Following the completion of its US$500 million investment from HNA Tourism Group, Tuniu Corporation (Nasdaq:TOUR) has put in place a range of strategic initiatives to enhance its hotel booking, themed tours, and air ticketing business units
Tuniu completes US$500m investment from HNA Tourism Group.
The leading Chinese online leisure travel company says it will offer open platforms to third party travel service providers.
“This will enable third party providers to promote their hotel booking and air ticketing offerings, launch complementary travel services that bundle hotel booking and air ticketing, and expand and develop themed tours on Tuniu’s integrated platform,” Tuniu said in a statement.
Hotel booking initiatives
As one of the core components of the travel ecosystem hotel booking continues to rapidly grow in China. In the third quarter of 2015, Tuniu’s domestic hotel booking transaction volume increased more than 600% year-on-year, while international hotel booking increased more than 400% year-on-year.
In 2016 Tuniu will expand its hotel offerings by developing an open-platform model to increase hotel coverage. It will also integrate its core leisure travel business with hotel bookings in order to allow partners to provide hotels for customers and for packaged tours.
Additionally, the company will launch a “Hotel + X” initiative that will enable travellers to further customise their trips by bundling hotels together with other offerings including air tickets, local tours, destination-based services and WiFi services.
Themed tour initiatives
Tuniu will enhance its themed tour offerings. (Image credit: RichieChan/iStock)
With rising demand for themed tours such as youth tours, college tours, medical tours and honeymoon tours, Tuniu has been creating new theme offerings.
As of the fourth quarter of 2015, Tuniu offered more than 100 different products for its photography themed tours with transaction volume increasing more than 100% quarter-on-quarter.
Air ticketing initiatives
The Chinese market for air tickets has continued to experience solid growth with international outbound leisure travel trips driving the growth. To scale its air ticketing business, Tuniu will launch an open platform for air tickets that will enable third party distributors to offer air tickets on Tuniu’s platform, increasing the volume, and diversification of its air ticket offerings.
The company will also launch an “Air ticket + X” initiative, which will link complementary travel services to enrich the travel experience and make travel booking even more convenient for Chinese leisure travellers.
Alex Yan, Tuniu’s co-founder, president and chief operating officer, said: “Tuniu is officially entering into the hotel booking, themed tours, and air ticketing markets to provide more comprehensive offerings to Tuniu users. By integrating these business units with our core leisure travel capabilities and online financial services, we can provide a better experience for our customers, while at the same time delivering more opportunities for our growing partners.”
