THE FIT segment is the main target of a new joint venture company between World99 Beijing Electronic Commerce and Westminster Travel Hong Kong, a subsidiary of Australia-based Corporate Travel Management (CTM).
The agreement for 99 Westminster e-Commerce Company allows the new JV firm to distribute CTM products outside of China and leverage CTM’s global network.
Speaking to TTG Asia e-Daily, Westminster Travel Hong Kong’s managing director, Larry Lo, said his company had no access to China’s outbound FITs before.
“(The JV) is a perfect match because our expertise complements each other’s. While World99 lacks travel product knowledge, we are short of local IT experience for the China market. No similar partnership exists in the China market.”
“Unlike international brands, homegrown OTA sites in China have no language barrier and adopt a different style of operations such as the use of prepaid cards, reward points systems for promotion, as well as freebies like phone cards. Our Beijing office has more than 100 staff in the Beijing office right now,” he elaborated.
Lo added both sides have coordinated their operations and CTM’s products are now sold via popular sites such as Qunar, Ctrip and Alibaba.
Westminster issued over 50,000 tickets for the JV company in April alone. Lo commented that double-digit growth is very possible in China’s maturing FIT market.
