ChinaTravelNews – Our reporter has learned that Qunar has just invested in China’s largest travel agency chain with a national network, Travelling Bestone. This is Qunar’s largest investment yet and makes it Travelling Bestone’s second largest shareholder. The amount of investment is not disclosed.
Qunar is the largest Chinese-language online travel platform in the world. It is a major portal for online bookings with a vast supplier base encompassing 4,190 travel agents and 770,000 hotels located worldwide.
Travelling Bestone is the largest offline travel agency chain in China with over 3,500 franchised agencies. The companies complement each other in their respective fields of operations with Qunar handling online operations and Travelling Bestone handling offline channels. They have a high degree of cooperation on every level of the shared supply chains, linked user channels and marketing. They will also bolster offline to online(O2O) interaction and corporate integration to fuel the transitioning of traditional tour operation to the O2O model.
Travelling Bestone is the largest B2B2C platform in China that has amassed a wealth of experience and resources in the B2B sector. It launched a sightseeing B2B platform this year which will help extend Qunar’s B2B business and bring greater business opportunities and market improvements to suppliers.(Translation by David)
