This is an article from China Travel Daily.It appears as part of the tnooz sponsored content initiative.

The tours and activities sector had a good year in 2017 if you go on investment moves during the year such as: 

• GetYourGuide raised  $75 million in November, Hong Kong-based platform Klook netted $90 million in two funding rounds within seven months, and other destination services including Singaporean firm BeMyGuest and Dutch ticket seller Tiqets collectively attracted nearly $200 million funding in 2017.

China’s OTA giant Ctrip has also made inroads in this segment during the year, notably through a recent deal with Big Bus Tours to sell the UK-based bus operator’s Hop-on Hop-off sightseeing tours in 19 major cities in the world.

Xiaori Zhang, director of Ctrip’s Overseas Things To Do (TTD) department says:

“The two companies will cooperate directly to ensure instant mobile bookings and optimize the entire product range including customer experience and pricing.

“We will upgrade the offerings on top of the existing products.”

New partnership adds user-friendly offerings

Ctrip’s TTD unit provides mainly two kinds of destination transport service: airport chauffeur transfers and intra-city sight-seeing bus trips including those provided by Big Bus Tours.

Ctrip’s partnership with Big Bus Tours means not only a complementary short-haul ground transport solution, but also more destination activity options for guests. Big Bus Tours’ sightseeing bus trips link up a major city’s various landmark attractions and form diversified itineraries for travelers to experience the city as a whole. Such offerings are particularly user-friendly to free independent travelers who want to have flexible and affordable itineraries at overseas destinations. 

Big Bus Tours designs angles for tourists to take selfies on bus. The company also has recorded commentary in 26 languages including Chinese Mandarin to provide information on each sightseeing stop. For tech-savvy and internet-obsessed Chinese travelers, the company offers free wifi on its buses so customers can share pictures and videos with their friends and families on social media.

It also packages other offerings into the bus tours. Omid Golshan, executive vice president for global growth at Big Bus Tours says:

“Walking tours, river cruises, attraction tickets, food and drink offers, there’re lots of extra services built into our product. What this will mean for Ctrip is that with one integrated bus tour, the Chinese customers can get access to all that is included in the bus ticket through just one QR code.”

Bringing suppliers technological transformation

Chinese tourists tend to use mobile devices for researching and booking at destination compared to travelers from the rest of the world. Phocuswright research shows that less than half of all travelers worldwide who used their smartphones to research activities ended up making bookings with their mobile devices, while around 76% (38% mobile booking/50% mobile research) of the Chinese travelers that used their smartphones to research ended up making mobile bookings.

Related reading:

Startup pitch: Adventoro taps into adventure niche in Southeast Asia

Skyscanner’s evolution under Ctrip becomes inspirational

Ctrip steps up its interest in destination marketing

This is an article from China Travel Daily.It appears as part of the tnooz sponsored content initiative.