Motor home tourism – one of the fashionable vacation styles popular in western countries was introduced into Chinese market which was full of prospective market.

The first motor home tourism “travel to north of Sichuan and Tibet” was finished successfully by Ctrip. The trip was from Chengdu, Sichuan to Lhasa, Tibet lasting for 12 days, which had designed the most beautiful landscape road - 317 national road and its finest section of Sichuan and Tibet as its route. There were just 12 vacancies available for this trip charging 16000 yuan per person,which was sold out once it was online.

Vice manager of Ctrip marketing department- He Yong stated that: “Motor home is one of the new travel styles in Chinese market which is an especial challenge for the Sichuan- Tibet route. But it has a prospective market and is worth trying first.” Also, with this successful try, it shows that this kind of new style is acceptable for Chinese market, and there are many suitable lines available for this motor home trip with great commercial value.

It was learned that the sales volume for motor home was about 1500 in 2011 with 6000 ownership. It is with great potentiality but still on the promoting stage.

According to the insider’s comments, it still lacks infrastructure and perfect policies and regulations for the motor home travel. What’s more,there are few camps and service centers for motor home, and too complicated application procedures for motor home license and driving license. If these problems are solved, the next few years will be the important development period for Chinese motor home tourism market.

Tip: Ctrip (Chinese: 携程; pinyin: Xiéchéng) is a mainland China-focused travel agency, which runs the eponymous Ctrip.com travel website.

Shanghai-based Ctrip was founded by James Liang, Neil Shen, Min Fan, and Ji Qi in 1999. It listed on NASDAQ in 2003 in a Merrill Lynch-led offering, raising US$75 million (4.2 million ADRs at $18 each) and then further appreciated by 86% to close at $33.94 in its first day of trading. Ctrip traded at a peak of $37.35, making it the first company since the November 2000 IPO of Transmeta to double its price in the first day of trading.

In 2006, about 70% of Ctrip's sales came from just four cities in China: Beijing, Guangzhou, Shanghai, and Shenzhen.