China’s corporate travel boom
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Online travel agency Expedia corporate travel unit expects growth in China’s corporate travel services market to speed up substantially from its current pace of 20 to 30% a year.
Fewer than one in five companies in China currently uses a travel management company, leaving room for explosive growth, Jean-Pierre Remy, president of Expedia Corporate Travel, told Reuters.
China’s business travel market is worth US$10 billion, the world’s fourth-biggest, according to American Express. Expedia entered China last November, in a market dominated by Amex, Reuters said. Expedia had said in November that its corporate travel agency planned to start up a service in China in cooperation with the country’s second-largest online travel firm, eLong in which Expedia owns a stake.
The tie-up with eLong is the first foray into Asia for Expedia Corporate Travel.
“We’re still much in the right timing. The market has not exploded yet,” Remy was quoted saying.
Expedia Corporate Travel, a five-year-old business, had 1.3 billion bookings globally in 2007, compared with 20 billion bookings for Expedia Inc.
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