Chinese online travel agency eLong.com (LONG) has launched a new business model for the domestic Internet travel market as it attempts to fight competition from rival Ctrip.com (CTRP).
The new model of 4G refers to Guarantee (promise of service results), Green (eco-friendly transportation), Global (travel resources globalization), and Go-online (booking online).
To ensure customers gain acces to the entire 4G model, eLong.com has also established a series of measures to integrate them into a comprehensive plan. First, aimed at 'Guarantee', the company has launched three major measures: for accommodation, it will provide guarantees of rooms and low price; for air ticketing, it will promise service quality; for service times, they primise to operate all day and night, seven days a week.
Aimed at 'Green', eLong.com has signed an agreement for eco-friendly service with about 100 hotels to implement the concept of 'Green Olympics' proposed by the Beijing Olympic Games.
Third, aimed at 'Global', eLong.com will expand its Chinese business travel market in cooperation with its strategic partner Expedia and share their global resources. At present, eLong is making efforts to provide more options for Chinese customers by bringing Chinese services to the international hotels of Expedia, which is expected to reach 10,000 hotels from Expedia in June. In addition, eLong.com also upgraded its international air-ticketing platform. However users to the English-language side of their business still face issues with lack of options for true international travel, providing opportunities for rivals like ChinaTravelNow.com and Xianzai.com to reign supreme in the English-language travel market for China.
Finally, aiming at 'Go-online', an odd amalgamation of English grammar, eLong launched a new website on April 11 which it claims offers netizens better access to international travel options in China.
Rival Ctrip.com has repeatedly done better than eLong.com in quarterly reveneue and in opnion surveys in China. However Ctrip.com says it had total revenues of RMB367 million, representing a 47% increase from the same period in 2007 but a 4% decrease from the previous quarter, as it announced results for the quarter ended March 31, 2008.
