Chinese OTA Tuniu to plow into emerging tourism-related markets

A Tuniu Corporation stand at a tourism event in Nanjing, Jiangsu province. [Photo/China Daily]

BEIJING - Chinese online travel agency (OTA) Tuniu.com plans to invest in more tourist services, the company announced Tuesday.

Established in 2006, Tuniu has become the leading player in China's online leisure travel market, with stable profits, CEO Yu Dunde told a press conference celebrating the company's 10th anniversary.

Tuniu.com accounts for about 23 percent of the online leisure tourism market, success that Yu attributed to strong branding, package tour choices and customer service.

The new Tuniu group will focus on flights, hotels, weddings and video entertainment while a subsidiary to deal with financial services.

Increasingly diverse demand is changing the tourism sector, as more people travel by air and spend leisure time at hotels instead of flying on business and going sightseeing, Yan Haifeng, Tuniu.com president said.

China had the world's largest number of outbound tourists last year and over 600 million Chinese tourists are expected to travel abroad in the next five years.

The company has partnership deals with airlines and hotels covering over 200 countries and regions.

We are pursuing a visionary strategy to make travel easier and more comfortable, Yan added.

Nasdaq-listed, Tuniu saw its transaction volume double in the second quarter of this year, with net profit rising about 56 percent year on year.