Customized travel market set to take off in next 2 years: Ctrip

Leading China- based online travel agency Ctrip on Wednesday launched “Version 2.0” of its customized tour service, marking the platform’s further expansion in individualized travel.

Ctrip first unveiled an online customized travel platform in January 2016, and the number of customized trips booked through Ctrip reached more than 80,000 a month.

The company expects the number to rise to 120,000 per month in 2017, Ctrip said at a briefing held in Beijing.

“We are optimistic about the prospects of the tailor- made travel market thanks to increasing demand in China, and the sector’s market value could possibly reach 10 billion yuan ($ 1.45 billion) in the next two years,” Xu Zhiyun, general- manager of Ctrip’s Customized Travel Busi- ness, told the Global Times on Wednesday.

Customized trips departing from Beijing grew 240 percent in 2016 on a yearly basis, Ctrip data showed.

Thailand, Japan and the US are the top destinations of Chinese tourists who seek individualized tours. Such trips provided by the agency have so far covered 956 cities in 107 countries and regions in the world, Xu said.

She also noted that “service decides the development of the sector.”

Jiang Yiyi, director of international tourism development at the Beijing- based China Tourism Academy, told the Global Times on Wednesday that China has largest number of outbound travelers – about 120 million in 2016 – and their consumption structure has been upgraded.

Chinese tourist' wants have become varied and moved toward higher-quality services, according to Jiang

Jiang noted that Ctrip had been quick to take advantage of these trends, and what matters more is that such services will gradually shape the growth of the market.

Chinese travelers aged 35 to 50 are the main force behind these trends and families account for 40 percent of the company's tailored tours.