The fight is on! Yesterday, we wrote about how Chinese travel site Tuniu has taken aim at rival travel site LY.com, demanding that its travel agency partners give Tuniu lower prices or stop working with LY altogether. According to Techweb, LY.com does not plan to take things lying down, and the company’s outbound tourism department head has sent an internal memo issuing a challenge to Tuniu (our translation):
In view of Tuniu’s arrogance and monopolistic practices in its international travel services, I [LY outbound tourism department head Liu Qing] represent [LY.com] and all its partners in issuing Tuniu a challenge: LY.com will take twelve months to completely surpass you professionally. We will serve more than one million people in 2015, all while spending less than Tuniu [in the process].
Clearly, things are heating up in China’s online travel industry. A price war may prove bad for both companies, but it could be good for Chinese consumers, who are increasingly interested in traveling abroad. Lower travel prices in China’s online market could even end up being a boon for popular tourist destinations like Korea and Japan, as more Chinese tourists means more money: Chinese tourists spend more per capita than tourists from any other country.
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