Interpark, Korea's major online shopping mall operator, has moved into the Chinese market through its subsidiary Interpark Tour.
According to Interpark Holdings on June 30, Interpark Tour, the holding company's granddaughter unit, has signed a partnership deal with Qunar, China's top online travel agency. With this alliance, Chinese customers will be able to make reservations with Korean hotels and other travel-related offerings in real time.
Qunar's largest shareholder is Baidu, China's biggest web search engine company. Qunar, currently ranked No. 2 in China, provides information on 9,000 travel agencies, 1.03 million hotels, 280,000 air flights, 850,000 package travel programs, and 10,000 tourist attraction databases.
The latest deal will allow Qunar to offer reservation opportunities for 350 hotels in Seoul and Jeju. In the future, the offering will expand to resort hotels and bed & breakfasts. In addition, Interpark Tour will sign a similar deal with Ctrip, China's largest online travel agency in the second half. If it materializes, Interpark Tour will have signed partnership deals with travel agencies claiming 60 percent of the Chinese online tourism reservation market.
Chi In-hae, analyst with LIG Investment & Securities, said, "Given the number of Chinese tourists to Korea last year was 6 million and the combined market share of the two travel agencies, Interpark Tour will be able to gain 441.1 billion won and 22.0 billion won more in annual turnover and sales revenue, respectively.
