Ctrip CEO: Positive Outlook for China’s Outbound Tourism Industry
SHANGHAI, China, May 16, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- At the third ITB China held in Shanghai from May 15th to 17th, Jane Sun, CEO of Ctrip, was invited to deliver the keynote speech at the ITB banquet with more than 600 guests from the global travel industry in attendance. In her speech, Jane said that she is confident about the robust growth outlook for outbound Chinese tourism even in the face of skepticism from other industry players.
ITB China is a trade fair specializing in the Chinese market organized by the world’s largest travel trade show, ITB Berlin.
According to statistics from China’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the number of outbound trips by Chinese citizens reached almost 150 million in 2018, maintaining China’s status as the country with the largest number of outbound tourists and representing a 14.7% increase from the year before. During the recent four-day Labor Day holiday, as many as 4 million Chinese traveled internationally. Furthermore, Ctrip’s data revealed a new trend of growing numbers of tourists from third and fourth tier cities going abroad. Over the holiday, Chinese tourists visited 903 destinations in more than 90 countries via group tours, independent trips and customized tours.
“At present, China’s urbanization is under 60% and it is expected that it will take 10 to 20 years to reach 70% to 80% as in the developed countries," said Ms. Sun. “Furthermore, only 10% of Chinese hold private passports, compared with 40% of Americans, which shows the potential for China’s outbound tourism to continue growing.”
As China’s leading OTA (online travel agent), Ctrip has been actively increasing its presence abroad. Ctrip’s GMV (Gross Merchandise Volume) reached 725 billion RMB in 2018, making it the No.1 OTA by GMV in the world.
Ctrip’s internationalization is drawing attention from the international business community. Recently, Jane was invited by JP Morgan’s CEO Jamie Dimon to join JP Morgan Asia Pacific council, becoming the only council member representing the tourism industry.
Recently, Jane shared some of Ctrip’s international achievements at JP Morgan’s Global China Summit in Beijing. She mentioned that Ctrip serves more than 300 million customers through its online and offline platforms and almost half of them are from overseas. Ctrip is proud to extend the same high-quality, fast-response customer service to customers in China and across the globe on a 24/7 basis, 365 days a year.
According to Ctrip’s latest financial results, revenue from its international business accounts for 30% to 35% of the group’s total revenue. Ctrip has set up offices in Southeast Asia, Korea, Japan, Australia and many other destinations to localize the products and services. Trip.com, the company’s international platform, now offers customer service in 19 languages and operates three overseas call centers in Edinburgh, Seoul and Tokyo.
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