As China’s online travel market grows, competition among trip booking sites has heated up, with home-grown providers fighting hard to keep and increase market share. The competition isn’t a simple dual between two market leaders—international players are looking for ways to capitalize on the upward trends in online travel here, and at least one Chinese online retail blue-chip recently entered the travel business. Additionally, Ctrip and eLong always face the possibility of losing business to some of their most important partners—airlines and hotel companies, which enjoy better profit margins when travelers book directly on their own sites.

　　The undisputed local leader among online travel agents (OTAs) is Ctrip, with 53.6% of market share,according to Shanghai–based iResearch. eLong, bought in 2004 by Expedia, is far behind with 9% of market share, and no other company commands double digits. Though eLong can’t be said to be threatening Ctrip’s dominance right now, it has closed some of the gap—in 2008, Ctrip had 57% of the market, to eLong’s 13%. That market share is a portion of a steadily growing pie. In the first half of 2010, 1.097 billion domestic trips were taken in China, marking growth of 8.6% compared to the previous year. While Chinese consumers have been slow to adopt Internet booking, 30% of air tickets will be sold online by 2013, iResearch projects.

　　At the recent China Travel Distribution Summit, hosted by China TravelDaily in Beijing, the CEOs of both Ctrip and eLong discussed their companies’ priorities and approaches to the competitive market situation.

　　Ctrip

　　Ctrip, which launched in 1999 and went public in 2006, has enjoyed strong growth the past few years. Its share price has more than quadrupled since early 2009. CEO Min Fan attributes the success to service, which Ctrip has made a marketing mantra: “Ten years into our e

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