Trip, JD ink agreement to expand cooperation in tourism, e-commerce

SHANGHAI - Trip Group, China's largest online travel agency, inked a strategic cooperation agreement on Sunday with JD, China's e-commerce giant, to expand cooperation in tourism and e-commerce.

According to the agreement, the two giants projected five visions of cooperation including reaching a wider range of users, sharing channels and resources, covering online and offline transaction scenarios, cross-industry marketing and expanding cooperation on the business travel market.

Trip Group promised to offer real-time tourism product inventory with competitive prices to JD. The tourism products are expected to be launched on JD.com within eight months.

Trip Group CMO Sun Bo said through the strategic cooperation, the company will not only bring JD highly competitive tourism products and services but also, with JD's support, further extend the tourism-related business, providing more diversified products and services to more than 400 million Trip users worldwide.

During the COVID-19 epidemic outbreak in the first half-year, tens of millions of trips booked on Trip were canceled or rescheduled, with orders worth more than 31 billion yuan (about $4.46 billion).

China's domestic tourism has started to rebound. Trip.com said it will open a flagship store on JD to seize the window period of the tourist market recovery.

Trip.com Group and JD each owns over 400 million active users. Trip Group has sustained its role as a leader in China's business travel market, while JD owns 8 million corporate clients and tens of thousands of selected merchants.

During the COVID-19 epidemic, Trip Group hosted over 40 livestreaming programs grossing 1.1 billion yuan in orders of booked tourist products. JD has increased its investment in short-video livestreaming e-commerce.