxun.cn, a Chinese flight and hotel search engine, at an undisclosed amount (the rumor is, it is 12 million USD).

TripAdvisor, owned by Expedia, plans to invest over US$50 million in China through late 2011. The budget includes buying Kuxun, launching its own Chinese travel-review Web site, Daodao.com and hiring more staff.

According to the company, Daodao had 4 million unique visitors in September.

Also read:: China’s Search Engine Market Update for Q3 2011

William Bao Bean gives his views on what opportunities and challenges the Chinese online travel companies are facing.

via Traveldaily

Also read:: Top Online Travel Booking Websites in China

According to Hitwise, these are the top sites by visits in Hong Kong for the week ending 26/09/2009:

1. Emirates Airlines www.emirates.com
2. Jetstar www.jetstar.com
3. Tiger Airways www.tigerairways.com
4. Singapore Airlines www.singaporeair.com
5. AirAsia www.airasia.com
6. SilkAir www.silkair.net
7. Cathay Pacific www.cathaypacific.com
8. Malaysia Airlines www.malaysiaairlines.com
9. Cebu Pacific Air www.cebupacificair.com
10. Qantas Airways www.qantas.com.au

Also read:: Hong Kong Internet user spends over 25 hours online per month

Top Planned Destination Countries

According to the latest China Outbound Travel Monitor from Nielsen, 85% of Chinese travelers said that they “definitely” or “probably” will travel outside the country at some point over the next 12 months.

The report also finds that short haul trips, such as those to Hong Kong (the most mentioned place to visit), Macau or Taiwan, were the most popular destinations (over 60%). After choosing a destination, nearly half (48%) of China’s outbound travelers turned to online reviews and forums to fine-tune their itineraries, found the survey. They converse via social networks and message boards with others who have made a similar trip or live in the country they are to visit.

The Nielsen survey also found that travelers were much more likely to recall Internet advertising for travel destinations compared to travel advertising on other mediums.

Also read:: 2.556 billion passenger trips during Chinese New Year

Japan now works with Baidu to promote Japan travel online. The deal is said to be over one million yuan.

There are about one million Chinese travelling to Japan every year. Japan tourism board starts promoting Japan travel to Chinese, giving individual travel visa to affluent Chinese in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou from this July.

Also read:: Top Online Travel Booking Websites in China