NANJING, China, Jan. 21, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Tuniu Corporation("Tuniu" or the "Company"), a leading online leisure travel company in China, today announced a range of strategic initiatives to enhance its hotel booking, themed tours, and air ticketing business units.

In order to capitalize on the growth opportunities in these travel segments, scale product offerings and enrich the travel experience for customers, Tuniu will offer open platforms to third party travel service providers. This will enable third party providers to promote their hotel booking and air ticketing offerings, launch complementary travel services that bundle hotel booking and air ticketing, and expand and develop themed tours on Tuniu’s integrated platform.  

Hotel booking initiatives

As one of the core components of the travel ecosystem, hotel booking continues to rapidly grow in China. In the third quarter of 2015, Tuniu’s domestic hotel booking transaction volume increased more than 600% year-on-year, while international hotel booking increased more than 400% year-on-year. In 2016, Tuniu will expand its hotel offerings by developing an open-platform model to increase hotel coverage. Tuniu will also integrate its core leisure travel business with hotel bookings in order to allow partners to provide hotels for customers and for packaged tours. Additionally, Tuniu will launch a “Hotel + X” initiative,  which will enable travellers to further customize their trips by bundling hotels together with other offerings including air tickets, local tours, destination-based services and WiFi services.

Themed tour initiatives

With increasing disposable income and leisure time, Chinese consumers demand for themed tours, such as youth tours, college tours, medical tours and honeymoon tours, has skyrocketed in recent years. Tuniu has helped spearhead the development of China’s themed tour industry by continuously creating new theme offerings. For example, as of the fourth quarter of 2015, Tuniu offered more than 100 different products for its photography themed tours with transaction volume increasing more than 100% quarter-on-quarter.  Going forward, Tuniu will enhance its leadership in the themed tour travel category by continuously innovating and introducing new themes, while expanding the product offerings of existing themes.

Air ticketing initiatives

The Chinese market for air tickets has continued to experience solid growth, with international outbound leisure travel trips driving the growth. In order to scale its air ticketing business, Tuniu will launch an open platform for air tickets that will enable third party distributors to offer air tickets on Tuniu’s platform, increasing the volume and diversification of its air ticket offerings. Tuniu will also launch an “Air ticket + X” initiative that will link complementary travel services to enrich the travel experience and make travel booking even more convenient for Chinese leisure travellers.

Mr. Alex Yan, Tuniu’s co-founder, President and Chief Operating Officer, said, “Tuniu is officially entering into the hotel booking, themed tours and air ticketing markets to provide more comprehensive offerings to Tuniu users. By integrating these business units with our core leisure travel capabilities and online financial services, we can provide a better experience for our customers, while at the same time delivering more opportunities for our growing partners. We are excited about the outlook and potential of these new business units and are confident that we are uniquely positioned to benefit from China’s fast growing travel market.”

About Tuniu

Tuniu  is a leading online leisure travel company in China that offers a large selection of packaged tours, including organized and self-guided tours, as well as travel-related services for leisure travelers through its website tuniu.com and mobile platform. Tuniu has over 1,200,000 stock keeping units (SKUs) of packaged tours, covering over 140 countries worldwide and all the popular tourist attractions in China. Tuniu provides one-stop leisure travel solutions and a compelling customer experience through its online platform and offline service network, including over 1,350 tour advisors, a 24/7 call center and 160 regional service centers. For more information, please visit http://ir.tuniu.com.

Safe Harbor Statement

This press release contains forward-looking statements made under the "safe harbor" provisions of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as "will," "expects," "anticipates," "future," "intends," "plans," "believes," "estimates," "confident" and similar statements. Tuniu may also make written or oral forward-looking statements in its reports filed with or furnished to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, in its annual report to shareholders, in press releases and other written materials and in oral statements made by its officers, directors or employees to third parties. Any statements that are not historical facts, including statements about Tuniu's beliefs and expectations, are forward-looking statements that involve factors, risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Such factors and risks include, but are not limited to the following: Tuniu's goals and strategies; the growth of the online leisure travel market in China; the demand for Tuniu’s products and services; its relationships with customers and travel suppliers; the Company’s ability to offer competitive travel products and services; Tuniu’s future business development, results of operations and financial condition; competition in the online travel industry in China; relevant government policies and regulations relating to the Company’s structure, business and industry; and the general economic and business condition in China and elsewhere. Further information regarding these and other risks, uncertainties or factors is included in the Company's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. All information provided in this press release is current as of the date of the press release, and Tuniu does not undertake any obligation to update such information, except as required under applicable law.