Ctrip.com Launches New Service For Business Travelers

Chinese online travel service provider Ctrip.com has formally launched a new service called Shang Lv Tong targeting at the global 500 Fortune companies who run businesses in China.

Ctrip.com launched a similar service in 2000, but due to limited market demand the service was halted soon after. Min Fan, CEO of Ctrip.com, says that the circumstances now are different from the last time when it provided the service because according to the latest data released by China National Tourism Administration, China's domestic business travel market has reached US$170 billion and it is increasing 20% annually. This is why Ctrip.com has decided to resume the service.

Fan says that the new service is specially designed to provide professional business travel management for large size enterprises and it will help those companies who annually have business travel expenditures of over RMB10 million.

Despite that the new service currently accounts for a small proportion of the company's total business, Ctrip hopes that it will take up 10%-15% of the company's total business in five years.