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Ctrip / Trip.com: The Gateway to Chinese Travelers

Writer: Joyce
Joyce
Aug 10
3 min read

Excerpt: With over 400 million registered users, Ctrip (known internationally as Trip.com) is how Chinese travelers plan, research, and book their trips abroad. For hotels and attractions, a Ctrip presence is essential. For restaurants, it's an emerging opportunity that most competitors haven't figured out yet.

Ctrip at a Glance

Ctrip (携程) was founded in 1999 and is now the world's second-largest online travel company (by market cap), behind only Booking Holdings. Its international brand is Trip.com.

Metric

Figure

Registered users

400M+

Monthly active users

250M+ (Ctrip + Trip.com combined)

Market share (China online travel)

~55%

International brand

Trip.com (same parent company)

Languages supported

19 languages, full Chinese interface

Core markets

China domestic + outbound (Japan, Thailand, Australia, USA top destinations)

How Chinese Travelers Use Ctrip

The typical Chinese traveler's journey on Ctrip looks like this:

Phase 1: Inspiration (2-4 weeks before trip)

Browsing destination guides, "top 10" lists, and influencer recommendations. This is where your venue needs to appear in curated content.

Phase 2: Research (1-2 weeks before trip)

Comparing hotels, reading detailed reviews, checking locations on maps. Hotels with rich Ctrip profiles (photos, amenities, reviews in Chinese) convert 3x better than bare-bones listings.

Phase 3: Booking (days before/during trip)

Booking flights, hotels, attractions, and increasingly — restaurant reservations. Ctrip has been expanding its dining reservation feature, particularly in major tourism cities.

Phase 4: In-Trip (during the visit)

Using the Ctrip app for navigation, last-minute bookings, and writing reviews. Post-trip reviews on Ctrip feed back into Phase 1 for future travelers — creating a flywheel effect.

What This Means for Different Business Types

Business Type

Ctrip Priority

Action Items

Hotel / Resort

🔴 CRITICAL

Full profile with Chinese descriptions, professional photos, respond to reviews, enable booking

Attraction / Tour

🔴 CRITICAL

Listed as a ticketed attraction, Chinese audio guide option, combo deals with hotels

Restaurant

🟡 EMERGING

Claim your page, upload photos, link to Dianping reviews. Restaurant booking feature growing fast.

Café / Bar

🟢 NICE-TO-HAVE

Basic listing sufficient. Focus primary efforts on XHS/Dianping instead.

The Ctrip-Dianping Connection

Here's something many overseas businesses don't realize: Ctrip and Dianping share data. Both are owned by the same parent group (Trip.com Group / 携程集团). Reviews and ratings can appear across platforms.

This means:

  • A strong Dianping presence can boost your visibility on Ctrip

  • Ctrip hotel guests may be prompted to leave reviews on both platforms

  • Your Chinese-platform strategy should be coordinated, not siloed

At BridgeReach, our SKU-02 and SKU-03 packages include cross-platform coordination — ensuring your messaging and presence are consistent across Ctrip, Dianping, Xiaohongshu, and Douyin.

A Hotel Case Study (Anonymized)

We worked with a boutique hotel in Surfers Paradise, Gold Coast ("S_____ Paradise Boutique Hotel"):

Before:

  • Basic Ctrip listing with auto-generated content (poor quality Chinese description)

  • 12 reviews, 3.8 rating (low for the category)

  • No photos beyond exterior shot

  • Ranked page 5 for "黄金海岸酒店" (Gold Coast hotel) searches

After 6 months with BridgeReach:

  • Fully optimized Ctrip profile — professionally translated description, 25+ photos, amenity details in Chinese

  • 68 reviews, 4.7 rating — proactive review generation strategy

  • Page 1 ranking for key search terms

  • +65% bookings from Chinese-origin users (tracked via Ctrip analytics + front desk data)

Key Takeaways

  • Ctrip = 400M users, the dominant platform for Chinese travel planning

  • For hotels/attractions: Ctrip is non-negotiable (critical priority)

  • For restaurants: Emerging opportunity, coordinate with Dianping strategy

  • Ctrip and Dianping share data — coordinated strategy wins

  • Case study: boutique hotel went from 3.8→4.7 rating, +65% Chinese bookings in 6 months

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