CHINA’S largest OTA, Ctrip.com International, officially launched its brand in Singapore today, in a bid to penetrate into the South-east Asian market.
The new Singapore office, which currently comprises seven staff, will serve as Ctrip.com’s South-east Asia’s headquarters, following the launch of the company’s localised websites in Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand earlier this April in their respective native languages.
Speaking to TTG Asia e-Daily at the brand launch today, June Zhu, managing director of APAC, international business, Ctrip International, said: “We are the biggest player in China but then we know we are still not that big in South-east Asia so there is a lot of work to do.”
Benjamin Chua, head of marketing, South-east Asia, Ctrip Singapore, said: “We want to expand our market share aggressively across Asia Pacific and Singapore, being a tech-savvy gateway to South-east Asia, makes it a natural choice for us to launch our headquarters here.
“For example, out of the 8.6 million Singapore-based travellers who went on a trip last year, 89 per cent of them booked a flight online and 83 per cent of them booked a hotel online,” Chua added, highlighting the potential of the Singapore market.
According to Zhu, there is a misperception that Ctrip only provides Chinese products. She said: “A lot of people outside China do not know that Ctrip also provides hotels and flights to worldwide destinations like London, Paris and Italy.”
To boost Ctrip.com’s brand across South-east Asia, Zhu said they will be engaging in partnerships with banks and retail malls to conduct joint promotions in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand.
Earlier this May, the Priceline Group upped its stake in Ctrip by injecting US$250 million in the company via a convertible bond and currently owns roughly 10.5 per cent of Ctrip’s shares.
