Tuniu Announces Initiatives to Expand Destination Service Network
Tuniu Corporation (“Tuniu” or the “Company”), a leading online leisure travel company in China, today announced that the Company successfully held its 2018 Spring Conference on May 15. During the conference, Tuniu released a range of strategic initiatives dedicated to the enhancement of the Company’s destination-based products and services aimed at optimizing customers’ experiences during their trips.
Mr. Donald Dunde Yu, Tuniu’s co-founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, said, “After a decade of developing our foundation at departure cities across China, we have established the leading position in China’s online leisure travel market. Now, driven by our mission of ‘Making Travel Easier’, we will now focus on building a products and services network encompassing travel destinations across the world to complement our network of departure cities. Through our direct procurement and local tour operators, we are able to provide more diversified and high quality products to meet the shifting demands of China’s leisure travelers for better and more sophisticated travel products. We believe that our destination-based service network will improve the travel experiences for our customers and serve as a positive example for the whole industry.”
Destination-based Service Network
Tuniu launched its first domestic local tour operator in Xiamen, China, in 2016. By the end of February 2018, Tuniu had 11 domestic local tour operators in total. Tuniu aims to open approximately 20 additional local tour operators in 2018, covering all major regional destinations throughout China. With the maturity and increased coverage of the Company’s domestic local tour operators, Tuniu will be able to serve approximately one million trips through its local tour operators and become one of the leading local tour operators in China.
Tuniu also announced its “Global Partnership Plan”. The Company plans to partner with leading local tour operators at international destinations to better serve Tuniu’s customers. For these partners, Tuniu will provide a range of services such as access to the Company’s supply chain resources, customer base, financial assistance and technology support. Currently, the company has successfully cooperated with three partners in Japan, Thailandand the United States. Within the next three years, the Company plans to increase the number of partners to 30. By combining the Global Partnership Plan with Tuniu’s own destination service team, Tuniu will be able to develop its own international service network and become one of the leading local tour operators at international destinations.
Destination-based Products and Sales
Chinese travelers are becoming increasingly sophisticated in their tastes and preferences. In order to better capture this trend, Tuniu launched a dedicated channel for destination-based products and services in 2018 aimed at facilitating customers with the booking of transportation, accommodation and destination products during their trips. The destination channel currently covers over 1,000 destinations globally and 25 product categories such as local car rental, local activities, and travel photography.
Tuniu also launched a number of mini-APPs in WeChat as a complementary service to its destination channel in order to help customers choose their next travel destination and enhance the cross selling of products during their trips. These mini-APPs provide detailed and useful contents for destinations and support direct purchases from the APPs. Tuniu’s new destination channel and mini-APPs offer customers, especially self-guided customers, with the ability to book a full range of destination products based on their own preferences.
