Internet Travel Ups and Downs

More Chinese netizens are using the Internet to book airline and hotel reservations, and the global financial crisis appeared to not have much affect on the situation in China's online travel sector. 2009 began with China's leading travel website Ctrip.com winning an infringement lawsuit against a Beijing-based travel search engine Qunar.com. But then Ctrip.com found itself on the other side of the public relations window when it made a public announcement in which it apologized to a consumer surnamed Liang for selling him fake travel insurance policies. The passenger subsequently announced plans to sue Ctrip and its affiliates. Then Hong Kong's Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts pleased business travelers with the announcement that the global financial crisis has pushed it to now offer all guests free Internet services. Tencent's online payment tool Tenpay announced a cooperation with Ctrip.com to allow users to log onto Ctrip.com through their Tencent QQ instant messaging accounts to enjoy the one-stop service for ticket queries, airline searches, hotel searches and booking reservations. Chinese budget hotel chain 7 Days Inn announced the trial operation of a social networking site "Happy 7 Days" at its official website, and 33 Chinese media formally set up the China Travel Internet Media Alliance to integrate tourism resources and create sustainable development within the industry. China's leading business travel and meeting planning search engine 51MICE.com announced new features, and Et-china, a Guangzhou-based online travel company, announced that it acquired the Beijing-based Yoee.com, a leading online seller of air tickets in China, for an undisclosed amount. Around the same time last year, TripAdvisor.com announced it was buying Kuxun.cn, a Chinese flight and hotel search engine, but Travelzoo announced it was dumping all of its Asia travel-related businesses. Local governments also got involved in the burgeoning opportunities in online travel as Fujian's First Travel E-Commerce Center, the name of Fujian CTS Group's e-commerce center, was formally opened to netizens at the end of 2009.