Holiday products providers are mainly travel agencies. Ctrip has already started acquiring travel agencies, and in May of this year set up branches in Sanya. Guodong Jie said that Ctrip would continue to acquire local travel agents of 10 sites including Lijiang, Guilin and Sichuan through acquisitions and cooperation, directly providing touring guides, car rental, attraction tickets and other services.

Guodong Jie said that Ctrip holiday business primarily through Internet direct sales model provided products and services, adopting a unified national procurement, management and basic marketing strategies.

Holiday business accounts for about 8% of Ctrip revenues.

Reporter was informed yesterday, China’s leading travel services company-Ctrip, united with more than 300 well-known hotels, formally launched “late check-out” activities, breaking the long-standing “12 o’clock check-out” rules.

Senior director of hotel operations of Ctrip-Tang Xiao-feng said that Ctrip introduced a “late check-out” activities at the same in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Tianjin, Chongqing, Harbin, Dalian, Qingdao, Xian, Nanjing and so on, totally more than 300 leading hotels in more than 30 cities. Most of these hotels’ Check-out time were postponed to 14:00, and some hotels’ were delayed to 15:00, or even 16:00. The guests will not pay any fees. According to the old rules, if the guests had not yet checked out in 12 o’clock, hotels often will charge a half-day room rate.

The industry insiders said that the “late check-out” would greatly improve the feelings of the guests, reflecting a more humane, differentiated services, but also meet the practical needs of our guests. Ctrip launched the “late check-out” activities which indicated in the hotel industry “12-point check-out” rules were quietly changing.

‘During the first quarter of 2008, we achieved strong financial results despite of the challenges due to weather conditions,’ said Min Fan, CEO of Ctrip. ‘We are not only gaining new customers and business, but we are also strengthening our brand recognition in the travel industry. We will continue to provide high quality service to our customers. We believe Ctrip will be able to improve its position in this promising and challenging market.’

Hotel reservation revenues amounted to RMB171 million for the first quarter of 2008, representing a 28% increase from the same period in 2007 primarily due to increased hotel booking volume and a 13% decrease from the previous quarter primarily due to decreased hotel booking volume during the Chinese New Year holidays. Air-ticketing revenues for the first quarter of 2008 were RMB159 million, representing a 68% increase from the same period in 2007 and a 3% increase from the previous quarter, primarily due to increased air ticketing volume. Packaged-tour revenues for the first quarter of 2008 were RMB27 million, up 67% from the same period in 2007 and 22% from the previous quarter, primarily due to the increased leisure travel volume in the first quarter of 2008.

Gross margin was 80% in the first quarter of 2008, remaining relatively consistent with 79% in the same period in 2007 and 81% in the previous quarter. Income from operations for the first quarter of 2008 was RMB110 million, which represented a 55% increase from the same period in 2007 and a 13% decrease from the previous quarter.

Net income for the first quarter of 2008 was RMB99 million, representing a 52% increase from the same period in 2007, and a 27% decrease from the previous quarter.

The effective tax rate for the first quarter of 2008 was 28%, as compared to 16% in the same period of 2007 and 7% in the previous quarter, primarily due to the application of a statutory tax rate of 25% under the new PRC Enterprise Income Tax Law effective on January 1, 2008 and the increase of share-based compensation, which is not tax-deductible.

As of March 31, 2008, the balance of cash and short-term investment was RMB1.2 billion.

Source : Chinatechnews

According to the latest financial results of Ctrip, total income reached 383 million RMB in Q4, an increase of 10.7% sequentially, or 58.3% YOY. The total income keeps increasing in 2007, and the annual income increased 54.1% YOY to 1.29 billion RMB.

Balanced room reserving and ticket booking business

According to the annual report, iResearch found that 51.2% of Ctrip¡¯s income was from room reserving business, while 40.3% was from ticket booking business. All the other businesses only covers 8.6% of its total income.

According to iResearch, room reserving business is Ctri¡¯s main source of income, but its share decreased from 57.0% in Q4, 2006 to 51.2% Q4, 2007. Share of ticket booking service is increasing gradually and reached 40.3% Q4, 2007.

According to latest data from iUserTracker, total visits reached 86.12 million Q4, 2007, almost the same as Q3. iResearch believes with the impact of Spring Festival Travel Season, visits will continue to increase in Q1, 2008, while the growth rate will slow down because of the snow storm.

The latest financial report of eLong.com shows that the company suffered a net loss of RMB12.1 million in the fourth quarter of last year. In comparison, their competitor Ctrip.com achieved RMB135 million in net profit during the same period.

Cui admitted there are differences between eLong.com and Ctrip.com, and said that his company would take three measures to eliminate these differences. Cui said first he would concentrate on building a capable management team; second, focus on reshaping the enterprise culture and building a brand with the employees, service and profit as the center; and third, spend RMB200,000 to train the employees and evaluate clients’ satisfaction and employee loss each month.

Regarding operations, eLong.com will invest more on brand development, system construction and human resource and will probably consider some acquisitions in the future.

Source : Chinatechnews

Min Fan, CEO of Ctrip, said: “We are very pleased with the strong results for the third quarter of 2007. Our team has executed our strategies effectively to expand into new geographic areas, to enhance customer service level and to strengthen our product lines. We are committed to bringing the best travel experience to our customers and increasing return to our shareholders.”

Hotel reservation revenues totaled RMB176 million for the third quarter of 2007, representing a 40% increase from the same period in 2006 and a 2% increase from the previous quarter primarily due to increased volume in hotel bookings. The total number of hotel room nights booked was approximately 2.52 million in the third quarter of 2007, compared to approximately 1.82 million for the same period in 2006 and approximately 2.41 million room nights in the previous quarter.

Air ticket booking revenues for the third quarter of 2007 were RMB138 million, representing a 76% increase from the same period in 2006, and an 18% increase from the previous quarter, primarily due to strong growth of air tickets sales volume. The total number of air tickets sold in the third quarter of 2007 was approximately 2.91 million, compared to approximately 1.72 million for the same period in 2006 and approximately 2.55 million in the previous quarter.

Packaged-tour revenues for the third quarter of 2007 were RMB21 million, up 61% from the both the same period in 2006 and the previous quarter, primarily due to the increased leisure travel volume in the third quarter.

Income from operations for the third quarter of 2007 was RMB111 million. Operating margin was 34% in the third quarter of 2007. Excluding share- based compensation charges (non-GAAP), operating margin was 41% compared to 38% in the same period in 2006 and 41% in the previous quarter.

As of September 30, 2007, Ctrip’s cash balance increased to RMB1.2 billion, compared to RMB978 million as of June 30, 2007. For the fourth quarter of 2007, Ctrip expects to continue strong year-on- year net revenue growth of approximately 35%.

Source : Chinatechnews

By combining Ctrip.com’s rich travel information with the advanced search engine technology of Baidu.com, the parties’ cooperation will enable customers to find the location and information of up to 5000 member hotels of Ctrip.com and make a reservation directly online. In addition, it will allow them to make inquiries on more than 3000 scenic spots and other useful travel information via Baidu’s Map Channel.

At present, Ctrip.com has information on more than 28000 cooperating hotels in 134 countries and regions across the world. Fan Min, CEO of Ctrip.com, says that Ctrip has been committed to supplying convenient and high-quality hotel service for customers, and this cooperation is a win-win for both sides, for it will not only make Baidu’s travel information search more complete, but also bring a booking revenue increase for Ctrip.com.

Source : Chinatechnews