Ctrip: Standing on the Shoulders of Giants

Strong foundations

Ctrip is ranked as the third largest travel intermediary in the world thanks to its dominant position in its home market of China, where domestic and outbound tourism fuel strong travel demand, where one in five Chinese travelers use Ctrip.

Consumer-centricity

Delivering seamless travel products and services online and through mobile is the company’s mission, putting the consumer at the heart of its core. This laser sharp vision of being a ‘one-stop shop’ for travel drives its operations.

Actively engaged

Ctrip has been active in M&A type activity like Qunar, Skyscanner and Trip.com, as well as investing in competitors, eLong and partnering with Booking Holdings, to pave the way for its global expansion and more importantly acquire new skills.

Offline opportunity

There is still huge scope for targeting lower tier cities into tier three and four, and rolling out its destination store network will facilitate further growth.

Global expansion

Integrating Skyscanner and Trip.com into its main operations will enable Ctrip to branch out globally and take on its global tech rivals over the mid term, with the Trip.com brand name a very powerful tool in its arsenal that will resonate well.

Worthy competitors

Making a move into India by investing in local OTA MakeMyTrip may well be the blueprint for how Ctrip approaches new markets such as Indonesia and Vietnam.

Stumbling blocks

Potential obstacles rest with government legislation of indirect sales, along with geopolitical risks. However, with Skyscanner adopting NDC capability, Ctrip is moving into direct sales as a means of circumventing potential pitfalls.

Long term perspective

Critical to Ctrip’s success is always having one eye on the long term horizon, hence its recent investment in supersonic aircraft manufacturer, Boom.