Trends to watch out for in this rising Asian dragon in the new year.

• Cui Guangfu, CEO, eLong

Q: What are the three things you think will happen in the travel distribution, marketing and technology space in China in 2013?

Mobile will become ever more important.

Difficulty in increasing PC traffic due to mobile growth.

Voice search

Q: What did most people get wrong in China in 2012? And what did they most get right?

Most people think that Sina Microblog can be a good marketplace for travel distribution, but it does not happen.

Those who bet on mobile will see pay- offs.

Q: What do you think they will most get wrong in 2013?

Wechat of Tencent is another hot SNS and platform and so far no one has really hit off with it, and it may remain so in 2013.

Q: As the year winds to an end, what will you remember most about 2012?

eLong really pulls off our hotel production. eLong’s on-line booking is about 80%. eLong hotel room nights are growing at about 70% year over year. eLong has further narrowed our gap vs Ctrip, which led to a fierce price war between Ctrip and eLong.

• Melissa Yang, CTO & Co-founder, Tujia.com

Q: What are the three things you think will happen in the travel distribution, marketing and technology space in China in 2013?

International GDS deregulation has happened since October 2012.  It will be put in place by airlines in China next year.

Many countries have simplified visa application processing for Chinese. Coupled with the GDS deregulation above, outbound travel will be hotter next year.

Mobile apps will continue to grow and play a bigger role

Q: What did most people get wrong in China in 2012? And what did they most get right?

Wrong: Groupon. Group buying sites have been consolidating and many of them are out of business.

Right:  Focus on outbound travel growth

Q: What do you think they will most get wrong in 2013?

O2O. Many companies are trying O2O (Online to Offline) in China.  O2O itself is very complex and has many challenges.  We will learn more and see more failures in 2013.

Q: As the year winds to an end, what will you remember most about 2012?

Tujia launched a year ago. 2012 has been a very special year in my life.  We’ve overcome challenges and achieved quite a few big milestones.  The growth of Tujia and the excitement and challenges as a start-up are the most memorable moments for me.

• Charlie Li, Founder, TravelDaily China

Q: What are the three things you think will happen in the travel distribution, marketing and technology space in China in 2013?

Mobile will become an important channel for travel planning and booking. WeChat, the communication app developed by Tencent, already has 200 million users till now and may play a significant role in China’s mobile commerce.

Mobile payment will be widely adopted by smartphone users as both Alibaba and Tencent are aggressively moving forward in this area.

Travel start-ups may have a hard time in 2013 if they fail to build up the viable business model.

Q: What did most people get wrong in China in 2012? And what did they most get right?

Wrong: The adoption of smartphone is changing the travel space at an unexpected pace that most people has never imagined

Right: Supplier direct sales has taken significant market share from travel intermediaries.

Q: What do you think they will most get wrong in 2013?

Still about mobile. I think mobile devices will become a significant channel for travel booking.

Q: As the year winds to an end, what will you remember most about 2012?

The price cutting between the major OTAs had a huge and significant impact on the competitive landscape of China’s online sector.

• Denise Peng, Executive Vice President, Qunar

Q: What are the three things you think will happen in the travel distribution, marketing and technology space in China in 2013?

Wireless booming.

Diversified hotel distribution such as prepay model, last minutes etc. will have higher percentage of the online hotel booking.

Price war will continue and online marketing cost will go up.

Q: What did most people get wrong in China in 2012? And what did they most get right?

Many start-ups try to get into the trip planning area, but no significant progress has been made. Ctrip becomes more open is a correct strategy.

Q: What do you think they will most get wrong in 2013?

All experiment will be good for the industry.

Q: As the year winds to an end, what will you remember most about 2012?

AirBnb model start-ups spread in China. Hotel price war. Mobile hotel booking.