A TAIPEI city government website, Taipeitravel.net, has embarked on an online collaboration with Ctrip, one of China’s largest OTAs, to promote the Taiwan capital to Chinese FITs.
Taipeitravel.net began supplying Ctrip with web content earlier this month, which Ctrip goes on to post via a series of dedicated webpages. Ctrip has a banner-based link on its homepage to direct traffic to the webpages, and also provides links to Taipeitravel.net and other websites promoting Taiwan tourism.
Paul Yuan, spokesperson for Taipei City Government’s Department of Information and Tourism, said, “We hope to expand this web-based promotion of Taipei as a destination for Chinese independent travellers, and eventually bring social media into the media mix.”
Ctrip is leveraging on the collaboration to sell a suite of nine FIT tour packages to Taiwan, ranging from five- to 14-day itineraries in Taipei for RMB2,765 (US432) to RMB3,565 per pax, to a RMB4,172 six-day tour of the whole island via high-speed rail.
To promote the deals, Ctrip is offering 1,000 gifts worth around RMB1,000 each to Chinese FITs who book the packages through the site. The gifts include 200 copies of Taipei Pass, which grants holders two days of complimentary public transport within the city.
By Glenn Smith
