According to the latest edition of PhoCusWright’s ‘China Online Travel Overview’, the country’s total travel market is expected to double in size between 2008 and 2013, but the online travel will quintuple in size over the same five-year period.
In the fifth edition of its China study, entitled ‘The Giant Has Awoken’, PhoCusWright said that “surging demand for travel products, along with significant commitments to the online space by some of the country’s largest e-commerce and internet players are driving phenomenal growth in China’s travel industry”.
The report forecasts that travel bookings in China will surpass US$105 billion in 2013, of which more than US$15 billion will be online. The total online travel market in China will grow approximately 500% between 2008 and 2013 fuelled, according to the report, by “a range of high-profile investments and partnerships among the country’s leading internet and online travel firms”. These partnerships include Baidu, China’s main search engine, becoming the majority shareholder in Qunar, the leading travel search site.
“Online travel is hardly new in China, yet with such strong growth for the total travel market and rapidly changing consumer behaviour, online travel is experiencing the raw, meteoric growth we have typically seen only in nascent online markets,” says Douglas Quinby, Senior Director of Research at PhoCusWright.
“Online travel is also unfolding with the distinct characteristics of China’s unique internet landscape. It is shaped not only by online travel agencies and supplier websites, but also by the major media portals, social networks, online shopping malls, online payment challenges and the need for offline support and fulfillment,” he added.
Source from <Travel Daily Asia>
