True, the spotlights made every speaker turn red from heat – talk about being in the hot seat – but going from a market like Singapore to one that’s China is like, well, going from a tiny pond where ripples are man-made and managed to a huge ocean with breaker waves coming from every direction despite government attempts to erect barriers.

There’s just so much to take in – an OTA price war that’s getting many people very worried, new players coming in to disrupt the space – from vacation rental to car sharing to voice recognition technology, powerful media companies entering travel, partial GDS deregulation (hooray, at last), oversupply in air and hotels …

Here’s a small bite of what I took away from last week’s Travel Distribution Summit in China.

One, the price war that’s going on between the two leading OTAs – Ctrip andeLong – in the battle for market share. Both say they didn’t start it but ask industry observers and they point to eLong as the feisty number two, stirring up the pot.

And guess what happens when two elephants fight? A lot of ants will get trampled in the grass and during the panel discussions, it was clear there are a lot of worried players with one saying “we shouldn’t be working for a price war, we should be working for profitability”.

Two, Ctrip and eLong have staked their futures on two different strategies.

Ctrip’s CEO Fan Min (left) sees Ctrip evolving from an OTA (Online Travel Agent) to an OTP – an Online Travel Platform where a customer can buy everything he desires in a trip.

He wants Ctrip to be like a “gas station”. Ctrip will provide the platform, distribution and support services and he wants suppliers to partner with him in realizing this vision of creating a one-stop shop for travel.

“We are focused on the middle to high end marketplace but we do not have enough travel products to provide a greater portfolio and we need to leverage from other partners to satisfy customers.”

He cited the partnership with booking.com, part of the Priceline Group.  “Most people ask me why we are working with them, aren’t they your competitors? I see them as our business partner – if both of us win, everyone wins.”

He sees low cost airlines as a new opportunity. The Shanghai-based low cost carrier Spring Airlines has started offering packaged fares to Ctrip to target last minute corporate travellers. “We should expand the market together.”

Ctrip continues to see the cornerstone of its success as call centres and service – offline works, he says – and Fan believes the future lies in a true blend of online and offline.

Cui Guang Fu, CEO of eLong, is betting the future on being a pure-hotel play and using technology and innovation to individualise offers and experiences.

The call centre, he said, is out of date. Up to 70% of his transactions are done online.

He said the price war was forcing innovation and differentiation and eLong is the first to use new technology. “We are the first to use Weibo and we have 20,000 fans.”

One of its biggest investments is in its mobile app that’s been well-accepted by women travellers. “We know decisions are made by women and this app is made by women for women.”

He said the market was moving more towards individual travel and he was betting on a future of “individualization and flexibility”.

He also said eLong was winning in the price war and he called on other OTAs to “come together and fight against Ctrip”.

Fan Min said the one who will win the price war is the one who provides the best value. “The road ahead is long and winding,” he said, adding that Ctrip would face pressures on profits and margins.

“Today is not a good time for investment in OTA,” he concluded.

That hasn’t stopped others from trying though and it seems everyone is trying to be an OTA. Social networks such as QQ and RenRen have set up travel verticals. Taobao, owned by Alibaba Group, is also in travel and that’s the one to watch, say industry observers. Charlie Li, founder of China TDS, predicted that Taobao Travel will become a major OTA.

Search portals such as Baidu and Kuxun, ranked the second largest travel site by Hitwise last quarter, have also moved into travel. Qunar, acquired by Baidu, is morphing into an OTA, offering transactions.

The size of the online market though is growing by leaps and bounds and being transformed by social media and smartphone adoption.

It is an intensely social market – one out of two Chinese Internet users are on a social network and 91% of users have used social media, compared with say 30% in Japan, said Li in his opening remarks.

Mobile adoption is on a steep curve and 76% of consumers have made mobile purchases, said Li.

Throw into that pot the partial GDS deregulation announced last month and you’ve got a market that’s hot and getting hotter, in or out of the spotlight.