China’s online travel giant Ctrip has agreed a new partnership with Hong Kong-based iClick Interactive Partners to make it easier for international travel brands to target Chinese consumers.

Ctrip is one of China’s largest OTA with a user membership of 300 million people and this database will be used by iClick’s online technology platform to create more personalised marketing campaigns for Chinese outbound travellers.

Sammy Hsieh, CEO and co-founder of iClick, says:

“We are seeing a growing demand from travel and hospitality brands to use data in a more holistic marketing system to meet their needs.

“Ctrip has a wide range of customers and supports 13 languages on their platforms, which is a perfect complement for our customised solutions. International travel brands will now have a more effective way of reaching high-value outbound travellers in China.”

There were around 130 million Chinese outbound travellers in 2017 and China is now the top international source market for several major destinations including Thailand, Japan, Vietnam, Russia and South Africa.

Samson Chai, Ctrip’s overseas marketing director, adds:

“iClick has a profound understanding of demand from international travel brands and a wealth of data insights and audience data in China.

“Our collaboration with iClick will allow us to leverage these advantages to bring value to both our customers and international travel brands who partner with us to run marketing programmes.”

The partnership is the latest in a succession of moves announced by Ctrip over the past few months.

The Chinese OTA has further strengthened its ties with Booking Holdings following the appointment of Gillian Tans, CEO of Booking.com, as the US company’s “observer” on Ctrip’s board of directors.

Booking Holdings, formerly known as Priceline Group, is an investor in Ctrip and the two firms share access to a combined hotel inventory.

Ctrip has also enhanced its partnership with French hotel group Accor, which owns brands such as Raffles, Sofitel, Fairmont, Pullman, Mercure, Ibis and Novotel. Accor will use the agreement to offer more personalised experiences to Ctrip’s Chinese customers.

This deal, announced in April, will include Ctrip promoting Accor’s hotels and brands more prominently, building a “flagship store” for the hotel company, joint development of loyalty programmes and co-operation on IT systems.

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