Chinese Internet tourism service provider Tuniu.com held its tenth anniversary strategy conference and announced that they will become a multi-faceted online services group company.
Tuniu said that they will separate their businesses into two major sections: a tourism and resort subsidiary and a financial and technology subsidiary.
Yan Haifeng, president of Tuniu, said that the company's move to become a group aims to serve the fast growth of sectors like air tickets, hotel bookings, financial services, movie tickets, and wedding services. Yan said diversified customer demands are driving the changes within the tourism industrial chain. In the past, air tickets mainly targeted business trip customers. However, the greatest driving force for the growth of air tickets and hotel markets is now leisure tourists.
Dun De, chief executive officer of Tuniu, said so far Tuniu's tourism products and service trade volumes accounted for 23.1% market share of the Chinese online leisure vacation market, ranking first in the country. The company has established 180 regional service centers across China and set up 11 overseas service centers.
On July 12, 2016, Tuniu formally announced plans to enter the online air ticket and hotel booking markets. By the end of the second quarter of 2016, Tuniu's air ticket trade value reached 11 times of that of the same period of last year; and its hotel trade value reached eight times of that of the same period of last year.