China travel market grows despite crisis - William Bao Bean

William Bao Bean by Fantake via Flickr

Despite dropping occupations rates in Beijing and later possibly Shanghai, China's travel market is still growing, despite the crisis, says William Bao Bean, partner at Softbank India and China Holdings, according to 4Hoteliers. He sees much future for online bookings.

One area that’s been identified by investors is China’s online travel booking. Despite China’s high online penetration rate, only about 10 percent of travel is booked online. But it has grown, and will continue to grow, said Softbank’s Bean. “Two years ago, online was less than five percent,” he said. “I think if you look a year or two down the road, you’ll see online going to 20 percent. And I think we’ll see, in maybe three or years, half of all travel booking happening online.”

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William Bao Bean is also a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. When you want him at your conference, do get in touch. 

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