Online travel agencies to participate in promotion

Chinese online travel agencies who missed the online shopping festival in November will try to grasp a new business opportunity on Dec 12.

Ctrip.com International Ltd, the largest online travel agency, will invest 500 million yuan ($82.36 million) in the event to promote more than 10,000 tourism products covering 60 cities, it said.

The discounts could be up to 99.5 percent. The promotion will last for one month, Ctrip.com said.

On Nov 11, China’s online shopping festival, created by the main online retailers in China, the two main platforms of Alibaba, racked up more than 35 billion yuan in sales in 24 hours.

Following that example, Ctrip.com initialed the online shopping festival of tourism products, and its main rival, eLong Inc, said it also will invest in the promotion.