Beijing UTour International Travel Service Co., Ltd (UTour) announced revenue hike of 98.4% for 2015 to RMB 8.366 billion, and less drastic operating profit growth of 79.17%,  to RMB 259 million, it was disclosed in its full year results on Thursday.

Net income attributable to shareholders for 2015 was RMB 189  million. UTour said that the growth of revenue and net income was primarily due to the completion on the merger of Bamboo Garden International Travel (ZhuYuan Internatioal) and Kaytrip (KaiYuan International) and the new company’s good performance in operation and profitability, coupled UTour’s progress in new product development, distribution expansion, promotion and chartered flight service.  

The company also announced a new joint venture with 9fbank (JiuFu Jinrong) to develop an integrated mobile-internet platform to provide financial services in China’s outbound tourism sector. Integrated with UTour’s existing currency exchange and micro-lending services, the JV company will launch finance services for consumers and suppliers. This will help to enhance Utour’s competitiveness with better services for both its B-end and C-end clients. 

The operating model of offering travel plus finance had been gaining traction in 2015 and OTA companies are vying to step in. Data show that the turnover of internet finance service for tourism totaled RMB 4.18 billion in 2015, and this is expected to inflate to RMB 22.19 billion by 2017. (Translation by Jerry)