Ctrip, China’s largest OTA, opened its doors in Singapore with the official launch of its brand in Singapore last week; 

The move signals the company’s regional ambitions with localised websites that went live earlier this year in Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand.

Explaining the company’s strategy for locating its South-east Asian headquarters in Singapore, Benjamin Chua, Ctrip’s Head of Marketing for Southeast Asia, cited the island nation’s role as a gateway to the region.

Despite its small population size, he said there were 8.6 million outbound travellers from Singapore, 89% of whom booked a flight online and 83% booked a hotel online. It’s small but a high frequency market, he said. Another attraction is its positioning as a transit point for intra-Asia travel.

Chua added, “Singapore has an 87% smartphone penetration, three world class airport terminals and two regional cruise centres. This makes it a natural choice for us to locate our business here.”

Its entry into Singapore and South-east Asia will be closely watched by competitors. Valued at about US$10.4 billion, Ctrip is not to be messed with. Its number one position in the world’s most-sought-after market makes it one to watch.

According to Chinese research company Analysis, Ctrip has about 37% market share in China online travel market by total transaction value.

Ctrip’s net revenues were RMB2.3 billion (US$373 million) for the first quarter of 2015, up 46% year-on-year, 82% of which came from accommodation reservation (US$154 million) and transportation ticketing (US$153 million) according to its Q1 2015 finance results.

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