Online bookings seen to double by 2011

China’s travel market continues to grow — up 11% last year. China-based internet research firm iResearch reports that while only 10% of 2009 trips were booked online, that should double by 2011.
But China still lags behind other markets, judging from discussions at the recent China Travel Distribution Summit in Beijing.
Ram Badrinathan of PhoCusWright said, "In India, you can book, cancel and reschedule online without talking to a person. With Ctrip and Elong, you can’t do this."
All of China’s leading travel search and booking sites — including Ctrip, eLong, Qunar.com, Kuxun.com and Daodao.com — are searchable but only within the site itself. The market leader is Baidu.com.
4 Hoteliers reported Ivan Zhang, CEO of Kuxun.com, as saying: “Kuxun knows that it is a rat to Baidu’s elephant. In the long term, Baidu does not need to do metasearch but they need the technology to make their practice better."